I have thought for some time that all new vehicles should have MPG meters that cannot be turned off.

Those simple instant/average displays like the ones in the Sequoia, Grand Caravan, Grand Cherokee we've had over the years are next to useless, though.

The consumption graph in my Prius, though? I was just thinking how useful it would be in any car. 5-minute averages for the past 30 minutes along with a running average and an Instant MPG bar is the perfect combination for achieving MPG bliss.

I sympathize with this guy. I feel the same way when my Civic Hybrid gauge gets below 45 mpg....

I didn't know that kind of additional onboard computer exist. That's great..... except my 1994 Renault Super5 is compatible with it :-D ... Otherwise, I would have been interrested to buy it.

However, I calculate my car's fuel efficiency very often. When the speed is stabilized on highways at 60mp/h, I get around 52MPG, and when I'm driving in town, I get around 28MPG, which is not bad for a 15 year old car.
I really changed my way of driving since I'm trying to get the lower MPG as possible with my car, it's like a game ;-) .

Here are some tips I can give you from my experience

Accelerations consume a lot of fuel, so my foot is really "light" on the throttle pedal (as long as it's not dangerous for others of course ! safety first !)

My car has manual gears, so I can "disconnect" my engine from wheels, which is really useful when I know that I'm going to stop in few meters (I'm anticipating a traffic light, etc..), so I use the cinetic energy to stop slowly, which, by the way, is saving a little my brakes. Or, I'm doing that if the road fall (if it's falling to fast, I use my brake-engine and my brakes, again, safety first).

If I have to summerize, I would tell : Drive smooth, that's the best way to save your car (to keep it a long time) and to save fuel as well.

I actually choose a car based on how bad the mileage is. I feel that by using more gas that I am contributing to the economy better than you fools that get 20+mpg. If I spend my money then someone else will get some to spend too. Besides, how in the hell are you going to go 0-60 in under 5 seconds with a POS car.

"I actually choose a car based on how bad the mileage is. I feel that by using more gas that I am contributing to the economy better"

I know you're just trolling, but I'll bite: What you said is actually incorrect. Higher efficiency and productivity is what helps the economy grow for the long term, not waste.

By doing more with less, you actually help the economy quite a bit, because you reduce your opportunity cost and can use what you have more productively.

Oh, dear: Pablo and Jay J. aren't about to start the old Keynesian vs neoclassical growth model debate again, are they? I thought that becoming a pinko-commie-treehugger would allow me to escape my undergraduate economics classes! :)

I'm really disappointed when I use more than 25cents of electricity to go 40km on the EVT scooter...

"Those simple instant/average displays...are next to useless..."

I disagree. For those of us who pay attention to our consumption, perhaps, but for most drivers who haven't been, I think watching that number plument every time they bury their foot in the right pedal is just what they need to connect their actions to the consequences.

you are not doing anything for the environment by driving a usless vehicle and pushing treehugging on everyone. You need to realize that speeding and all the big vehicles are nothing to sitting in traffic. That is the worst on mileage. As for that I hope California fals into the ocean and all the tree huggers are on it.

All right, enough is enough, you're all whining like a bunch of small children over these criminally orchestrated gas prices. I said it a few months ago that gas prices would rise to five dollars a gallon before my 53rd birthday. In addition, according to my calculations it's just .85 cents away from being five dollars a gallon now. Diesel fuel is already way over four dollars a gallon, and the angry truckers are bitching a blue streak too. As a self claiming poor scientist, I too feel the pain at the pump. However, perhaps these high fuel prices are a godsend telling us all that it's now the right time to change to something far better. There is no need to dramatically change anything on that nice big fat luxury car or that wonderful gas guzzling SUV either That internal combustion according to my own calculations is not going anywhere anytime soon. That's right it's here to stay for many more years to come. We simply need to do a little reverse engineering, while gas
prices remain so astronomically high. The overall key for solving that high price fuel dilemma requires no rocket science at all; we simply apply a little logic to the equation.

In conclusion, wind turbines solar panels and other forms of so-called free energy are not the answer. Fusion could arrest the problem temporarily; however, that form of energy is too unpredictable. No as gas, prices continue to skyrocket; now is the time to introduce a new form of power. Call it the next generation in the internal combustion engine process if you will, however once the highly advanced application is completed and ready for testing, I say woe too big bad oil.
Professor West