Hi All. got my crossbar in Mid Oct - just before we had a few days away. Here are the results so far.
No Econ selected. 2 front seat passengers - just above normal weight!! 2 large cases and other bags in the back so 1.5 extra passenger weight. Distance 300 miles. No motorway driving. Large portion 40 - 60 mph roads, some 70 mph Duals, 25% town driving. Both days out and back about 15 degrees air temp. Tyres are Goodyears.
First trip. Tank 3/4 full at start. Fuel average showed 56 mpg. Battery charge in the main was showing 35 - 65%. At times went down to 20% and very occasionally went to 100%.
Second trip. Tank full at start. Full average showed 57 mpg. Battery charge in the main was showing 35 - 65%. At times went down to 20% and very occasionally went to 100%.
Performance - well great. No hesitation either with foot light or heavy on throttle. Didn't do and Porlock like hills - but some were steep. On the odd occasion when I would have thought about passing a slow tractor with the HRV I didn't with the crossbar - just for down - and it went. OK - you could hear the engine in this state - but if the throttle was tight it was very quiet as as didn't get into high revs - so no noise. General ride was very quiet - depending on road surface of course. We could have the sound on quite low so we could actually talk without shouting but the road noise didn't really show. The sound system is excellent. It was so easy to forget the gears etc. No hesitation when accelerating - and it went like a bat out of hell unto about 60 mph - you were pushed back into the seats - on that matter we did stints of 2 hours - no problem - a full 7 hours of driving - no problem.
My conclusion is that if there are only 1 or 2 passengers the mpg will go up, also if you start with mainly town driving the mpg will go high very quick and fall slowly - so mpg of 60 will show - but if you go off at 60 mph on main roads the mpg will be lower - as per my drives - also the lower the tank as usual the better the mpg.
Am I pleased I changed - you bet.