bwilson, wow, looks like you are one serious driver.... Great post, actually I think I recall seeing your graphs over on priuschat, no? I understand the need for some benchmarking, but unless someone from around my area knows, I can't even think of a ten mile stretch of road around here(entire metro) that is flat. I will check the oil level, though. Never would have thought that would make much difference!
This is my current commute to work.
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3py86k2
I live in the northern metro of the twin cities. No real long flat areas, but they definitely aren't hilly either. I frequently see my instant mpg go from 70-80mpg on a relatively flat road(seems slightly downhill) and it will go down to 30mpg on the incline parts of the highways. Looks like I need to do more research, for some reason I expected to get more out of this car out of the box and my ignorance got the best of me!
I have already purchased a scangauge 2, bought it mainly for grill blocking. Before I start modding, think any of the information from that might help me with some baselines?