Well after saying good bye to my Miata project and a lot of car shopping I settled on the Kia Optima. Other candidates were
New
cruze eco
prius
prius C
accent
TDI wagon
Used
Mini clubman S
TDI
VW Rabbit
BMW wagon
Camry hybrid
VW Passat
The Optima sold me on exterior looks, interior layout, huge inside, standard features, good trunk space and 0% financing for 60months. It's also the highest rated fuel economy for it's class. The electric power steering and smart alternator encouraged me that I could get much better than the EPA. Stock tires are Nexan (ya who?) that are max at 44, they are pretty quiet and grip pretty well but I haven't got to test them. They advertise them as high silica and good on gas but never use the term LRR.
So here's my baby!
So far on the test drive I got 6.2l/100km on a short city/hwy loop, just easy on the go pedal and highest gear at all times.
My first mixed highway/city drive of about 80km got me 6.9. Since then I've been trying to drive it for the break in period, keeping it between 2-4000rpm and have been getting 8.0. This is really hard to do, after getting so used to hyper milling it's dificult to go back.