14,476 Miles and 7 Months...

[Wildcardspades58]

It's almost been 15,000 miles on the road with my Bronco (Badlands, 2.3L Lux, Manual Transmission) and still loving it. So far I've taken it on several major trips such as St Louis twice, upstate New York once, and Denver, Colorado all while home-based in Northern Virginia. It's seen Skyline Drive in the Fall and the Adirondack in the winter. Those have been a series of road trips centered around business trips and some astrophotography ventures. I've yet to taken it offroad but I do have plans to do so. The vehicle maintains its glamour and performance since I received it in late September 2021. I really haven't added much beyond the rear tailgate molle bags. She drives smooth on the road and it's a great ride for long trips, even for a stick shift although the adaptive cruise control is a nice assist. Couple unique things I've observed:

• I can get up to 22-24 mpg through a good portion of the country interstate driving (That's also if i commit to non-cruise control driving)
• Higher (91-93) octane gas for long trips adds close to 100 miles to the tank (Highway only) | Most I've reached on a tank is 375 ish with estimated to empty another 50 miles left. That was me bored and extremely focused on every aspect of the drive efficiency. Usually I only get it to 320 (Just under a quarter tank, before refill)
• High altitude destroys my gas mileage. Colorado I was in the 13-15 mpg range for highway. At first I attributed this to very high winds in the area but I later validated with no-winds on the trip back.

My suggestion to anyone for some basics addons is Mudflaps...get them, at the very least to help on those gravel roads. Notice I still don't have mine installed in the picture, I actually ordered some from ford but they were the wrong fit so I have to wait a bit longer but I've been on way to many gravel roads cringing as the tires are way to effective at grabbing gravel and launching it along the side the vehicle. I did go through a round of roof leaks to which the dealer was able to replace the header-seal. However, be warned; IF you take the top off and it leaks from the rain not long after, try taking a panel or two off and putting it back on. Those panels have be placed EXACTLY right or the seals don't work properly. I feel like there just needs to more sealant in general. Only other thing that bothers me is the connection to either android auto or apple carplay can be very finicky but small gripe. I've very glad i have the Ford-based navigation app to help in low-no bandwidth areas of the country, because there are still plenty of those. I heard Ford took took that out in some of the 2022's due to the chip shortages?

Enjoy your Bronco folks...it's made to enjoy, offroad and on the road.

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