[ArrogantBustard]

In U.S. units, this is 41.88 mpg for the BMW and 40.05 mpg for the Prius.

And my two year old Corolla gets 35mpg (mixed conditions), and I'm not particularly careful about fuel efficient driving.

[B Knotts]

The guy in the BMW doesn’t seem to have tried all that hard to save fuel (he was, after all, going nearly 80 mph). The guy in the Prius was doing some fuel-saving tricks.

But, yeah, any car can be relatively fuel-efficient by reducing weight, having a smaller engine, and good aerodynamics.

The BMW 5-Series, though, is a bigger car than a Corolla (or Prius). The 320d is more of a fair comparison, and it gets 44-45 mpg (U.S. gallons).

Wish we could buy these here.

[HundredDollars]

My recently purchased high mileage Honda Civic gets an average of 36 mpg and I drive like a teenager. I've tried driving conservatively (easier on the acceleration) and the best I've achieved is 38 mpg. 2 mpg isn't worth feeling like a blue-hair so I drive without worrying about the mpg. My commuting is mostly on the highway, though.

I seriously considered buying a VW Jetta TDI (diesel) but my research showed them to be a money pit even though they typically get 45-50 mpg. I'm really glad I bought a gasser now that diesel prices have gone through the roof.

The hybrid concept has never sat well with me. I'm an engineer and, in general, complexity is the enemy of efficiency when the entire system is considered over the life-cycle. The fuel savings do not offset the higher maintenance so the cost of ownership is higher than a conventional vehicle. This cannot be maintained over the long run.

Iam Bedernu Greenie will subconsciously realize his Ego-Enhancement/Mile is declining while his $/Mile is escalating. He'll sell his Prius to his neighbor's hippy-wanna-be daughter and buy himself a Volvo. He'll justify this to his liberal friends as being concerned about his family's safety. They'll all wrinkle their foreheads and nod in understanding of his inner conflict, then rush to trade-in their underpowered death-trap greenie vehicles and buy Bimmers and Mercedes, patting themselves on the back over the personal "sacrifice" of their eco-values in the name of protecting their family.

Then again, I might be getting just a little bit cynical in my old age.