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My fuel economy has risen steadily over the years. 90% of my driving is intracity driving: no freeways, all surface streets, stop & go, rarely above 45mph. I have used the 1-2-5 shifting regimen (something I found on this forum) for 3.5 of the four years I have owned the car.
From the data I have been able to chart and observe I am getting, on average, about 315 miles per tank. Each time I fill up I put in approximately 11.3-11.8 gallons. This translates into 26.7 - 27.9 mpg. Considering the type of driving I am doing that is about as advertised. Unfortunately, the MPG doesn't climb all that dramatically when I do venture on to the highways.
This brings me to now. This last tank of fuel. I am at 210 miles with a quarter tank remaining. This is about 50-70 miles behind my averages (2-2.5 gallons off). I have been able to watch the fuel needle move like I was 16 and gassing a 289K. My question (besides WTF) is: Is this a bad fuel sensor (I haven't spotted any leaks or smelled gas)? I am waiting to fill up again and see if the volume is off, but I am more than a bit ticked off that after only 33,000 that there might be a fuel sensor issue. If anything, with my driving habits and below average annual usage, I have taxed the sensor less. Anyone else experience this?
The Inconvenient Truth About Ethanol
1. It is normal that the CVT transmission makes a whining noise on coming to a stop.
2. It is normal to hear the clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk noise after leaving the curb. This is the ABS self calibration that sets in every time after you start the car. This problem kind of makes you forget about how you feel in the car, and that the upholstery is pretty good. At this point you are worrying that you are losing the engine, - who cares about comfortable upholstery.
3. The mileage I have gotten is 1/2 of what is in the brochure for a 2010 with CVT. The answer I get here is that it depends on how I have been driving the car. Let's face it, its only got a 1.8 l ENGINE so what could you possibly do with this tin can?
4. Most current problem is that the car won't start at -15 degrees C. It was fine in the first year, but itlooks like the battery is going now at 11, 800 km.
If I could do it all again I wouls never buy a Nissan product. :lemon:
It appears that Nissan is making lemons, and they do not want to take their lemons :lemon: back nor repair them.
I will never buy a Nisan again!!!!! :lemon: :lemon: :lemon:
But back to my point... a friend bought a 6 speed Versa after having seen how much we like them. He lives in the same area as me, so we're driving basically the same roads, although he doesn't do as much long distance drving as we do. He's only getting 28-29 mpg. Driving style and habits HAVE to be the difference.
I agree that 23 seems REALLY low, but it's hard to make a call on whether there's a mechanical issue with the car based on that alone. Winter driving conditions, things like living in a hilly area, all sorts of things can eat away at the number
My daily driving is about 30 miles freeway at 60-65, 6 miles on a 45-50 mph parkway, and 5-6 miles on 40 mph streets.
With 39.5, a tank gives me 400 miles. I always knew the EPA estimate of 27 city was wrong, and they have no business estimating city driving MPG on manual transmission cars.
About 240,000 combined miles on the 3 Versas in our family and all three are still getting about 31 MPG in our combined driving (fair amount of highway) 32-33 on long highway stretches.
Prior to ethanol, we would get 35 on the highway, but that's another story for another discussion
2012 Versa hatchback 1.8SL
My Versa was purchased in Feburary 2014 with 60 miles on it when delivered. Basically, it was a brand new car. It has CVT transmission. I lived in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and the weather this Winter/Spring is colder than normal. The car was purchased in Ottawa and when I drove the car back to Toronto through Hwy416 and 401, I could only guesstimate the mileage to be aroung 24.8 miles per US gal. becasue the first tank of gas was supplied by the dealer and I didn't know the exact mileage when it was filled up.
Finally, I had the chance to top up this car. In order to get true amount of gas uses until the next fill up, I topped the gas right to the neck, that means I pumped the gas until I couldn't pump in anymore! When the fuel gauge empty warning light turned on, I filled up the gas in the same manner. I recorded the gas mileage to be 21.84 miles per US gallon. It is much worse than the 2009 Corolla I replaced although both cars have the same official gas mileages. I estimate the Versa would cost $2000 more on gas for 60000 miles driving than the Corolla. I am thinking to trade in this Versa for a newer version of Versa, such as 2012 or newer Versa sedan. I have read all the comments in this colummn, some reported good gas mileages some not too good. Besides all factors affecting the mileage consumption, I think it is about the quality control of the manufacturing of this car. Somehow, either the gas sensor or something else was not set correctly or have defects which greatly affect the mileage of the car. For consumers like us, it would be very difficult to find out what goes wrong and mostly likely will be waste our time to ask Nissan to look at our cars to find out what goes wrong. So, the best way to deal with it is trade for another car!
Perhaps my results were an aberration, based on the mpg reported here, but if so, it happened multiple times. I rented a Versa SV while my 2012 Ford Focus was in the shop. i drove the 90-mile round trip work commute five or six times in the Versa. According to the dashboard mpg gauge, my mpg for each trip (rounded off) were 48, 52, 44, 54, and 50. Very little of that was freeway driving. Most of it was routes with stop lights but long stretches in-between lights. Speeds averaged 50-55 mph.
If the mpg gauge was accurate, then those mpg readings are nothing short of insane. Hybrid? I don't need no stinking hybrid. I may have found my future next car. Most inexpensive car on the market, crazy-good gas mileage, a ton of interior room and a huge trunk...and contrary to what the automotive press says, it didn't drive badly either. Amazing.
Those readings sound a bit on the high side since the dashboard gauge on our 2014 Versa Note seems really accurate when I compare it to doing the actual miles/gal calculation at fill ups. When you reset the avg mpg for each trip like that, you can get some wide variation given the driving conditions. (I love it when the instantaneous reading pegs at 99.9 mpg going downhill)
Our Note averages 39.9 overall in mixed driving. When we've gone on longer trips that are mostly highway, I'll see an average like 40.7 for the trip.
This is our 5th Versa in the family since 2007 (one was totaled when it was sandwiched in a hit from behind) and the wife and I, and each of the grown kids love them