[donglow]

I know we don’t have the autobahn in the US, but there are people who live in some central rural areas where high speed cruising is a way of life. Some parts of I-10 in Texas is 80 mph which is considerable more than the 65 mph highway speed most highway mpg is figured at. We made a trip into low population area of New Mexico recently and although the posted speed limit was 65 and we were doing 75, we were the slowest people on the road, so I decided to drive behind some speedsters and found they were going between 90 and 100 mph!

Here comes the other part, my elderly mother had to give up driving and we inherited a 2007 Camary Hybrid , which until this day, the only thing I liked about this car, was the fact it was free. Its heavy, 65 to 70 mph mpg is only about 35 – 36 mpg, steering has no feel, it doesn’t turn on or off well, and has a little trunk. But to my surprise at 90 to 100 mph for 3 hours, it averaged 32 mpg! The no feel steering and heaviness even went away at that speed.

Is 32 mpg at 90 – 100 mph as exceptional fuel efficiency as it seems to me? Are there any other cars that can do this? Why does the Camary Hybrid manage this? I did a little research and found it has a continuously variable transmission (CVT) and although a CVT allows a engine to run at the optimum rpm for fuel efficiency or power for any speed, it not quite as efficient as manual transmission or automatic with overdrive lockout for producing optimal mpg at a certain speed. But speed higher than highway mpg cars are tuned for, maybe it’s good thing? A manual or overdrive automatic engine rpm is going to be higher at 90 to 100 mph than it was tuned for maximum 65 mph mpg. The fact that this car is fairly aerodynamic 0.27 is probably another factor, but I was shocked that I could increase speed by 30 mph and only lose 3 to 4 mpg!