Paying Attention to MPG

Topic of MPG on G+ and how much people pay attention to advertised mileage. 

My feeling is that people do pay attention, but only to a point and they often carry a wrong impression with them, which I think is the advertiser's intent. Toyota has a good rep as a high-MPG car company because of the Prius. So, people who don't want a Prius, but feel they need an SUV instead will still go to Toyota because in their mind, Toyota has vehicles with great gas mileage. And they'll buy a 14 MPG monster but still think they are being green because it is a Toyota. But back when our family owned a full-size Cadillac Escalade 6.0 litre 4x4 complete with front and rear air conditioning (I won't get into the argument of why such a vehicle was "needed" in our household) it consistently got 22 MPG measured in real life and yet folks we knew certainly never thought of it as being greener than any Toyota. Quite the opposite! Now I drive this Volt which beats the pants off of any current Toyota, plug-in or otherwise... but Prius drivers (and yes, even drivers of other Toyota models) around me still turn up their noses. Why is that? 

July OnStar Vehicle Diagnostics report

Mileage: 9065

Electric Miles: 556
Gas Miles: 0
Total Miles: 556


Percentage on Electric: 100 %


Oil life: Still at 83%


Electric Consumption:  29 kW-hr/100 miles (according to GM, but I see no proof of this.)


I have never gotten the service paperwork for my last time in at Community Chevrolet. I have the estimate paper, so it at least tells me the date I was in. I glanced at it the other day and it may be that the air bag inspection already got done. Maybe the tire rotation too. I am now seeing the occasional issue with the charge door thinking it is open  when it really is closed, unless I tap on the door a few times when I close it, so I might need to get that addressed soon. 

Charged: Volt remains best-selling plug-in!

At least according to an article in Charged EV Magazine. They say it was the top-selling plug-in vehicle in the US in June, with sales of 1,760 cars for the month. As I can tell from the number of Volt's I've been spotting around my area, there are definitely a lot more of them on the road these days. Unfortunately the Leaf only sold 535 for the month. I do see those around town too, but I never think to post those spottings for some reason. I have never driven a Leaf, so I don't know how they compare. But I love my Volt and I think a lot of people realize having the gas generator is a great asset if you are not yet sure of finding working chargers out and about. Having unlimited total range makes a lot of people more comfortable in taking the plunge. And if they end up using it mostly on battery, as many do, they come to be more familiar with what range they really need and less worried about range in general. So maybe the Volt is like an EV with training wheels??? :D