To Unthrottled.

Congratulations, that's the best sentence that I've seen to justify to buy a hybrid or not on the basis of fuel economy.

On the subject of average speeds, I do 90% of my driving on A roads and motorways, every time I fill up (always at supermarkets), I zero the trip computer, average speed etc and I never achieve a higher average speed than the low 40s mph.

Have had a mk 1 Auris Hybrid for 21 months - I got a subsidy from our local regional government in Spain which basically meant the "hybrid" element was free - so I got a petrol automatic at a good price. Living in a rural area I don't get the hybrid benefits from commuting, and probably 80% of my mileage is on motorways usually with cruise control activated. My last four cars have been used similarly with the following results:

2.0l diesel manual = 49.3 mpg

2.0l diesel DSG auto = 50.4 mpg

2.0l petrol auto = 37.7 mpg

1.8.petrol hybrid auto = 54.8 mpg

If I had less motorway miles mid-60s would easily be achieved.

Downsides of "CVT" hybrid - can be a bit noisy climbing hills. Otherwise, it's a proven method - 5+ million Toyota hybrids, and is being copied finally by other manufacturers

Welcome to the forum, Marin - possibly our first from Croatia.

As suggested above, the hybrid is at its best in town driving:if that was what I mostly did, I'd have a Prius. But if you do a lot of driving on the open road, the performance is not that great and the CVT gearing leads to noisy and frenetic acceleration.

But the hybrid concept is improving: read the reviews of the Audi A3 e-tron for example.