one last surprise

On my drive in to work this morning, I noticed even before I got out of the city that I was getting much better fuel economy than I normally do. At all my ususal “check points” I was ahead of where I normally am. So much ahead that less than halfway through my drive I hit an all-time best: 5.6L/100km. Today was the first time I’d ever seen that. Wow! You can then imagine my incredulous amazement when my vehicle decided that it just wasn’t all that thirsty, and went down to 5.5L/100km! I was astounded… and still not even halfway to my destination.

Over the course of the rest of the drive my trip average fuel economy crept up again to as high at 5.7L/100km, but I ended my morning drive registering 5.5. I was stunned. It really goes to show how much of an impact climate can make on fuel economy – I wasn’t doing anything different this morning, so it simply must have been a favourable temperature and humidity range for optimal vehicle performance.

This afternoon wasn’t quite as good. Typically, as I’m heading out of town towards home my trip average spikes and slowly unwinds again on my way home. It creeped back up to 5.8, but never saw anything lower than 5.7 all the way home. Ah well… I saw 5.5, and that was enough of a treat. And 5.7 is something to be exited about!

Perhaps my Elantra just knew that I had signed the bill of sale for a Volkswagen New Beetle TDI last night, and was trying to impress me one more time before we parted ways. Bravo, Elantra – you’ve done well. Now I’m charting a path through 5.0L/100km, down into the 3’s.

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