Camry Hybrid MPG Question - Ask Rob About Cars

I was checking out the Camry Hybrid online. Gas prices here are spiking up a bit. It says mpg is 31/35, but someone said that in winter, when running the heater, the mpg goes down. Is this true?

Thanks,

Jeff
Chicago, IL
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Hello Jeff, yes that is true. In cold weather, batteries lose efficiency which means the gasoline engine will turn on sooner and for a longer period of time, increasing fuel consumption. A recent trend is to have heated seats work in conjunction with the heater to reduce the demand on battery power from blowing heated air.

In hot weather, the same may occur with the air conditioning being constantly on even though it's equipped with an electric compressor vs. the standard accessory belt driven unit to eliminate parasitic losses.

A word of advice regarding any car with a continuously variable transmission (CVT). Make sure you drive it as you drive your current car and make sure you don’t find the constant revving objectionable when accelerating.

If most of your driving is highway and you'd like some power too, the Hyundai Sonata Turbo is rated at 32mpg highway and produces 274 horsepower on regular octane gas. Very impressive numbers.

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California Leaders Pollute California

Mr. Gary Richards AKA Mr. Roadshow of the San Jose Mercury News recently reported that the new southbound 680 express lanes have added on average a minute to the commute time. The study cited was done by the Alameda County Transportation Agency.

What that means is the results of the new lanes are an absolute and total failure contributing MORE pollution from idling vehicles than before. I would also like to know just how bad the spikes are and how badly the statistics show the real story every day.

ALSO, on southbound 680 AFTER the express lanes end during the evening rush hour, traffic slows down while there is a very large median area next to the center divider that could easily accommodate another lane. Why it hasn’t been made into a useful lane is beyond me.

Finally northbound 680 during the late afternoon and evening looks horrible as well, observed during late afternoon drives southbound.

Why California continues to mandate harmful and/or useless fuel additives, lower octane rating for premium gas, draconian restrictions for vehicle modification despite extra clean burning engines while cramming as much traffic as possible into as few lanes as possible is absolutely stupid beyond all measure and environmentally criminal. Surely there are representatives trying to stop this?

I strongly urge you to contact your government representatives and demand cleaner air and less fuel consumption by banning carpool and express lanes with use requirements.

Mr. Roadshow article: http://www.mercurynews.com/mr-roadshow/ci_17438165?nclick_check=1

Find and contact your state representative: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/defaulttext.asp

Previous article urging a ban on carpool lanes from 3/2009: http://www.examiner.com/autos-in-san-jose/ban-carpool-lanes