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I have heard mention of a particular way to drive a hybrid with a CVT (something about fluttering the gas pedal) but haven't been able to find a specific description on how that technique is used... any idea what these people are talking about? :confuse:
http://autos.msn.com/advice/CRArt.aspx?contentid=4024120
IMPORTANT DRIVING TIPS THAT HAVE LITTLE EFFECT ON FUEL ECONOMY
Keep tires inflated. Our tests show that driving on moderately underinflated tires is more of a safety concern than a fuel-economy issue. We set the pressure in all four tires to 10 psi below that recommended by the automaker. This reduced highway fuel economy slightly, by about 1 mpg for the Camry and by a much smaller margin for the Mountaineer. But more importantly, underinflated tires provide much less grip for turning and stopping and run much hotter. Overheated tires wear faster and can lead to a blowout. Check the pressure of your vehicle's tires at least once a month, when the tires are cold. Also check the tires before and after long road trips. The recommended tire pressure is found on a label inside the car—usually in a doorjamb, inside the glove-box lid, or inside the fuel-filler lid.
on it now. It has gone through the first oil change. I have
done all the above that you said but cannot seem to get
over 38 mpg. I do not draft though but my highway driving
is minimal.(20%)
I have a couple of questions for you:
- The mpg that you are getting - is it hand calculated or
taken from the dash? I find the dash mpg to be always
2.5 more than actual.
- How long is your commute? My commute is 20 mins. All the
people who get low to mid 40 mpg in the Camry Hybrid seem
to have commutes in the 40 - 90 min range. Since the
initial 5 mins of the drive only yeilds about 20-22 mpg
due to warm up, I think to negate that, one needs to have
many 40 mpg+ segments to pull overall mpg into the 40s.
My last tank was 701 miles but it took me 18.8 gallons
for an mpg of 37.3. The dash read 39.7 mpg. I took me
1 month to get through that tank based on my driving
pattern.
i like the way my car looks though, that's why i got the nah over tch
I hit 734 miles on a recent tankful.
When I am on the highway doing 60-65 mph, I always back off the accelerator enough on declines to use only the electric motor. I can go up to 2 miles at times. That helps my mileage as well.
In the morning, while the engine is heating up, I still try to glide as much as possible to charge the battery and leave the gas engine in idle mode. I have about 1 mile before I get on the highway. I also only get around 20 mpg during the first 5 minutes. But after that I can get 40-43 mpg the rest of the way to work.
its hybrid?
The regular Nissan 2.5S has the same 2.5L engine which
produces 176 hp. In the hybrid it is 158 hp. Nissan must
have done something to the engine to make it more fuel
efficient at the cost of power. The highway mpg which is
mostly due to the ICE component does go up from 31 mpg
to 33 mpg (2008 EPA estimates).
The engine is bigger than the 2.4L engine in the Camry though and this may account for the slightly better fuel economy on the highway for the Camry. For the Camry the power of the engine reduces from 158 hp to 147 hp in the hybrid due to the Atkinson cycle. The highway mpg goes up from 30 to 34 (again 2008 EPA). So definitely the tweak is more effective here.
It is interesting to note that the regular Altima, inspite
of a bigger more powerful engine than the Camry gets better
highway mpg than the regular Camry. This might be due to the
CVT though.
I think my fuel economy will not be much better than 38 mpg
due to my short commute of 8 miles. The initial 5 min poor
mpg is not being adequately compensated before I stop
again and the engine cools down.
i think the power drop came because some parts of the engine needed to be downsized.
38 is nothing to complain about...i'm at 36 after 5500 miles
If you think you'll earn about 6.5% (post-tax) or greater, then you should (have) opt(ed) for the 2.9% 60-month financing instead of the 0.7% 36-month financing. Anything less than 6.5% and you should take the 0.7% financing.
Using the new 1.9% rate, the changeover point is more like 4.5% instead of 6.5%.
That calculation assumes some potentially unrealistic things (ie, you have no problem paying off the principal, you don't need the money for other things, etc), but should serve as a decent guideline for how you choose.
I don't think you can do much in performance upgrades for the car though, like putting in a new intake as the space is very limited in the engine bay. but if you're buying a hybrid, I have no clue why you would want performance upgrades...
For HID's, you are stuck with the direct harness if you want to put on aftermarkets (no relay type because the battery is in the trunk)
I think it'd be easiest to explain in an example. The amount of money you actually finance has no effect on the result of the calculation (the payments, present values, etc, all move proportionately with the loan amount), so let's use 10K as the loan amount.
Under the July options, you would pay $280.79/month for the 36-month financing ("Option 1") and $179.24/month for the 60-month financing ("Option 2"). The new 36-month payment in August ("Option 3") would be $285.99/month.
Now let's assume the interest rate you can earn in the market is 3.9375%--this is the 5.25% rate offered by Eloan's savings accounts with a 25% marginal tax rate taken off. Using this interest rate, the effective cost (ie, the present value) of the $10K loan is about $9,520, $9,748 and $9,696 for each of the three options, respectively.
In other words, because both of the 36-month loans "cost" less than the 60-month loan, it makes more sense to take the 36-month loan, regardless of whether you got the July or August rates.
The next step is then to start playing with the interest rate you get in the bank/market to figure out when the present value of the 60-month loan equals the present value of the 36-month loan. At an assumed rate of 4.5%, the present values of options 2 and 3 (the August rates) are virtually identical. Same thing with 6.5% for options 1 and 2 (the July rates).
Since the rates in August are closer to each other than the rates in July, you don't need to earn as much when keeping your money in the bank in order for the longer repayment period to outweigh the fact that you pay more interest, hence the lower "changeover point" that I referred to.
yeah, i think that getting a heavier rim will hurt your economy...a lighter one however, might be better, i'm not sure though
pebble beach exterior
blonde leather interior
Connection package w/XM
Moon roof
Wind deflector
It seems this combination does not exist here in SoCal.
Also, if you have bought this package recently, please share your final price.
Thanks,
Steve
http://www.config.nissanusa.com/Dispatch.jsp?state_token=2%3A5%3Anissan%7Calh%7C- 2007%7C0%7CAAAAAgA%7CAAIAAAA%7C%3A92844&lc=true&seq_id=5&.CurrentState=DealerMat- chingVehiclesBrowse&.NewState=VehicleDetailsBrowse&tool=null&selectVehicle=1
Please respond to Chintan Talati at ctalati@edmunds.com no later than Wednesday, September 12, 2007 with your daytime contact information and the hybrid model you own.
Once we figured out it was the dead battery, the lot attendant wheeled over the portable jump start cart they have and we tried to jump start it. We had a heck of a time. First, we had a hard time getting it to go to Ready mode. After reading the manual a few times we found that there is a special procedure to follow if it doesn't happen right away. It involves cycling between On and Off in 5 second intervals.
Once we got the Ready light to come on the engine would come on, but then die. It did this several times. I finally tried to back the car out of the space and it died. We re-jumped it and got it to go a little farther. We drove a couple of hundred feet without dying and pulled into a space to try to let the engine charge the battery more. I found that I had to put it in Drive with the parking brake on to get it to charge. After about 10 minutes, we finally got the needle a quarter of the way into the blue and drove home.
The owner's manual does not describe at all the post jump start procedures. It assumes that you just get to the Ready light and it works.
It's interesting that the car would start and then stall. I'm trying to understand the logic of what might have been going on. There are two batteries in the car. One for the hybrid electric drive and a 12-volt to start the motor and run the accessories. The charging systems for the two batteries are linked (but I'm not sure exactly how), so perhaps each time the charging system tried to charge the hybrid battery, there still wasn't enough juice in the 12-volt to support the gas engine and accessories. Just a guess, but who knows what was really going on. These things are COMPLEX!
Problem you can't get the up unless you get in press the brake and start button and use the windown switch oon the door. Stupid again. They should go back up with the lock button on the intellegent keu or at least the window swith with out having to get the car in ON and then use the dooe switches. :confuse:
DANGEROUS? YUP the car is still on! No warning Beeps or anything. Do that in your garage and maybe kill the whole house. :mad:
I reported this to the NHTSA !!!
I loved the story about the couple that left theirs, locked the dumb car at the airport and went on a two week vacation and returned to find it out of gas and the cranking batter run down completely. So I guess it is too hard to push the button if you forget to.
They should make it beep if you leave the drivers seat while it's still on, thats my solution for the half smart half dumb key. :P