Quote:
Originally Posted by MetroMPG
This time at cars.com:
At Highway Speeds, Mileage Drops More for Fuel-Efficient Models - link to article
As with the AutoBlog piece, a few commenters immediately point out the flaw in the analysis. And then they're countered by people who insist on things like:
...and...
Sheesh. |
It is quite funny, but I had a similar experience. Before I got my Lancer I used to drive a Neon and averaged about 200 miles per tank (back then I didn't use to pay too much attention to milage so this is as exact as I can get). One summer however I undertook a road trip to Canada and was in a bit of a rush getting home where I did 80 - 85 mph the whole way home with very few brakes on the 800 mile trip. Surprisingly, I got almost 280 miles out of my last tank on that trip. Considering how fast I was going this surprised me back then, compared to my usual highway speed of 65.
In retrospect I realize that there were a few favorable factors that helped with the big mileage jump: first it was exclusively highway driving, my regular tanks always included about 30-40% city driving and as I now know, without proper driving technique city really kills gas mileage. Second, for about 3/4 of the tank I was following a Jeep Wrangler that seemed to be in as much a hurry as me. I was following behind at a reasonable difference but at that speed, even that probably had an impact on my mileage. Lastly, going from Pittsburgh to Baltimore has a net negative elevation change of more than 1000 feet so that probably wasn't detrimental to my mileage either.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that a lot of people who are not very informed on the subject, may pull generalizations from similar personal experiences, not realizing that they're missing vital parts of the puzzle.