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I get 27-28MPG at 70-75MPH. You can actually exceed the 32MPG if you drive
55-60 MPH on the highway. This and the brakes are the only complaints I
have with 62000 miles on odometer. Front brakes have been replaced twice
and I am easy on brakes.
Can anyone help, what can I do to improve the city MPG?
Thanks Onuchukwu C.E.
Recently went to Grand Canyon. Economy increase to 33 - 35 hiway. On return trip as soon as I passed El Paso economy dropped to 28. Has to be a performance chip/hi altitude compensation issue. Any thoughts?
FWIW I get way way over the EPA numbers with a lifetime average of 34.6 and dozens of tanks over 40 mpg.
If the entire tank consists of only short 1-5 mile trips, then 17-18 mpg is what I get. A/C usage or lead foot driving does not seem to make much of a difference.
If the tank has about 1/3 highway, then I average between 21-22 mpg.
If it is 100% highway, then it ranges between 26-30 depending on the speed, load and terrain.
All of these figures were obtained with 87 octane, as recommended.
Since then my combination driving has been between 18 and 23 mpg. Nissan Altima's get horrible fuel economy. I have a friend who owns a much larger Toyota Avalon that gets 26 combination and 34 highway.
30 mpg with a 2.5 Nissan Altima is impossible.
For example:
Today 6-25-11 I reset the mpg computer in Corpus Christi, TX, drove 30 miles home, near Sinton, TX, and computer said 28.6. I drove 15 miles one way to Taft, TX and back, which included going through Sinton, and my mileage is down to 24.4. This is mostly highway driving at a maximum speed of 70.
This may be coincidental, but I have noticed that all the gasoline pumps in Corpus Christi, TX, area say fuel contains 10% ethanol. Perhaps this is the problem.
Yesterday I drove around 60 miles from Sinton into Lowes in Corpus Christi. 70 mph, cruise control on, put A/C on recirculate, shut off compressor on inclines like overpasses etc. and only received 27.9 mpg for the trip. I have 69,000 miles and this is as good a highway mileage as I have ever received in Texas.
When new my first long trip was to Nebraska in February. I didn't use A/C and got 34 mpg on highway. The difference I attribute to not using the A/C.
Last April I documented a trip to Arizona. In Arizona I was over 33 mpg. When I returned to Texas I filled up in El Paso and was back to 28 maximum on highway.
Arizona and New Mexico has a lot more hills, mountains and inclines to reduce mileage. So I must conclude that Texas' 10% ethanol takes it toll.
Nissan, Ed Hicks Nissan, can furnish no answers as to the difference.
What really appalls me is the fact they wont even attempt to help.
They evidently don't even have the means to test my vehicle to see why it gets such poor economy. The service techs say "If there is no check engine light we cant fix it."
2008 Altima 2.5S, 66K miles. Service done at Ed Hicks Nissan in Corpus Christi, TX. There is nothing wrong with my engine. I'm told it's my driving habits. Evidently driving like there is an egg between your foot and gas pedal doesn't work on Nissan's.
I'm wondering if I need to drive it "balls to the wall."
Maybe my gas mileage would improve if I drove the heck out of it.
Just drive slower, more relax, enjoy the view = higher mpg.
drive slow homie
My car has the automatic dual zone climate control. I'm thinking that leaving it on Auto is seriously degrading fuel economy because the AC light stays on all the time, although I'm not sure if the compressor is on. No matter how conservative I drive (coasting/slow launches etc/55-60 mph on highway) my mileage is this bad.
Any suggestions?
If you live or do most of your driving in the city, you need to think ahead and stay with the lighter, more fuel efficient small sedans, compact sedans, hatchbacks, and/or hybrids if you want to have great mpg.
I'm stunned at how poor the mileage on a 4 can be.
Don't comment when you don't now what you're talking about. What I posted is fact, I drive the altima conservatively and live in a very flat state - central ct. - no big hills here.
Mike
:shades:
http://flic.kr/p/buwKw8
I reset the trip odometer to 0 when I filled up. I filled to 2 clicks just to be sure it was full. After a mere 82.4 miles, my tank is nearing the halfway point.
Not that the fuel guage is accurate either. Even after filling up, it doesn't always read completely full, or it fluctuates up and down. After I took this pic and drove off, the guage actually went up a bit.
But you can see the AVG MPG is 18.1 MPG, and AVG Speed is 17.7 MPH sue to city driving. And I am not dogging the car. I coast to red lights and don't gun it. Just normal driving.
The mileage is horrible. I would have just bought the V6 if I knew the 4-banger would be so bad on fuel.
Don't comment when you don't know what your talking about. What I posted is fact, I drive conservatively and live in pretty flat area of NJ - no big hills here.
(2) Try to use the same gas pump at the same gas station each fill up. Reset the avg fuel economy display/history immediately after each fill up.
(3) Check your tire pressures and inflate them to just above the recommended PSI on your door sills, I usually recommend 34-35PSI cold.
(4) Don't overload the back seat and trunk with heavy bags, equipment, etc.
(5) Use the cruise control as much as possible.
(6) Coast to a stop when possible.
(7) If the temperature is not too cold or too hot, don't have the heater or A/C going in the car.
People who are getting poor open road gas mileage on a I4 Altima are either (A) not doing any of these measures or (B) have one of the few bad glitch cars that every automaker has. There is no reason why people like me who have a V6 Maxima, and others with I4 and V6 Altimas can get decent gas mileage out of these cars. That means its possible.
The suggestions you gave are all great long-term tips, but in the short term, the gas going in the tank has to be going somewhere, enev if it's just leaking onto the ground.
Areas I would start examining...
Does the car "free wheel" coming down a hill with the transmission in neutral?
What do the brake pads look like...are they dragging?
Avoid any really short trips that don't allow the engine to warm properly. Cars run much richer until normal operating temperature has been reached, burning more fuel.
Have the exhaust gas analyized by a local mechanic... Is it running far too rich?
Let a trusted friend drive the car for a week or so, keeping detailed records on gas placed inthe tank and miles driven. Maybe let him run it down the highway for a 200 mile round trip, filling up immediately before and after, then calculating the mileage.
You get the idea.
Such low mileage is way outside the standard deviation for an Altima. This is something that is fixable. You just have to locate the cause before it can be fixed.
FWIW- Driving moderately (smoothly keeping up with traffic) my 2010 Altima 2.5S sedan (~15k miles) consistently gives me 27-28mpg city/suburban (10-15mi trips) & 33-35mph highway (70-75mph). Those #'s are from actual gas used over last 5+k miles. IMHO that's good real-world economy for very decent car with lots of room (and NO hybrid headaches).
My daughter has a 2008 2.5 SL and her mileages almost mirror yours, although he best hwy is usually around 32. I suspect thats because she pushes the speed limit. Around town, shes a "dead match" with your results...
Take the Altima to the Nissan dealership service dept. and ask if there is a flash update for the OBC (On Board Computer). If not, ask them to do a factory reset on the Altima's OBC. That will force the OBC to re-learn your driving habits and make the proper adjustments to the engine and fuel economy.
Mike :shades:
I was just reading today about a small class action lawsuit about 200-300 people filled against Honda and Hyundai back in 2009 for not getting the EPA estimates on their vehicles. The problem is, both Honda and Hyundai brought thousands upon thousands of letters from consumers praising the fuel economy on the vary vehicles this small group of people were complaining about. Those people, thus lost the case.
If you getting bad fuel economy, you either
(A) are not driving as fuel conscious as you think
or
(B) have something very wrong with your specific vehicle
Myself and many others have reported we are either meeting or exceeding the EPA estimates on the window sticker so these vehicles can get the mpg they are supposed to.
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Share your vehicle reviews
and I'm here because I really want advice.
I recently bought a 2012 Altima S. I might drive only 40% highway, 60% city.
When I first refilled the tank, the car had just barely made 14 miles per
gallon. That seemed likely to be a special case, probably the dealer hadn't
*really* filled the tank when I first bought the car. But when I filled my
tank the second time, I was barely up to 15 mpg. After 1500 miles over 3
months, I've climbed "up to" 19 mpg. Apparently everyone on this forum thinks this, but really, I'm not an aggressive driver.
Thanks for the ideas I've already seen here.
"Resetting the OBC" might connect to what the dealer just told me
about the car taking time to "relearn" my habits. Since the mileage
is slowly creeping up, it seems like the car might have been set oddly
at the factory, or whoever drove it on the lot those first 4 or 5 miles
might have treated it like a race car, so: how long does it take the OBC
to adjust to a driver? I just got back from taking the car in to the
dealer, so I'd like to try other ideas before taking it back there.
The dealership came up with only one suggestion, also mentioned here:
warming the car up before driving it.
How much difference does this make?
How long should the car be allowed to run for before driving it off?
(I'd hate to sit in the car while it idles for too long, that sounds like it
would hurt mileage rather than helping it.)
I've never heard anyone mention warming up a car in the morning before -
is it because I live in Los Angeles rather than Buffalo or Butte?
And what is the "break-in" period someone mentioned?
I'd very much appreciate any information. Regular is almost $5 per gallon,
and I seem to be buying at least 25% more than I "should" with this car!
If not you are seeing the average MPG since the last time it was reset and not the average MPG of one tank full of gas.
Mike :shades:
During my break-in period, first 5000 miles I believe the mpg was pretty crappy. Worse than a v6, but it got better. Not saying this applies to your situation but just my 2 cents.
FWIW, I believe the car is guesstimating the MPG in a way that produces slightly optimistic numbers.
Does anyone know why there could be a 5,000 mile break-in period with pretty crappy mpg, and what I might be able to do to get to the other side pronto?
I'd love to use the OBC feature showing instantaneous MPG, but it's a little *too* instantaneous, oscillating rapidly between wonderful and awful as the road dips, I break or accelerate slightly etc. -- is there a way to adjust this feature from average-mpg-this-last-second to average-mpg-the-last-ten-seconds (or even minute)?
Also, somebody suggested using cruise control, does that really optimize mpg significantly?