[Mean Green]

Originally Posted by Roadcuda

I get the feeling that some people find it hard to beleive that some of these cars can get half way decent mileage. I do a combo of local and highway driving with my '03 5-speed. During the warmer months it's rare that I get less then 23 mpg. On a straight highway run I'll set the cruise at about 65 and get 30, or maybe a little better. It was better before they started to screw around the gas blends. Then it was closer to 34 or 35. But I try to drive with a light foot, short shifting, and getting into 5th as quick as possible.
While some of these cars may just not be able to get good mileage, I think alot of it does depend on your driving style. I'm not knocking anyone on how they drive, but it has been proven that the heavier the right foot is, the more gas you're going to use. I have talked to people that are not heavy footed and get less mileage then I do. Why, I don't know. It would seem that they should all be in the same range, and since they aren't, I agree that's a problem. With the price of gas what it is now, we have to chose how we will drive our cars. It may be a simplistic view, but if some of us can get good mileage, it would seem that more could if they tried driving a little different. I know that it may not work in all cases, but it's worth a try, isn't it?

Like I said in my 5 speed '03 GT I can get 30+ if I stay out of boost and drive like an old granny. The car was modified to 280 hp and over 300 tq. Don't let the high hp fool you. When staying out of boost you are not using it, but you are using the tq and tq is what gets you going and it takes even less gas to get you going with more tq. You couldn't drive my car any different and get any better mpg. Even punching it often and not going for mpg I would get 22-24 mpg. Go figure. You would expect my mpg to fall to the 16-17 mpg when I drove it fast, but that is not the case. I do all of my mpg figuring with at least 10 fill ups. Anything less than that is a joke and not accurate. Figuring it on one or two fill ups is not accurare. Figuring it on one long trip is not accurate, except for that trip unless you are constantly taking long trips. It's every day driving and over a period of time that produces accurate results. I also wonder if people are using the first half of their tank for calculating. The first half of the tank will give you 200-200+ miles while the second half will give slightly over a 100 miles. Gotta figure it with at least 3/4 to a full tank though I never let my gas get below 1/4 of a tank because I don't like frying the fuel pump.