The first 1,000 miles
 

Well, the first 960 anyway. Our 2012 Camry XLE is averaging 38.5 miles per gallon. Today we actually hit 56.2 mpg in about 10 miles of stop-and-go freeway traffic and some driving on surface streets. We were in the Eco mode all the way. I noticed that the EV light was on a lot. We only got about 35.5 mpg on the way home, again in Eco mode. The traffic was even more stop-and-go (more stop than go) this time and the EV light wasn't lit up nearly as much -- I guess because the hybrid battery was low and needed charging. So we burned more gas, but still ... :D

Re: The first 1,000 miles
 

Sounds like you were going down hill and down wind on the first leg of your trip. We live in the foothills of the San Bernardino mountains and can see 99mpg going into the valley to shop then 25mpg coming back up the hill. Usually averages out to 35mpg.

Re: The first 1,000 miles
 

I went to see The Amazing Spiderman movie (good one) the other day. I was late and had to drive 60 most of the way to make the start of the movie. I did take time to see my average mpg to town which was 37 mpg. On the way home that night their was very little traffic so I drove 40 on the main drag in town and also 40 on the rest of the 10 miles home. Seems to me the hybrid gets is very best mpg at 40 mph, depending on traffic and safety.

I could see the car would go into the EV mode without any help. Then after 2 or so miles it would near drain the traction battery. Once the engine started it seemed to charge back up in a couple miles, then back to EV. I checked when I got home and it read like 90.6 mpg. That comes out to 68 mpg for the 2 way trip, although the tank average is about 54 mpg. I doubt that will hold very long as gas gets lower.

Re: The first 1,000 miles
 

The only reason we see the 99mpg is the drop in elevation from 2800 feet to 1500 feet but it does include half freeway driving at 75mph and half city which is usually 45 to 50mph and of course everything is crowded here. When we take a 90 mile one way trip to Oceanside the overall trip reading is 36mpg which probably translates to a real 35mpg but again this is mostly SoCal freeway at 75mph.

Your right about the 40mph giving much better mileage but that is really unrealistic here.

Re: The first 1,000 miles
 

The 40 mph would fit in many smaller cities, but not the large ones were people are in a hurry.

At least during the elevation drop your getting a free traction battery charge. Strange how today we think of 35 mpg being low for a hybrid. Then if you compare the 35 mpg to yesterdays V6's that got around 20 mpg, the hybrid is the big winner.

Re: The first 1,000 miles
 

We've put 1,185 miles on the car as of this afternoon, averaging 39.2 MPG overall. We added about 184 of those miles today, driving from the Santa Cruz area to El Cerrito in the East (SF) Bay (and back; two hours each way) to see my daughter, son-in-law and their two kids. We got a smidgen over 40 mpg in both directions. The last leg was from a gas station in Scotts Valley to our house in Aptos. We got better than 50 mpg on that stretch. The first five or six miles were all downhill and the last nine miles were mostly level freeway driving at anywhere from 40 to 60 mpg. The balance of the day's trip was almost all highway driving and much of it at the limit -- 65 mph, with the exception of some stop-and-go to and through the toll booth and metering lights on the Bay Bridge. I kept the car in Eco mode and used cruise control for about a third or more of the distance traveled. We've consumed about 1 3/4 tanks of gas since we drove the car off the dealer's lot on June 23.