I know, I see this all the time.

There's a guy here in Cincinnati near me that's quoted frequently; he has his own software company. Well, guess what -- I emailed him a few times asking him if he wanted to discuss his mpgs, or maybe swap cars and see if that makes a difference. He emailed me back with "no, thanks" and "the car is just fine".

I wonder, then, if they just like complaining. He certainly didn't want to remedy the situation.

They also never go into whether this lady got poor mileage out of her prior vehicle, whether or not it hit EPA...you know, all the regular stuff we talk about when it comes to cars and EPA estimates.

What never gets mentioned in these articles, and I'm really surprised, is that the EPA estimates CAN be used for something, even if they are off. They at least can be used as a *relative* factor, saying that "this vehicle is more fuel efficient than that vehicle". That's how I use them. They can be useful in that sense, with the idea that if the person drove them both the same, they'd follow the same trend -- that the one would be more fuel efficient than the other.

That's my 2 cents.

PS Why do they usually quote HCH owners? I've seen Prius II's a lot farther from EPA than HCHs.

PPS They're both great cars, by the way.