NC 3 Miata pulled off amazing mileage...
 

I recently did an across country trip in a 2008 miata 5spd at more than legal speeds and was absolutely amazed at the kind of mileage that car is capable of at higher speeds. I fully expected it to suck so badly at interstate speeds...but once out of VA I almost never ran under 80 mph. To do so, would have been my undoing. I would have been roadkill for sure. Seldom did I exceed 90 mph. But even at those elevated speeds I still managed to average over 30 mpg overall through every kind of weather we have except snow. Thank God for no snow. I also discovered once I returned home with the car, it runs very nearly as well on regular fuel as it does on premium and gets just as good a mileage...guess what I am running in it now? :) yeah you got it. Only car in the fleet that consistently returns better than 30 mpg no matter how I drive it. That said, I still like my gas guzzling subarus. :thumbup::D

Congratulations on you FE, but your fellow highway-commuters sound like too many Automotive "Lemmings" rushing headlong toward their demise.

Probably because your powertrain ratio is set up for high speed running vs slow. My old safrane was like that, 22mpg town and 36-38mpg motorway because designers assumed it'd be an autobahn car. still I managed to improve urban mpg to 28-29 even in freezing weather with a wai, sump heater and cruise. Engine is a Douvrin 2.2 with 12v head and 4000rpm peak torque.

hotshoetom - you should make garage pages for your vehicles.

I squeaked 51 mpg in my last fill in my ecomodded 1990 NA Miata, but I drove it in a very relaxed fashion on the scenic roads where the maxposted limit is 50 mph / 80 km/h.

I believe the best tank in my 2.0L Mazda3 was 52.8 mpg. I was driving for 220 miles at night with little traffic, so I was able to keep my speed in the 50s, which was still over-driving my headlights due to my poor night vision. I kept envisioning deer running in front of me, and the deer carcasses on the sides of the road kept my feelings of impending disaster fresh the whole trip.

Speeds in the 50s can produce spectacular mileage. At 80, I'm in the 30s too.

If it hadn't been for serious problems (and lack of throwing mechanics at the problems) when approaching 200,000, my Subaru would have stayed above 30 mpg. Fun can still get good numbers.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/fe-graphs/graph5040.gif

That's pretty good mpg stock. I should be getting 35-40 in my supercharged NA once I get the 3.63 gears on and a lean burn tune.