All that said, check out our numbers - we are averaging about 22.4 MPG which can probably be put down to short commute and a lot of potential start/stop on 45 miles per hour roads.

We live in Northern California and do use A/C a lot of the time (not as much as you would). We simply drive the car like a normal one so we don't try all that hypermiling stuff (it's a car not a competion...).

Overall, we're rather disappointed with the MPG's but must say the system does work very, very, well as a performance booster. Try a standard 4 against the hybrid and you'll see what I mean - the battery boost as you start off is very noticable and makes the engine feel much more like a 6. I believe BMW is planning on rolling out a similar system soon and is going out of their way to distance themselves from fuel savings and emphasizing performance gains on smaller engines. In cheaper gas times I'm sure that would have been the marketing angle for all hybrids.

Do we get more economy than a standard 4? Probably 1-2 MPG, nothing to write home about, but like I said the performance feel as you drive away is the obvious feature. Honestly, it's all down to your use pattern.

I think you'll find the Ford Escape much more expensive so consider that when you buy. That price difference buys a lot of gas.

Next car for us will be a plug-in we hope if someone actually gets one to market at a decent price. It would suit our pattern of use ideally and we'd rarely fill up, whereas the existing GL does not. Will we need more energy from the grid? No, we're having a 3.2KW solar electricity system installed as we speak which would offset any carbon emissions and then some. Aren't we the green ones :-)

Smugly yours,
Mark