Road & Track drove a Camry Hybrid around a bunch of mountains near LA at 75-80 mph and reported getting 38.3 mpg for that segment. They got 40.0 doing the same in a 2006 HCH, which I can attest is perfectly accurate. Yet 38.3 exceeds the predicted EPA highway estimate.

I would not make the assumption that all cars are equally able or unable to achieve EPA estimates. I used to drive a Jetta that I was extremely leadfooted with. I *always* floored it when accelerating, didn't coast, always drove fast (well, I still do that), and I averaged 23 mpg, which is 1 mpg less than the EPA combined estimate (or 95% of it). On pure highway drives at 80-90 mph, I averaged 26 mpg, which was 2 mpg less than the EPA highway estimate (93% of it).

Oh, and I almost never inflated the tires so they were never over 32 mpg and probably weren't even that much of the time.

Right now with my HCH, driving FAR more gently, I average 39 mpg, which is 11 mpg less than the EPA estimate, or 78% of it. If I drove it like I did my Jetta, I'd average probably 34 mpg at best, or 68% of the EPA estimate.

On pure highway drives I get 42 mpg if the roads are fairly flat, but that's at 70-80 mph; I haven't tried 90 mph in this car. Anyway 42 mpg is 82% of the EPA highway estimate.

EDIT: Someone scanned in the results chart from R&T so you can see it for yourself. I also bought the issue in question but they didn't review the cars themselves, just talked about hybrids in general (although they did mention the Camry Hybrid was much more seamless in switching from gas and electric than the Civic or Escape hybrids).