By experimenting with various speeds those first few miles, might add to the overall mpg.

The 1.6 miles to the highway here at 25 or 30 mpg would be my start. That would included my choice of accelerating from 2 stop signs. (no traffic) Over the years I have driven 26 mph using the cruise. That seems to give me my best overall mpg. It takes longer to accelerate to 30 including a little more throttle. My theory, the more you push the throttle, the lower your mpg.

 

I talked to a lady in the walmart parking lot that was getting into her 2009 TCH. Hers had the same color and interior as mine. I ask what kind of mpg she was getting. She said, 38 mpg which was way better than the 18 mpg she was getting with her older Lincoln Continental. She also mentioned her TCH gets slightly less mpg on the highway. I ask what brand of gas do you use. It was the same phillips 66 station that I use in the local Lowe's grocery store parking lot.

 

Mileage has so many variables, we drive to the lake on the same 4 lane highway but there are is a section where the SG shows much lower mpg (current, not trip avg). This is both ways, so it is not that it is up hill. I attribute it to the rolling resistance of the road surface.

Went into the small city that is near the lake to go shopping. After stopping at one end to do some shopping, with a prewarmed car, drove 5mi through the town with all of it 30/35mph with lots of elevation changes and have averaged over 60mpg.

 

BOFH, Your trip to town and back sounds very similar to mine. The exception would be the elevation changes. Most of my driving here is mostly level unless we turn east in town where it's in the lower foothills of the nearby mountains. We do have a overpass in each end of the town. We use the bypass then it's up and over the north bypass and head back south into town. If we enter the south town then it's up and over the steeper overpass.

 

Mileage is dependant upon many variables as others have highlighted. One of the biggest ones for me is temperature. Although the temperature does not vary as much in southern California as it does elsewhere, I definitely see a temperature mileage correlation.

I find the optimum temperature for mileage is 75 to 80 degrees F. I also note that if I have driven the car and parked it within the previous hour or two, my mpg increases much more rapidly when I start out which tells me that a block heater would help even in a mild climate.

It also appears that once the coolant temperature comes to equilibrium, for me normally 2 minutes, that mpg increases quickly. I have the NAV screen so I can track MPG for each minute. When the car is warm, I can hit >60 mpg after 2 or 3 minutes.