Some will say I'm beating a dead horse, but I want to send an encouraging message to all those who haven't made the purchase yet - maybe because they worry that the car sucks too much gas.

I drive 97 miles to work round-trip, and yesterday and today I each started with a full tank, in the evening I filled it up again.

My commute includes 3 freeway ramps each eay where I dutifully let the car take off, usually in 3rd gear until I hear the beep telling me I got the rpm high enough. My commute includes ~ 20 miles on Highway 17 through the Santa Cruz mountains, and the rest is busy Silicon Valley traffic. I'm not on some lonely roads in Nevada!


So for 2 days I tried to force myself not to do that red-lining part.
Almost succeeded, but then there was this BMW 3 .. I just had to pass him on the ramp, damn he didn't like that :D

I got 21.89 mpg that day! Highest ever!

Today I behaved better. On top of that, I even followed the speed limit! I even got in some slow traffic because of accidents in the rain. Still..

I got 23.15 mpg today!

That said, tomorrow will be business as usual. As fast as I can, frantically looking in mirrors for cops and all that.

With that style, I usually come to ~ 20 mpg. The 10% difference make ~ $20 a month or less than a Dollar a day, I won't restrain myself every day for one Dollar. I'll also stop keeping book about gas consumption. I know now that EPA / Mazda did not bullshit me.

-Peter

 

That is a beautiful drive. I made it myself for 3 years. Driving from Aptos to San Jose 6 days a week.

 

Whew - that is a perfect combination for work - enough room to play. I drive 25 miles each way and it has 8 miles of winding roads and the rest is like interstate. My mileage is still down but I just have 700 miles on my car.

I really do not understand why/how the mileage will get much better... you know - when you think about it - is not like the combustion chamber is going to get smaller, etc.. anyways - thanks for the post.