Prius

A bit overdue, here's my review of how we've done on gas mileage with our Prius that we got last May:

This model is rated 50 mpg city, 48 hwy by Toyota and 48/45 by the government's official ratings.

Even in the worse conditions ... fully loaded, on trips to Flagstaff or California climbing a mountain (the dips you see in the graph) ... we have consistently been well above all the ratings. In the summer, when I have the A/C on, I'll have tanks in the 52 or 53 range, but this time of year, I get between 55 and 58. The car is just perfectly suited for how I drive: 30 to 100 miles per day, mostly city driving.

And because of the constant feedback, I've drastically changed how I drive. I rarely speed. I coast to stops as much as I can. I accelerate slower. It's not that I can't do any of those things - the Prius has plenty of power, accelerates quickly and climbs mountains with ease. It's that I can see how doing those behaviors affects gas mileage. Manufacturers should put the MPG rating devices in all cars, hybrid or not. People would get better gas mileage just because they would change how they drive.

All in all, we both love the car. Rides great and has more room than any of the cars we've had before. It's nice that you can drive 600 miles on an 11 gallon tank of gas. I don't like that I have to drive for my business. But as long as I am, I might as well do the best I can.