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Today I drove 41 miles north to West Palm Beach, Florida to have dinner at my favorite restaurant in the area. I was able to get 38.2 MPG while driving mostly highway miles that averaged a speed of 64 MPH. This recording was obtained by using the Sports Mode. I am impressed. By the time I got to the restaurant, off of the highway, I took this picture, hence the less MPG.
This was after I got off the highway and drove some city miles to the restaurant. Still impressive in Sports mode.
It would have been even higher if you were driving in Econ mode and averaging 50 or 55 mpg, but then maybe you would have been late for dinner and fallen asleep.
I think the highway rating of 35 mpg is too conservative. My typical highway numbers are 41-42 mpg, when averaged over round-trip pass over the same road section. I produced these numbers in normal mode, with A/C running, driving at about 70 mph in warm conditions. City mpg varies quite a bit but typically is in mid-20s. Actual fuel consumption seems to be within 1 mpg of the trip computer average.
I just finished a tank where 60 miles of it was in the city and the other 444 were highway/interstate for a total of 504 miles on the tank. I think the range screen on the MID said I still had another 50 miles or so worth of gas to go. I've never done that in a V6 before. The 500-mile club is nothing if your tank is mostly interstate. The challenge for the V6 is the 600-mile club.
I have 900 miles on my 2.4L and my figures so far have been pretty close to the EPA figures of 24/35. Hopefully can squeeze another 1-2 MPG after the car fully breaks-in.
Just want to point out that MPG numbers can be heavily influenced by the topology: if you are driving on a downward slope, you will get over-inflated MPG rating, and if you are driving uphill the MPG will drop quite a bit. For example, when I drive from my home in the hills to work near the ocean, I get around 43-46 mpg, and when I go back, it will drop to 32-33 mpg (this route includes 90% highway/10% city). So to get a meaningful MPG measurement, you always need to average round-trip results over the same section of the highway. This is how I obtained the 41-42 mpg rating for pure highway driving reported above.
10-16-2014, 10:43 PM
