On the way down to JLG in Pennsylvania, I covered 500 miles in 7.5 hours – very few traffic delays helped, and travelling “somewhat quicker” than the speed limits helped (always safe, of course – and never too fast …)
Coming back, I didn’t have any deadline, so I chose more relaxation, taking the Taconic Parkway and maintaining speeds close to posted – and slower than many vehicles (about 5mph above) … I was able to enjoy driving GPMINI, listening to the stereo, and admiring the scenery:
On the way down, I got about 380 miles on a tank of gas – calculated average MPG was about 28.3 … coming back at about 10mph less, I got over 450 miles from the tank, and the MPG rose to 32.8! So if you want to save gas, just obey those speed limits 🙂
GPMINIs OBC calculation of MPG is pretty close – much better than the 10% optimism I’ve seen in previous MINIs – my calculated 32.8 was displayed as 33.6 (better than 2.5% error):
Postscript:
I remain VERY HAPPY with the quality & choice of music on Sirius satellite radio – but it continues to amaze me the places where I’ll lose satellite signal … along I-90 near worcester (no buildings or trees, just a hill in the distance), drop-outs from bridges (narrow ones, with the dropout occurring for about 2s, but a way further up the road), that sort of thing. It seems to me that I’m just not always receiving both Sirius satellites – their advertising claims that two are always visible, but I don’t believe them. Maybe it’s better in more southerly locations.
Nevertheless, it works for at least 58 minutes out of the hour, and is great to listen to … during the drive I spent many hours on “Super Shuffle” and enjoyed pretty well every track – it also tells you the “normal” channel for each artist being played, so gives a great idea of “what goes where” 🙂
M&I / GBMINI 