First road trip Sportage HEV

I took the first real road trip with the Sportage yesterday, 328 mile round trip in ND, SD and a little MN. Relatively flat with just a couple moderate hills thrown in. 80F outside with a horrible ~30-35mph wind. The cruise was set to 80 mph the majority of the time.

The trip out was with almost a direct headwind, maybe 10 degrees off from a direct headwind. The car ran on the ICE 99% of the time, with just a couple of downhills where it shut off and ran on electric for a short time. It averaged 26 mpg.

The trip home the wind changed slightly and was about 45 degrees off of being a direct tailwind. By the time we got home it was almost a direct sidewind. It averaged 36 mpg.

The mileage was about what I would expect given the speed we drove and the wind. We have an '18 Santa Fe ICE and I believe the Sportage got a couple mpg better than the Santa Fe would have.

Driving impressions: I really enjoyed driving this thing on the freeway. The ride is decent for a smallish car, and the engine/drivetrain was beautifully smooth and competent. Our Santa Fe would have been absolutely miserable given the speed and headwind, it would have been downshifting all the time, the 2.4 is just too underpowered. The Sportage however went up hills and into the headwind beautifully. The car is comfortable, even for my 6'-4" frame and I really liked the lane following system. I kept a thumb on the steering wheel just so the car didn't balk at me for not having my hands on the steering. The radio is "decent", the hvac all worked nicely as it should. The only complaint on the hvac is having to switch between the hvac panel and the radio panel. Overall, we are very happy with the car. The odometer flipped over to 1000 miles during the trip, so I'm sure the engine still isn't quite broke in.