I was on a road trip last weekend with my trusty old 1999 Honda Civic HX (love that continuously-variable transmission!). During the second half of the trip, my mileage maxed out at 41 mpg. It's the best I've ever gotten, probably in no small part due to the fact that the driver was not me and driving less -- shall we say -- assertively.
But it's not unusual. I often get 38 mpg on a long road trip. Even around the city I get 33-35 mpg. Pretty good. And the great thing is that I've been getting this mileage for 10 years now--for the 100,000+ miles I've put on the car. As a back-of-the-envelope guess, I average 35 mpg. That translates to about 2857 gallons of gas consumed in the past 10 years.
Now I think it's great that more people are getting hybrids, which can average 44 mpg. (It's amazing how a 2-3× increase in gas prices will motivate.) But if they were driving an average car or truck for the past 10 years -- which gets 20.2 mpg according to the EPA -- it would take them another 16½ years to equal my 35 mpg average for the same time span. By then I'll hopefully be driving a Tesla.
But it's not unusual. I often get 38 mpg on a long road trip. Even around the city I get 33-35 mpg. Pretty good. And the great thing is that I've been getting this mileage for 10 years now--for the 100,000+ miles I've put on the car. As a back-of-the-envelope guess, I average 35 mpg. That translates to about 2857 gallons of gas consumed in the past 10 years.
Now I think it's great that more people are getting hybrids, which can average 44 mpg. (It's amazing how a 2-3× increase in gas prices will motivate.) But if they were driving an average car or truck for the past 10 years -- which gets 20.2 mpg according to the EPA -- it would take them another 16½ years to equal my 35 mpg average for the same time span. By then I'll hopefully be driving a Tesla.
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