With all the new Hybrids coming on the market, how has the testing of MPG changed? I have a 2007 Toyota Prius and love it! I am also a touring musician so I need a car that gets great mpg and has the room for my equipment. I need to know how to compare hybrids and regular gas cars.
Aaron Fowler
It sounds like you might be doing a lot of highway miles. If so, be aware that hybrids pay off more in city driving than highway driving.
You can compare them the old fashion way. Divide the number of miles by the number of gallons. The problem is the hybrid function helps well in a high traffic area of a city with lots of stops and goes, but does not do as much for long distance driving.
Since situations vary, you can't really rely on this or that test.
BTW there are cars on the market that will match your hybrid city and likely do better on the highway. For example my smallish diesel car gets about 45mpg and a little more on the highway.Wouldn’t it be nice if Ford would sell the Fiesta Econetic here in the states… 65mi/gal… I want one. 
My coworker has a 2008? Toyota Prius and he’s getting about 50 mpg. His commute is ~50 miles each way, about 40 miles on the highway.
My brother gets 50 mpg consistently with his Prius, including a good amount of freeway driving. And no diesel fuel price penalty.
What the OP may be thinking of is the mpg numbers for the plug-ins, the Leaf and the Volt. Those are different. The Leaf’s 100% electric, and I don’t know how they calculate a ‘mpg’ value. The Volt has an engine, so the ‘mpg’ depends greatly on how often the driver exceeds the plug-in range of about 40 miles.