Posting on behalf of my mother-in-law who began her 11 day drive Monday morning at 5 a.m. By late last night, she had arrived in Florida (from Las Vegas). She reports that the car says it has averaged 75 MPG so far - which I think is stunning considering the distances and speeds she has driven. Early on her journey, she found herself on the highway with a white C, female driver, California plates and they "played" with one another for a good 100 miles, she says. Swapping lanes and places repeatedly... lost the white C somewhere around Albuquerque, if I recall correctly. After she spends a few days in Florida, she will be continuing her drive to Branson, Missouri.
Wow, that's a very good MPG. I'm driving 18 miles here in SoCal and lucky to get 65 MPG with a low speed at around 55 MPH.
I have her keeping track of her fuel consumption in the notebook she used to carry for her Rav4... when she gets back home, I will log all her fill ups at Fuelly.com and we'll see what her actual mileage is.
From Las Vegas to Florida is all downhill, as Florida is at sea level and Las Vegas is well above that. Also winds are prevailing from west to east which would give you a nice tail wind, still 75 mpg is even above motorcycle mpg's.
I wondered about that, which is why I will reserve judgment on the whole thing until we see her final mileage stats.
It's only about a 1 foot drop per mile, you wouldn't be able to measure the gain in mpg. Prevailing winds, yes.
If I were to drive on a level highway at 60 mph, I could yield over 70 mpgs. It's those pesky undulations that cause it to drop. If the entire trip were truly a 1 foot drop per mile, you would be doing great.
I gave the OP the benefit of the doubt and assumed his "down hill all the way" meant you ended up at a lower elevation than you started at and ignored the ups and downs. If the grade from LV to Florida was actually even all the way, the road would be level enough for PRO pool tournaments.
Well, she made it to Florida then on to Tennessee and now she's headed for Missouri. So far as I know, she's still getting great MPGs though she did complain about a construction jam and some heavy rains at one point. Next time she calls to check in, I will see if she feels like reading off her mileage log to me so I can start plugging numbers into her Fuelly account to get a better picture of things.
