I would really like to know if anyone has taken a long road trip and checked HWY milage. I am thinking of buying a camhy and any info would be helpful. I have had 28+ mpg on a 1600 mile trip in my 2wd hihy when i first bought it..JOE

I did one trip of non-stop highway driving of about 100 miles and later the return on cruise control at 70 mph with the air conditioning on. At least according to the computer, I got 39.5 mpg each way.

Link to My Hybrid Car News Web Page

You can look at my milage data on the "COMPARE" tab (WVGasGuy). Hold your cursor over the more link and it will show you my tanks that were trip vrs local driving. My trips were usually 125 miles although the entries with the larger tanks were a 500 mile trip to Nags Head.

It's difficult to compare trip milages. My best milages in my opinion were the 36+ mpg tanks as they were in the mountains and that's impressive. Going from Central WV to Charleston I recently got 43 mpg. Coming back I got 40 mpg. Obviously more downhill difference in going to than from.

If your trip is going to be reasonably flat (and I see you have a 2wd HH, so you are at least in non-snow country, probably flat) you should with good hybrid driving techniques be able to get 40 mpg (in a TCH, not a Highlander). If you're heading to the mountains you may have to work to get 36. I do drive at or under the speed limit, although I have not seen a serious degradation of FE as I increase speed as long as I continue to glide when possible, even at 75 mph.

You do realize that on that 1600 mile trip the difference in 40 mpg average vrs 36 mpg average is less than 4.5 gallons? Either way not bad.

One other thing to consider. Many on this board (myself included) do what we can to use less fuel, trying to get the ICE to turn off. At highway speeds the ICE will be running constantly, with an occassional post from the electric motors. There isn't much you can do to effect highway mileage aside from driving at a different speed. So you can pretty much set the cruise control and get real world mileage of high 30s.

2800 mile trip, mid-to-late June, 2007 TCH, from Phoenix to central Texas and back, and I averaged 38.59 MPG for the trip.

Mostly 75 and 80 MPH, A/C on much of the time.

Best run was 42.5 MPG between El Paso and Phoenix on June 26-27.

Hwy mileage is great on the TCH.

I did a 65 mile trip between Milwaukee and Chicago filling up just before getting on I-94. When I got off the expressway the tank average was showing 44.3 mpg. (Cruise control was set between 60 and 68 depending on location)

I've done two trips (one 150-mile and one 250-mile) and will do another tomorrow. I use the cruise control exclusively, whenever possible, and set it to exactly 65 MPH. On flat non-hilly) freeways I consistently get 44-45 MPG, using AC. Under the same speed conditions with hilly freeways, I get about 5 MPG less. Contrary to EPA figures, my highway mileage is always better than city mileage, since city trips are short distances with a cold engine, rushing around, etc. The Camry is a pleasure to drive on trips, very smooth and comfortable. Don't forget to bring along your iPod.

Steve Villatoro
www.stevenvillatoro.com
“An enlightened guide to small business mastery.”

I just got back from a trip from kansas city to omaha which is about 400mi round trip. I averaged 39+ mpg for the trip. This was my first tank also, so I do not have my hybrid driving skills up to par yet. So with these results coming from a novice, you can expect similar or even greater results. Also as Steven V. said, you get better highway mpg than city do to the short distances and stop lights. The best thing about this car though is the smooth ride.

I've had my TCH for a little over 1 month (delivered on May 26). On the first 2 weekends that I had the car I drove from central Westchester (NY) to the Framingham, MA area, about 200 miles. On both of those trips I saw FE in the area of 41 mpg. I took 684 to the Mass Pike, had my cruise control set to 65 mph.

My local driving looks like an FE in the range of 37 to 38 mpg. This is what I kind of expected.

I'm very happy with this car. I had traded in a 10 month old 2005 Honad Accord hybrid that gave me about 27 to 28 mpg.

The TCH is really a fun car.

Happy Motoring

I just did a trip from near D.C. to Wilmington, NC. Almost all (generally flat) highway driving, except for about 80-100 miles of local driving around Wilmington. Total trip ~800 miles. It was my second tank of gas so far. I got 35.1 hand-calculated, same as first tank (which was a lot of short commutes). On the trip back, in 313 miles of all highway driving, 65-80 MPH, I got a Camry-calculated 40.0 MPG. I don't need a fill-up yet, so it could be off some. Loving the car!