We always have strong winds anytime of the year in Texas! We got the same 26.5 average MPG on the way back from Austin on I-35 and I suppose the wind was blowing the opposite direction against the CX-5. We could only get 24.6 MPG from Houston to Austin where part of state highway is more hilly but the speed limit is lower. I feel our CX-5 may have inferior and less efficient 2.5L comparing to others, as our 2.5L has also burned about 0.35 quarts of oil at 5,073 miles for the first oil change.
By comparison, we used to drive our '98 Honda CR-V AWD for the same trip. The return was 25~26 MPG. The EPA for the '98 CR-V is 19 city and 23 highway. We also drove our 2000 BMW 528i many times and the return was 28~29 MPG with the EPA at 16 city and 24 highway. Our CX-5 AWD has 30 EPA highway MPG and from my experience there is no way to meet that number! And with all the new technologies the gas mileage improvement for our trip has only gone up 0.5 MPG for the compact CUVs we have! So why is that we can have better real-world highway MPGs than EPA ratings on our other cars which have over-estimated, pre-2008 MY EPA fuel economy estimates but our CX-5 not only can't beat the supposedly 22% downward adjusted current EPA highway rating, but also significantly less (3.5 MPG, 12%)?