Best 27.3 mpg I ever had

[Kelleytoons]

So today I took a short (maybe three or four miles) trip to the drugstore to pick up some drugs (mostly legal :>) and sundries and only got 27.3 mpg.  However, it was the *best* 27.3 mpg I ever got.

 

To begin with, I had to pull out onto 27 from our development which is a challenge in and of itself.  Traffic zooms down that highway at 65 mph or faster (in a 55 mph zone) and there are few breaks during most of the day/night.  Usually I wait for one of those breaks, but as I got up to the highway I realized I could get out in front of the oncoming traffic because I had that kind of acceleration -- mpg be damned!  So I did, with plenty of room to spare, getting up to 65 before the car behind me could reach me (he was annoyed someone got out in front of him, but even though he changed lanes I was going faster than he was by the time he got to where I *would* have been so he never caught me).

 

Then I pulled into the drivethrough pharmacy and had to wait a LONG time -- over ten minutes -- for whatever was taking the trouble in front of me.  But I didn't care -- I left the car running so I had A/C (it was 90 degrees and a cool 72 inside the car) and listened to my tunes.  Beautiful girls (Sara Gazarek, Stacey Kent, Dinah Washington) singing sweet songs of love to me in the nearly dead quiet of the cabin provided me with bliss and joy, and I was almost sorry when I had to pull up to get my own stuff (of course all of this was on battery power only).

 

So 27.3, but a wonderful time that would have cost me MUCH more in our Durango (probably would have been lucky to get 9 mpg or even much less -- or had to turn the air off and suffer for 10 minutes).

 

Coming back I got 51.5 on the same route, so I don't feel too guilty.

Edited August 16, 2014 by Kelleytoons

[shinytop]

I made three mile trip to pharmacy and got around 30 MPG, car had to warm up.  Trip back was almost all EV and got over 100MPG on screen.  If that ever happens again I will take a pic.

[RockwallRick]

We live about 3 miles off of hwy 27 so we are able to gain access via stoplight! Traffic on 27 doesn't lighten up until you get

south of Sebring! That's one of the things I like about the C-Max. ( Power when you need it ) :rockon:

[kostby]

However, it was the *best* 27.3 mpg I ever got.

 

 

Did you smoke a cigarette afterwards?  ;)

[Kelleytoons]

Yeah, it was good for me (not sure how Maximis feels about it, but isn't that always the case with the distaff side?)

[Marc Smith]

I got a  15mpg drive  will curl your toes...

 

 683 bellview road on the map..

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Vienna,+VA+22182/@38.9602683,-77.2463051,16z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x89b6499a28882ca7:0xee243f36a4af0ed9

 

while on the map it may not look too interesting...  here is the profile. 

 

hills  off camber curves  basically a lot of hard on the gas and hard on the brakes. its only two miles..but loads of fun so long as you get stuck behind someone driving a prius   :)

 

 

 

 

[RockwallRick]

I don't think I ever got better than 20 mpg out of my Truck, but I still have it and I will probably keep it till the wheels fall off! Comes in handy every time I have to help one of my daughters move! :rockon:

[Kelleytoons]

We'll keep our Durango until it stops moving as well, Rick.  (At this point, with the amount of driving we do, I'm guessing it will last about 10 more years, which would be almost a quarter of a century).  It only gets 14 mpg lifetime (V-8 engine and Lead Foot Annie) but is built like a tank (the C-Max would bounce right off of it) and I can put 4x8 plywood sheets inside of it with the hatch closed.  

 

I wouldn't trust it for a long trip (which is why we got Maximis) but it's a nice backup vehicle (and the more I can get my wife to drive it, the better the mpg I can get on Maximis :>).

[RockwallRick]

I'm a Dodge guy from way back! My first car was a 1970 Dodge Dart. I currently own a 2004 Dodge Ram Quad Cab with only 77k miles on it so it should probably last as long as I do!

My Wife doesn't want any part of it since she got her new C-max!

[Kelleytoons]

And we're both in central Florida -- lots of similarities here, Rick.

 

Except...  while my wife loves Maximis, it's really MY car.  Well, let's put it this way -- I'm making the payments and like driving it far more than the Durango.  We sort of "fight" over who gets to drive her.

 

I'd drive the D more if it got better than 14 mpg -- once upon a time (over a decade ago, when we bought her) that was just fine, but now it's pretty ridiculous, not to mention difficult to live with on a fixed income.  Since even driving badly I can do 3x the mileage on Maximis it just doesn't make a lot of sense to drive anything else much.  But I'm glad we have it as a backup.

[RockwallRick]

Yes, we both drive C-Max's and have big Dodge Gas hogs for backup!! :rockon:

[Singoffpitch]

I made three mile trip to pharmacy and got around 30 MPG, car had to warm up. Trip back was almost all EV and got over 100MPG on screen. If that ever happens again I will take a pic.

If I back my car out of the garage and turn it off, I always get 999.9 mpg. It makes me laugh every time! (Disclaimer: I have to move my car to get the mower out - I don't just randomly pull in and out of my garage all the time for fun.) It makes me think of those wind-up toy cars - if I back up, the mileage is so good, it's like giving it gas instead of using it! I better be careful to always put it firmly in park so it doesn't shoot forward through the garage wall like the wind-up toy cars when you let go! ;)

[Kelleytoons]

In the old days you used to be able to roll back miles by going backwards (although it was said that *some* unscrupulous folks put cars on lifts and spun the rear axle backwards for this purpose).

 

Nowadays I think you'd call this the "Benjamin Button" effect <bg>.