It should be noted that a Ferrari 612 Scaglietti will not drain wallets any faster because only a formula of measurement was changed. This will not effect actual gas expenditures.

affect

Friends have a new Prius - older folks. They drive only a little and much of that around town (Tucson AZ) but they are getting very good mileage. As good as advertised.

As "science!" pointed out - they will continue to get that mileage with or without the calculations and recalculations.

The original model T Ford got 25 mpg. It shows how far efficiency has come.*

*sarcasm

Good Mileage aside.
The Prius and the others are tuned towards good EPA ratings, so of course they take a hit when MPG is recalculated. I wonder if those guys zooming by in their Prius on I-280 with 85mph think they still get those amazing MPGs. I know I beat them in MPG with my conventional car, but it requires taking Caltrain once a week and boy, that sucks
sometimes.

"I wonder if those guys zooming by in their Prius on I-280 with 85mph think they still get those amazing MPGs."

The Prius is backwards in that it gets the best mileage "in town" and the worst on the highway at 48/45.

FWIW

Toyota Accord Hybrid? Never heard of it.

Going 85 in any car will net you terrible MPG. Wind resistance increases cubically with speed, and really ramps up around 75. Besides, going 85 is rather unsafe, no matter what you're driving.

Using a few tricks, I can get 60 MPG out of my Prius at 65 MPH and >70 MPG at 55. Take that, new EPA estimates.

Hi PDK,

Well, no power to overcome air-drag increases cubically with speed. Air-drag itself only increases by a square with speed.

Yea, MJ is onto something here. The Prius is the only car I have ever owned that gets right on the old EPA ratings - 58 mpg combined, that even driving at 65 mph (rather than the old EPA test 55 mph) and using the AC (old EPA test has the AC off).

My previous car, a Saturn SL2 got 28 mpg driving this same route (which has regular slow-and-go traffic in spots) at the same maximum/average speeds. Even though the SL2 was slower and smaller.

So why does the new EPA rating impact the Prius so much more than SUV's? Seems like some kinda disconnect here.

My parents taught me a respect for the law. This country needs people who will obey the law, even when they know they won't get caught. But then I'm sure that's something you wouldn't understand. So let me put it this way. Keeping within the speed limit allows me to get 38.5 MPG, saving me money, saving the country extra pollution, and helping to send less money to terrorists.

Your title trolled me out. As others have noted, my milease won't change on my 2005 Prius. I get 48-50 generally, though cold weather and short trips can drag that down to 46 or so.

I actually got 42 MPG with a 16 foot sea kayak on top ;-)

Anyway, check out the "real world" mileage databases. Those are the ones who compile what MPG real people in real cars really get. The EPA manages one (called their "Shared MPG Estimates") and Green Hybrid runs another.

I'll think you'll find that the Prius not only gets the best reall world MPG of any car offered on the US market, it does so as a "midize" car (by EPA designation).

That's not a small feat, and I think your headline ultimately points the wrong way. Check out those other cars for their real-world mileage.

Viewing mpg changes in terms of percentage is misleading, because obviously 10 percent of 50 mpg is only half as much - in terms of actual fuel used - as 10 percent of 25 mpg.

In fact, under the new rating system, the Prius' mpg advantage over traditional cars actually increases.

For example: The new rating system drops the 2006 Chevy Suburban 1500 2wd from 17 mpg to 16. This looks trivial compared with the Prius' 9 mpg plunge from 55 mpg to 46. But what this actually means is that the average Suburban uses .0625 gallons per mile instead of .0588 - an increase of .0037 gallons per mile. Meanwhile, the average Prius now uses .0217 gallons per mile instead of .0181 - a slightly smaller increase of .0036 gallons per mile.

That's one few comparisons I've found that's even close, The 4wd version of the Suburban, for instance, drops from 16 mpg to 14. Relative to the Prius, that's well over twice the additional gas consumption - about the same increase as with the Hummer H3.

I regularly get over 50mpg on the highway (and our Imperial gallon is 4.5 liters, not only 3.8 liters like a U.S Gallon, so in US Gallons it would be in the late forties per gallon) out of our new diesel Volkswagen Golf with DSG auto...why the hell would we buy a Prius that costs more and uses more fuel, just to "feel green"...?

This is odd, the fact that the formula seems to favor gas guzzlers is interesting. I'm not being conspiratorial, but how do we know that the formula wasn't created to favor them so people will go back to buying gas guzzlers. I'd like to see an independent organization test the cars.

Gosh, I'm sure my government would not recalculate mpg in way that favors our gas guzzlers and oil companies, would they?