Thanks Pete, well your 5.11 has certainly set the benchmark. I have instrumented mine with a UTCOMP-PRO. I've got a traffic light free control segment on my commute that i collect data over in light traffic conditions. My best A-B-A fuel consumption is 4.7 L/100km @ 83km/h - no warm up, no braking & modest P&G.
Agreed on the car Pete i do hope to hold on to it for a while, and i also would like another gear at highway speeds.
I might take a lead from you and step up to 185/70 on the next set of tyres.
Did you experiment with grill blocking? Mine seems to take some time to warm up - so much so that i'm planning to check the thermostat to see if it is frozen open. According to my UTCOMP data, my Astina is fully warmed up when the coolant temps hit about 82C. On a recent drive it took over 12 minutes to hit these temps (~10C ambient) which incurs a significant hit to fuel economy due to rich running. Very interested in your observations commuting out of the blue mountains. I'm thinking there are definite gains here as my partners Swift warms up in a fraction of the time of my Astina.