Car is a 2006 V50 T5 AWD burning 10-percent-ethanol New York gas. Well-maintained, periodically serviced, synthetic oil regularly changed, only 70,000 miles.

I have seen, on the cumulative mpg computer readout, as high as 24 mpg at times when I have been doing a fair amount of highway driving. But I haven't been on a highway in months, and all my driving has been semi-rural, low-traffic, local two-lanes, and the cumulative mileage has slowly decreased to 19.2.

Question: is this number what I should expect from that sort of driving, or is it low enough that I should wonder if there's something wrong?

 

The original specs for the T5 AWD were in the 19-20 city/26-28 highway range. The highway EPA number assumes you'd be driving like 55 or 60, not the 70-75 most us would do on the Thruway (ah ok, I do 65-70 on the Taconic but closer to 75-80 on the Thruway )

Sounds like you are pretty close to normal. My '95 850T gets 18-19 city in the winter, 20 city in the summer (winter gas blend costs 1-2 MPG), and gets close to 27 when I do long highway drives with no city. My '12 VW CC gets 23 around town (rural) and 32 highway both within 1 MPG of rating...