Too new to comment on Fit mpg but in my 04 WRX I got equal or better mileage at 65-70 than at 55. I frequently make a 300 mile trip which includes lots of ups and downs going through Vermont and always got my rated epa mpg even at 75-80mph so I for one really think this 'you must drive 55 to get the best mpg' is a crock.

I would add that it is retarded (IMHO) to drive significantly slower than the traffic flow in your lane and you are likely creating a safety hazard. If people are doing 80 in the left lane and you don't want to, pull over and stay over.
If you are in the far right and everyone and their grandmother are still passing you, maybe you should pick up the pace or take a nap at the next rest stop?

 

Who cares how fast/slow someone drives.

 

Different strokes for different cars... the Fit at 55 vs. 70, 55 should win. The AT will hunt a lot on cruise, and the MT is geared shorter so its pulling higher RPMs at those speeds... both of which will drag the average MPG down.

 

That's good logic if you have your own private road to drive on. Unfortunately, if you're on a public road, your driving habits and skills/lack of and mindset at the time affects the rest of us on the road with you.

 

In Germany, as in the rest of Europe, autobahns, motorways, autopistas, autostradas, autoroutes are engineered to a much higher level allowing safer travel at high speeds.

Drivers are also trained much more rigorously prior to getting their licenses, and have restrictions on speed long after getting their licenses.

Drivers adhere to much stricter protocol there, learned from other drivers driving fast for generations.

Here, there would be general mayhem if they dropped speed limits. 85mph some places (I see Texas is close to passing it if they haven't already) would be OK, but not in general. Our roads and drivers are lousy.

 

Shame, there's all this talk about the gov't wanting to revive our infrastructure, I wonder where all the money goes to. As for the drivers, surely we can aspire to train them better?

Instead of focusing on giving out tickets for revenue only, which is a big problem IMO, the focus should be on ticketing the drivers that are causing problems on the road for others... distracted drivers, driving in the wrong lane, etc need to be addressed. All the lower speed limits are doing is mostly filling up local township coffers as a source of revenue which is bad... there should be a law that all traffic related revenue be put back into roads and traffic safety, and cannot be used for anything else.

So which I agree that we need some reasonable speed limits, what we really need is a change in traffic law enforcement, and the removal of the revenue generating portion as a way to fund other things. The way laws are enforced today, its no small wonder that things are just lousy on our roads.

 

I don't care how fast you drive in the normal traffic lanes, i'll find a way around you.

But...

If you drive 65 in the carpool lane punishment should be death by firing squad. I don't care if you're driving a bus or boxtruck, if you can't go at least 75 then stay out.

 

We can't possibly compete with Europe on road quality given the relative size of continents and populations. Don't feel bad; it is what it is...

Completely different attitude there. Obtaining a license is over a year long process (even for experienced drivers coming to the country). The cost is high. That'll never fly here. A Swiss friend told me his story: he failed his exam twice. Before they let him take it a third time he had to get a psychological exam. I still twinge over what it took to get a French driving license after having driven here for 16 years.

Besides, by having grown drivers naturally as cars improved over the decades in Europe they can handle speed as a population. We've been held back so we lack experience.

We could gradually increase speed limits here (and we are) but the quality of our roads limits this.

If we all drove 100mph I bet there would be fewer distractions going on in our cars!

 

LOL, another Rex'er. Don't remember driving mine double-nickel. Then again you don't drive a Rex for mpg. Wrong car!

 

my wrx was incredibly predictable with fuel (lack of) economy. 20/27 with at most a 1mpg variance, usually attributable to weather. Before it met its death by tree(s), I had to have the O2 sensor replaced and saw a jump of about 2mpg around town..was stoked!

55 in the wrx was only in traffic. But I generally kept it 80 or less. To many coppers with laser now and too little dough for increased insurance let alone the tickets.

 

55 is fine with me as long as you stay your butt in the right lane :-)

 

Fuel economy really drops off at speeds over 65mph. The best fuel economy difference can be realized by not taking the trip in the first place, or if you do, taking a smaller car like the Fit.

 

Ouch! Too bad... Still have mine ('02 Bugeye). There's quite a few here, current and ex-Rex'ers...

Well, there's fast and then there's smart-fast... But I know what you mean...

 

I was on a long interstate trip this past Sept 11 and came across a huge group of motorcycles exercising their right to go 55 MPH in the left lane of a 2-lanes-each-way interstate. Unfortunately, there were cars exercising their right to go 55 in the right lane, so the bikes created a huge moving roadblock. I think the group of bikes was at least 1/2 mile long, probably 200 bikes. That was very frustrating. Even big trucks were weaving from lane to lane just trying to advance 10 feet past the bikes. It seemed like an accident waiting to happen.

I finally got by, but it took a passing maneuver that I wasn't proud of to do it (helped by a quick couple of downshifts with my AT paddle shifters). If this was a Sept 11 tribute of some sort, it only served to give a bunch of annoyed drivers a very bad attitude toward motorcylists.

 

Ditto

Ditto

 

Clearly the aerodynamics of the car will have a big effect. My WRX got its epa rated highway mpg on long trips at an average speed of 70mpg which included time stopped for gas. Clearly I was driving over 70 the vast majority of the time. I never saw better milage when going slower on more crowded roads. And 5th gear at 55mph was minimally acceptable. If you had to pass you were def. dropping into 4th so generally 5th was 60+. Being in 4th would also likely engage the turbo at > 3K rpms, not good for mpg.

 

Unfortunately, it isn't safer. Cheaper? Yes... Safer, No. When everyone else is doing 10-20mph over what you are doing, you become the road hazard (even if you are abiding by some law)

I gotta jump on this one. I'm from Jersey so I know what people claim are bad drivers... in fact Jersey drivers... very good... just assholes. Quebec Drivers, especially those on longer trips traveling to or From Canada on Rt 87 in eastern NY, are by far the worst. Not using turn signals, riding the left lane [at or below the speed limit] and if not the left, the center lane... I can't remember the last time I saw a quebec plate in the right lane.

oh... the QEW... what an incredible piece of concrete and blacktop. And Crazy drivers cutting from the far left lane across 5 lanes of traffic to exit. And what's with these exits from the left lane? who thought that was a good Idea?

Connecticut & boston area drivers seem to be the worst in the NE. We're getting towards leaf peeping season here in VT and the CT, NJ, NYC, & Mass Drivers should be showing up to drive 10mph below the speed limits just to drive vermont residents nuts. (fortunately, many of the roads have been fixed or patched so they can come... tourism is a major part of VT so it's a mixed bag)

It sounds good in theory, but in practice, it would be a nightmare. People have enough problems staying in their lane, using turn signals, staying at one single speed limit. Adding 1 or two more speed limits to a single road will seriously throw people for a loop.

If People just "KEEP RIGHT EXCEPT TO PASS" then things would go sooo much better. It's the people that ride the left lane and that don't get over when someone behind them is coming up that are the worst.

When I was in Sicily, I found that if someone was coming up behind you quickly in the left lane, they had their left turn blinker on and that was a signal for "I'm coming through so get over"... and it worked. Here, people don't even respond to a quick "flash" of the high beams (and I'm talking from a ways back, not right behind)

~SB

 

Having driven in Quebec itself, drivers in the US northeast seem rather tame by comparison (except maybe the cabbies and traffic in Manhattan).

NJ drivers aren't bad, but we sure have roads (jug handles) to confuse everyone else. Then there's towns without jug handles, and jug handles that didn't have quite enough room so the approach is before the light instead of after, etc. And rarely does anyone give you a break into traffic even when you signal nicely, if you need in you have to find a way.

 

THIS...

 

That looks like I-78 in NJ!