Well, the hybrid drivers know me...

[Fat Charlie]

Last week I was doing my P&G between 50 and 60 when a Prius came up the on ramp. He got on right behind me (there were two or three behind me and I'm not going to slow them even more just to try to let someone else get ahead) and didn't even pause. He moved steadily left as if it were the oncoming lane he was merging to (we were just short of a passing zone) and went right on by... to proceed at 60. He was pulling away slowly, but I made up most of the gap with a 2 mile downhill a while later.

I giggled the rest of the way in- a Prius driver recognized my car and knew ahead of time that he was going to have to do something quickly if he wanted to set his cruise to 60. Sure, he was getting almost double the mileage I was, but I'm doing the best I can with what I've got.

[Nevyn]

Originally Posted by Fat Charlie

Sure, he was getting almost double the mileage I was, but I'm doing the best I can with what I've got.

And THAT, good sir, is the most important part of all!

[Fat Charlie]

Turns out I was giving him too much credit. He's just making a smug (non-hybrid related) political point and happens to be driving a Prius.

He passed me a week or so ago and pulled away so slowly that 14 miles later he was still in sight. I thought I had him pegged then, but this morning clinched it- I was behind a dump truck and he passed me to sit behind the dump truck. His point? We each have a bumper sticker expressing our opinions of a particular politician. Our feelings about this politician are somewhat different, and his feelings have to be in front.

Yes I'm annoyed, but not by the fact that his views are manly enough to pass a car whose engine is off. It just hurts to watch someone making stupid passes while still getting much better mileage than me.

[Daox]

Is there a reason why you insist on driving a car that can barely eek out above 30 mpg? I believe you're the only one (or one of VERY few) in the garage who is above 30 mpg with a Legacy, so it shows you're trying hard. If you tried that hard in almost anything with a decent EPA rating you'd get amazing mileage.

[Fat Charlie]

It's the car I have. My kids are only getting bigger and I'm not getting rid of the dog, so I'm kind of stuck in the Legacy neighborhood. I'm just lucky that both cars don't have to be able to tow the camper.

[Daox]

Manual transmission Accords from the mid 2000s aren't horribly hard to find. I got one of those for a friend of mine a few years ago. If you got the same 73% above EPA rating with that car you'd be around 45 mpg.

[Nevyn]

I gotta take Charlie's side on this one, as I've been up against this very situation that you're proposing.

Daox, let's say there's one for sale near him. Where does the money to buy it come from?

[Daox]

Where does anyone get money to purchase a vehicle when they need a new one? If you don't have it handy you gotta get a car loan. Then you sell your old vehicle. In this case the two cars are priced very similarly so the switch to another vehicle should only really cost registration fees plus the interest on the loan in the interm.

[sheepdog 44]

Don't envy him!

It's not the car you drive the mpg you get or the things you have that matter! It's the fact that you care and he doesn't that makes you a better person.

[Weather Spotter]

A matrix is about the same size interior as the Legacy GT Subaru but with an EPA of 29 (manual) and I could get 40-42 MPG out of it with no aero mods.