I've had my 2004 HCH MT for exactly 30 days, so I am no expert, but I have learned some things in the last month about Hybrids and about my "new" used car.

My HCH had 4823 miles on it when I bought it used. The Trip B mileage and the total mileage are the same, meaning that the first owner kept Trip B for tracking the "total lifetime MPG" for the car. When I drove it off the lot, the Trip B MPG was 34.4 for the 4823 miles. (sidenote: That "lifetime MPG" has gone up now to 35.2 MPG. )

That's pretty sucky, wouldn't we all agree, for a 2004 HCH manual transmission? If there is nothing WRONG with this car, I think we could safely assume that the first owner PROBABLY "drove like a normal person" and did not do anything fancy to enhance the MPG. The one thing we do not have for this equation is the ACTUAL driving habits and patterns and commute of that first owner, so we can only assume he did not drive it like a race car.

For my 2+ tanks, I have averaged around 41 MPG in mostly city driving, in Hot Phoenix using the A/C a lot. But I have achieved that with MANY MANY Hybrid driving tricks like coasting in gear up to red lights, not using the A/C when I needed it, watching the MPG computer like a hawk, etc.

So my educated guess is that "NO" you CANNOT get consistently 40+ in normal stop and go urban city driving where you drive 30-45 MPH and hit frequent stop lights. I have not been able to get more than 45.7 MPG in that situation, using all the tricks I can.

I think that if your commute is something like "60 MPH on open highway for 45 minutes each way in moderate weather with the A/C off" and you ONLY drive the HCH for the commute, you could get really high MPG numbers.

I am really at a loss to understand how the Mileage Database on this website has SO many people getting 50+ MPG. It leads me to wonder if perhaps there REALLY MIGHT BE something wrong with all the cars that are getting less than 45 MPG ???? How can driving habits ALONE explain the extreme variances from 35-57 MPG in virtually identical cars?

One thing I know for sure - after I learn "all the tricks" for driving my HCH and I still don't get 45 MPG consistently, I'm going to VERY suspicious about something being wrong with my car.

My 2cents..........