no you know what just stick with what you got and IMPROVE UPON IT. YOU CAN BEAT EPA ESTIMATE you just haven't been shown the way yet.

If you let a pro like Wayne or any other hypermiler out there let them drive your Highlander hybrid, I bet they'll show you hows its done. You just need to drop some very bad habits and relearn the way you drive.

 

SSSSSSSUUUUSSSSSHHHHH!!!!!

We've got a lot of sympathy to give, especially while we try to find out where this low mileage hybrid Highlander might come available. A 28,000 mile Highlander for $15 k under new price . . . yes, we are sympathetic and would love to come visit that bad old dealer and make him an offer he can't refuse. Heck, we'll point out how disappointing people have found Highland hybrids to be. Yeap, we're all set to 'talk down' about that terrible, used car.

Wait, wait, we need to make sure everyone in the area knows what a terrible car that hybrid Highlander is. Yes, we need letters to the Editor. I wonder if we can get it on the evening news . . . so where is this terrible hybrid?

Bob Wilson

 

Auto makers are only allowed to advertise the EPA estimates. It's been pointed out, these numbbers are almost always 18-23% higher than what you'll see in real-world driving conditions. If you look at the Green Hybrid mileage database, you'll see very few people are able to exceed these EPA estimates. Keep in mind, this is a database of hybrid enthusiasts, many of whom will go the extra mile to get better mileage. Even then, few of us exceed the EPA estimates.

 

harleyman, what does your friend get when he drives your car? does his mileage fall short? The driver has a LOT to do with mileage. EPA is not a "this car does this under all conditions" or everyone would be getting the same mileage in the database. I feel sorry for you if you feel like you are going to do better in a non hybrid highlander. I suspect you will miss EPA as well.

 

Don't blame Toyota or any other manufacture for the poor mileage from the EPA figures... our Gov't sets the test standards and the manufactures have said all along that the testing was not real world. Like anything else the Gov't gets involved in they just don't get it and usually screw it up royally, even though their original intentions 'may' have been good at the time.....


PS: I LOVE my Highlander Hybrid...
Would I trade it, No
Is the mileage less than advertised, Yes (But everything considered not by that much)
Is it better then what I was getting, Yes
Can I live with it? Yes (Unless gas gets to $4.00+ a gallon, which may not be that far away and all of us will be riding bikes)

NOTE: While my mileage is suffering from the cold winter weather here, I have noticed when we had some warm weeks that I was getting very 'close' to the in town advertised mileage and if it wasn't so hilly here I believe I could do better then the as advertised 31 MPG.

 

I guess that depends what you consider "beating the EPA estimate." If you drive 50%/50% city/highway, then EPA mpg average is 30. We drive our HiHy almost always on the highway, with most of our city driving happening on our way to or from the highway. In the database it's listed as 30%-city/70%-highway, and I'd guess that to be pretty accurate. With that breakdown, to beat EPA we need only get 28.2MPG or better, and we've always hovered around 30. I expect that to increase as summer approaches.

Additionally, we always do our MPG calculations by hand, and on both our Prius and HiHy, have only ever had one tank each where we needed to enter the usually higher MPG the computer gave us into the database, because the gas pump we used had problems and overflowed the tank.

Rick

 

I'd have to say your beating EPA, but you're leading the pack, congratulations. My tacoma's 21city/27highway if I had to guess I'd go 60/40 on mine or 23.4, not to bad at 27.2 actual. I'm hoping to get that into the 28+ this summer.