The Mountain roads I have are very narrow and twisty, not interstate quality.

They are highway in the sense of no stoplights or stopsigns for 50 or more miles.

FYI, the EPA Highway test, to get the "highway" window sticker number has an average speed of 50 MPH.
( another reason why it is out-dated )


Nope. Many gentle rolling hills along I25... Going 65 nets me 42 MPG on round trips. Of course I have 5000 feet of elevation ( less wind resistance ) but also less horsepower...

 

Hey, good for you. I have not had a positive experience yet in hills or mountains although my wife did get 30mpg in the Appalachains for a business trip over 300 miles.

Well I have long drawn out hills that take a mile or so. It hurts my mpg! I did find a route that gave me a 36.7mpg over 24 miles but gave 29mpg on the return. My only other choice is to hit the highway and that knocks me down to 28-29 mpg. Long hills again are what's sucking out the mileage.

If I worked in a different area I would probably consistently be in the mid 30's but I cannot sustain 30mpg average with where I work. It's been 1 year and that's the best I can do. Thank god I did not buy this for the mileage but to be more green in an SUV.

I guess my wife needs to be driving this more often during the week since she is almost 100% city driving. I wish I could get your mileage!

 

How long are those gentle rolling hills? Maybe our definitions aren't quite the same..

 

Jeff and Scott...

Are the two of you using the tips and tricks discussed on these boards?

More than 33MPG does not happen by itself. You need to coax your car into it.
I'm also convinced that after several weeks of gentle, high MPG the car gets "conditioned". Kind of used to it. Then burns more lean round the clock.

When my father drove my car for 2 weeks while and after I had shoulder surgury, my father, a total newbie was getting over 37 MPG.

The hills going north & south east of the Rockies along I25 are less than 5% most of the time, and a couple miles down, then a couple miles up. Going from my home to Denver is 4700 ft to 5300 ft. This gets me about 38-39 MPG at 65 MPH with no added weight in the car, and 44psi in the tires. The way home, 5300 ft to 4700 ft gets me about 43-44 MPG at 65 MPH. While a few hills are 5%, most are under 1%.

Oh... one more thing that helps... going up those 5% hills, I back down to 60. Then going down those 5% hills, I coast up to about 70. Keeping the average near 65 for the whole trip. Tip: Follow what Big Rig truckers do!

Note: When my car was new, I got about 34-36 MPG on these same roads.
Hence, I think it has become conditioned with time, and 20,000 miles.

My best tank listed below, over 45 MPG involved 90% highway, over 4 days of alpine skiing, in Colorado, in Winter. Steep Grades Galore, but also lower than 65 MPH speeds.

 

Is your car getting conditioned or are you???

I'm finding that with every mile I drive, I learn more tricks that help me save FE. It's a challenge to save more mileage, which can make my doldrum daily drive more fun.

 

Yes, I am doing everything short of driving in the breakdown lane with the hazard flashers on. I have a scanguage and I can see what helps and what doesn't. I don't speed very often any more and coast whenever possible. I've tried both L and D and now switch between them depending on traffic.

I do realize that you can't just jump in and drive like a conventional vehicle and expect to beat the EPA numbers. I'm driving down to Virginia some time next week so we'll see what happens then.

 

Some of each, I'm sure.
On my typical route, I used Cruise Control last night, something generally recognized as not most effiecient in this vehicle. Also, something I've not used for months. So I gave it a shot. ( gotta make sure it still works, right? )

I set it at 61 MPH and let it rev as high as it wanted to on those hills, and let it do the coasting on the downside.

Cruise net me 43.3 MPG over 55 miles of 61 MPH on a course that I generally get 44.0 MPG driving manually between 60-70 MPH.

So I think the car has actually gotten conditioned as well.
Outside temp was 65'F so no A/C was required for me, nor battery.