Well unfortunately, without taking you along for a two hour ride in my car I don't suppose there's anyway you will believe it, but quite honestly I don't think any of us truly care enough about the point to do that!
However, I don't know what you mean by few...it may truly only be a few of us, but without going back and digging, it seems as though three of us are saying it can achieve over 30 mpg easily, and two are saying it can't.
I have noticed with any car that some people can never achieve the EPA highway ratings, even less exceed it. Then there are those, like me, who exceed it with every car they own.
It would also be the first time I've ever heard someone say that there is something wrong with a car if it is achieving higher mileage than expected. If there is something wrong, I sure as hell don't plan on 'fixing' it. Also, you need to remember that the 36 mpg was according to the DIC, meaning the ACTUAL was closer to 33-34. And with the conditions I was driving in, I don't see how that is beyond the realm of possibility seeing as how my average always goes over 30 mpg and stays there with any sort of highway driving.
Haven't you ever heard of hypermiling? I don't do all of the procedures for hypermiling, but I do use some. Remember the LeSabre I mentioned? A friend of mine had the same car, and using full hypermiling techniques, he got 39 actual MPG out of it, and that WAS 10 over the EPA ratings of the time. The best I got was 35, but 33 was very easy to consistently get. Same as it's easy for me to consistently get over the 21 MPG EPA ratings for my truck, and it's got the gas sucking 3.42 gears over the 3.08, which were rated for exactly the same mileage for some reason. Lazy, probably.
I don't know, I really don't get why this is so hard to comprehend.
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