oh, wow. so i am not that bad, actually. i dropped down to 37 ONLY. from 42.5. so, you average 33mpg.
honestly, it is most strange to bundle Explorer into this. Also, somehow, my Silverado is basically oblivious to winter. 16.5 - 17.5 mixed drive winter/summer. does not care.

i am very sorry. i am. but i just can't bite my tongue. so, i apologize. i drove 91 civic 4 door coupe with 186 000 miles on it when i bought it for $300. battered all over. automatic. 38-39 average. will hit 40 hwy only. my wife hated it. she called it a disgrace for me to drive. so i finally succumbed and gave it away to one of my patients, and got this wonder here.

 

So, go to your patient, give him your POS Camry and get your Civic back. Sounds like you would be happier.

 

I live in an area (Calgary, Canada) which gets just a bit cool and has some snow (he says with tongue firmly in cheek).

Last month we had a significant snowfall (16cm or 6") and a cold snap (overnight lows to -31C highs ranging between -12C and -22C). For the last tank of gas that included this period my mileage dropped from 6.3 liters per 100kms to 7.3 liters per 100kms. This equates to a drop from 37.3 U.S. mpg to 32.2 U.S. mpg. All things considered I think this kind of drop is quite acceptable and not that much different than what I experienced with my previous Camry V6.

Overall I am extremely pleased with the year round mileage and performance of my Camry Hybrid. My only issue is the traction control system but now with the help obtained from this forum I can at least turn that off when needed.

 

I agree that cruise control is at times clearly better than manual control as the cruise control can give much finer control, especially on the highway. However cruise is also kind of dumb--it doesn't know anything about your surroundings or the terrain, so it has a tendency to do things I don't like (and guess aren't good for fuel economy), in particular on ups and downs. It's probably great in nice flat terrain, but I've tried cruise more generally and found myself basically launching up a hill with a curved narrow road where that's really not advisable. I think a person can do better on hills. I also think a person can do better in other situations, like a curve with a 40 mph limit, cruise will kind of gun the gas to maintain speed, when I can take that curve purely in EV mode (or maybe with a touch of gas along the way), and resume cruise once the road straightens out.

And I'll definitely say terrain is a factor but not a guaranteed problem. My commute is fairly hilly, with cold winters, and in 4.5 years I'm averaging almost 39 mpg (though it's about to drop again as the cold really sinks in).

It's still all about learning what works for you and your car and your route. Learning to use a very light touch on the accelerator, trying to get into "full hybrid mode" so you can take advantage of EV mode as much as possible, all these things make a difference.