Just as the national average gasoline price begins gaining steam and heading to higher ground for 2017, Ford is busy planning to re-release the Bronco SUV, which had a city mpg of 14 and a highway mpg of 16 when it was last produced in 1996.
Ford is perhaps two years too late to the SUV party that saw Americans showing interest in giving up their fuel-efficient smaller cars as gas prices fell. Not mysteriously, as gas prices dove, Americans wanted to go back to their guzzlers. But now with prices likely to be higher this year and in the years ahead, it’s just too late. It’s a bit fuelish; you might have a problem aFording gas. (Are those puns landing?)
While automakers have seen large fuel efficiency increases and a new Bronco would likely see a net jump in fuel economy, it suggests that car manufacturers are still trying to woo Americans who don’t know that GasBuddy unveiled its 2017 Fuel Price Outlook—which anticipates the national average to surge 36 cents per gallon this year versus last. If you’d been driving the ’96 Bronco this entire time, the difference in gas prices this year alone would mean a driver doing 15,000 miles a year would pay at least $360 more per year.
For Ford, releasing the Bronco again may make sense—after all, the automakers don’t make as much money on smaller cars as they do bigger cars—but is now (or ever!) the best time to be trading in a cheaper, smaller, more fuel-efficient car for something bigger that’ll cost you more at the pump? We say no…and recommend not being fuelish when it comes to your next car decision.