So I was wandering around the web and came across http://www.fueleconomy.gov/ which, yes you guessed it, lists the fuel economy and related info of various cars.

What interested me is the new vs old mpg listings and how they compare to what people have posted here. I've seen people posting much higher numbers so something must be off here.

Is the test flawed? Are they even retesting or just converting numbers? Do mini drivers just drive more sensibly, ok that was hard to type with a straight face?

What do you guys think, most of you actually drive one, I'm still waiting on the sidelines to order.

 

I've been getting 32-35mpg over 6 months in my MCS. The lowest has been 29, but that was once in the beginning. Most of my driving is on mountain, backroads so it's kids of a hybrid between city and highway (more stops than the highway, but far fewer than in the city). I don't drive particularly sensibly. It's too much fun not too. My calculations are based on the math done at the pump - the OBC is always about 1 mpg more optimistic.

 

The whole background of how the EPA figures are derived has little relation to real world. Engines are bench-tested, then various "fudge factors" are applied in an attempt to get to what they believe are closer to real world figures.
For a while, EPA has been aware that their figures are optimistic for many vehicles, so they've basically done a "reduce by 20%" calculation across the board.

Apparently, GBMINI#3 (auto) was closer to the old EPA figures than the new ones:
http://www.gbmini.net/images/GBMINImpg.jpg
But I've never done a whole tank of true "city" driving - I imagine in for example Los Angeles stop/go commutes, you'd have trouble even getting close to the new figures!