Total Miles: 3686.4
Total Fuel: 106.227 gal
Average MPG: 34.7 mpg
__________________Total Fuel: 106.227 gal
Average MPG: 34.7 mpg
Sorry that we just sort of disappeared like that. I didn't think it was necessarily safe to advertise on my blog that we were leaving our home unattended for 12 days. Then again, as long as burglars take EVERYthing and leave it clean I think I'd manage.
It was a challenge we gave ourselves to get the best mileage we could on this trip. The EPA standards on our Hybrid Escape is 30city/28highway or something like that. Our city average since we got it 2 months ago has been around 32mpg. When I budgeted for the trip, I figured 30mpg. As we left Austin we had our Scangauge computer on the dashboard. The first thing we did was get about 30 miles away with just windows for air, then turn on the A/C to see what happened to the mpg. It dropped like a rock, almost immediately, from about 35mpg to 31mpg. So I challenged the guys-- let's go without A/C. They were up for it. It was not a hardship for me, really-- I am usually uncomfortably cold with the A/C on anyway.
Something else I budgeted for was gas at $3.80 a gallon. I thought I had allowed for increases, as when I budgeted for this trip gas was only $3.64. By the time we left Austin on June 3, gas here was already $3.94-- although I think we paid less than that at the HEB in Pflugerville. Jeff was hoping to get to a 500 mile tank. In Austin we were barely getting 400 mile tanks. We had a 500 mile tank almost right off, as our first tank refill in Arkansas (at only $3.68/gal) showed we got 35+mpg. From Arkansas to the Smoky Mountains, we may have had a tailwind or something, as we got 39+. Generally we got right around 35-36, until we drove Memphis to Dallas. That stretch was barely 30. From Dallas to Austin the average was about 34.
My observations of American driving over almost 3700 miles:
For all the complaining about gas prices, no one is slowing down. Nor carpooling- we had the HOV lane almost to ourselves in Dallas rush hour traffic yesterday. What's up with that? Nor getting more reasonable vehicles. We saw no other Hybrid Escapes (correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure it's the only one made in the U.S.A.). We saw one Prius in Memphis, a handful in Dallas. We saw a handful of Smart Cars but no Zap cars (like I see all over Austin). We did, however, see lots of big cars- Explorers and the like, and they were all being driven very fast and very aggressive, and all of them over the speed limit.
2 comments:
Check out the Honda FR-V with the 2.2 i-CTDi diesel. Seats six, gets a combined 53.3 mpg, uses the much cleaner EU diesel. Why is this car not available in the US? Answer--people won't switch from a Ford or Chevy or GM to buy any of the super-fuel efficient cars in Europe. Honda and Toyota don't want to spend the $$ for all the new testing only to steal customers away from themselves. Also, diesel in the US isn't clean enough to run the European standard vehicles. There are lots of 60mpg car options in Europe and have been for years.
Along that line, did you know Toyota has had a Hybrid Sienna minivan (seats 8) for years? They only gave the U.S. the Highlander SUV (seats 7, and is a cool $40k, not a family friendly price by any means).
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