Corolla Update

I've had the car now more almost 4 months and have driven well over 3,000 miles. I've been driving it to work and back as well as across the state to see friends and attend events.

Having no cruise control I thought would make traveling more difficult. It was a little challenging at first, but you get used to it. It also tends to keep you a little more alert because you're having to pay attention on a regular basis.

Well, with the car, my first travel up north, I got about 37 mpg on the tank of gas. This had a combination of city driving, highway driving and back country road driving. I was very pleased with these results.

For Christmas, I went home and which is about a 300 mile trip. This is all highway miles too. From these tanks of gas I found I was getting 35 mpg. I was happy, but I was hoping it to be higher. I was driving around 75 mph and it was raining most of the way, so that most likely hindered my mileage.

The following weekend I made another trip and drove 65 mph the whole way while following a friend. This tank I got 45 mpg. I'm not going to be able to drive 65 mph on the freeway all the time, but if I can keep it at about 70, then I'll most likely be able to get around 40 mpg which I think is a very good compromise.

I'm looking at ways to improve it even more. One thing I plan on getting the the next couple of weeks is a new K&N air filter. I think I'm just going to get the filter to go into my current setup, but there are the kits for my car that can be installed, and are supposed to increase horsepower. I'm not sure though if this is a good thing. I'm afraid it will actually harm my gas mileage.

All in all, I'm very happy with my car and things couldn't be going better.