So I bought a Prius instead

I took the long way home from the dealer tonight, just to spend some time in my new car. I did about a 20 mile trip on some back roads. The Prius says I did about 40 mpg.

I resolved that with my first tank of gas or two, I would not attempt to maximize the gas mileage by tinkering with my driving technique; rather I'd drive without thinking about it, to get a baseline. Despite that, this evening, I couldn't help playing with the accelerator and the brakes to try to get the best mileage.

Apparently the trips that I make most often are exactly those trips which are supposed to get the worst mileage in this car:

The Prius and other hybrids get the worst mileage in the first five to ten minutes of driving...

Frequent short city trips will not produce good mileage, even though the Prius is rated very high for city driving.

I live less than 10 miles from work; it's about a 10 minute drive. It appears that it will be a challenge getting a really good mileage from this car.