I was in Maine for a conference and decided to tour Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine for three days with DH. I had never rented a car before, and haven't driven anything other than the Prius for 5 years. So, I was a little nervous driving some unfamiliar vehicle. I called Enterprise in the little town where the conference was held and booked an "Economy" car. They were nice to pick me up from the conference site. When the paperwork was being done, they told me that I get a free upgrade. I told them that I don't want an upgrade. They told me that they don't have any economy cars on the lot. I said, "but what about the mileage?", and the guy was speechless for a few seconds, and then apologized. We were planning a 1000 mile trip, so I wasn't too happy to drive anything bigger than an "Economy" car. It was a tiny town, and even if they had given me a Hummer, I would have had no other choice. So we went outside and he points out the car. I said "Oh my God, what kind of a car is this?". He said it was a Dodge Charger. I was terrified. After asking him basic questions like how to change the seat position/turn on the lights etc., I drove back to the conference site like Prius driver. I was going under the speed limit, clinging on to the steering wheel, hoping I won't hit anyone. There was nothing wrong with the car, but I had never driven anything that weighed so much. After parking, I wasn't sure if I turned the car off properly. The radio goes on until you open the door! Anyway, 1000+ miles of small towns and a lot of mountains later, I got around 25 MPG. The combined EPA for the car is 19 MPG, so I did pretty well. Going up the mountains, I expected a lot of power from this car, but I didn't think it was all that different from the Prius. Photo: Us at the Acadia National Park. I see that someone else rented a Charger as well. http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-prius-main-forum/40090-prius-vs-dodge-charger.html
In a non-SRT Charger, the car is so heavy (and correspondingly slow), the EPA fuel economy might be the only thing that you can beat in the car.
If you try hard enough, you can beat the EPA rating with any car. I reguarly beat it in my Prius for instance which is rated at 46 combined. For years with my old job I was getting 50-55 in the summer and 45-50 in the winter.
I ended up with one of these on a business trip once. It was probably the first (and hopefully the last) car that I could not lean over and touch the passenger door to unlock or whatever. It felt like driving around in a living room.
I bet Pria noticed the difference. I was trying to put the wiper on from the left hand side for the first couple of days after returning.
I hypermiled my parents' 06 Sienna and got 28mpg city. It's rated at 18 city. You can hypermile anything with the right tools and techniques.
