96 SE
I got 28mpg avg (over 400 plus miles) while driving over mountain passes in colorado And I topped out at 140 mph, avg of 100+
I <3 my max!

 

My 1996 A32 cefiro with 90k++ miles 371 city drive .
416 pure highway .

 

Was the 140 going down the mountain? 28 mpg at average of 100+ mph is incredible!

 

Nope 140 was on level ground outside of grand junction colorado. That is too fast for the passes
I Love my Valentine One too !!!!

I was amazed, I was thinking 21 mpg, but no I got TERIFFIC economy yay!

 

Jaeger did you have you're a/c on at the time as well?

 

i have a 95 max, and i get over 400 miles to the tank, and thats driving around the city. (almost no freeway miles) Also, i use "bad gas"... which goes to prove that the more expensive gas, well, is just more expensive. I average around 26 mpg.

 

got about 371 to the tank last week. thought i was guna run out on the way to the station after i realized the one i always go to was closed for the holiday. it was all city driving too pretty good id say.

 

with the upgrade of a apex ws2 exhaust i am proud to say that i get about 380 for a full tank,

now with the upgrade of a warpspeed y pipe i'll get back to yah! hopefully 400 plus or minus a couple miles.

this is all freeway and some street miles....

 

With the new clutch, new fuel filter, reinstalled stock airbox with new K&N panel filter, and cleaned TB, I get 400 city miles to a full tank. I could get more for highway but even then, I'm sure it wouldn't be so different here in So-Cal since our freeways might as well be huge parking lots especially during rush hour traffic.

 

When we say, "Full tank," are we really talking about 18.5 gallons -- the actual tank capacity -- or some number less than that?

Are we multiplying our most recent, miles per gallon calculation by 18.5 gallons here, or has someone actually run their tank dry?

Small differences in gas added can translate into larger differences in miles per tank. For example, if car A takes 18 gallons to fill the tank, while car B takes 17.5 gallons, that 1/2 gallon difference can mean anywhere from 10-14 extra miles, and even then, we still are not referring to an absolute "Full tankful."

I think that most of us would never let our cars go more than a few miles after the empty light comes on...if we can help it, that is.

BTW, according to Nissan, when is that light supposed to come on?

 

I believe it comes on with 2 gallons remaining.

 

Somebody stated recently that they ran out of gas and put in 18.1 gallons. I ran out about 8 years ago once and I believe I put in about 17.75 gallons to the spout. I suspect 18.1 gallons is about all the tank will hold if you give the car a couple of good shakes at the end.

 

That's great that you have had your Maxima that long, wow...if you treat it right, it will treat you right.

 

Not sure if you're referring to me or not. I actually have had my Max since day 1 - October 1, 1994, coming up 11 years. I plan on keeping it for a long time as its a low miler in near-mint condition.

 

Wow, excellent. When I finally buy a brand new car I will do the same.

 

i get around 250 a tank.. I donno if the stereo is putting a drain on my battery and therefore cutting down on the MPG

 

Battery power loss wouldnt affect mpg

 

Full tank at 18.5 gallons or 16.5 gallons, it doesn't matter. If you take your odometer reading, providing that you reset it at every fill up like me, and divide it by the amount of gallons you got at last fill up, then mpg should be the same. Also, I would usually drive my car til its at the exact "E" mark, then fill it up til the tank is full. Then next time, drive the car til its at the exact "E" mark again. Then calcuate your MPG, I think that should give you an accurate calculation.

Example:

senario 1:
last fill up took 9 gal., you got 200 miles out of that - 200/9 = 22.2 mpg

senario 2:
last fill up took 18 gal., you got 400 miles out of that - 400/18 = 22.2 mpg

This is how I calculate mine.

 

Dude once driving back from collegei got 500 miles on one tank, it was all highway and i had nothing in the car to weight it down, has anyone ever hit that? i know i was at exactly 18.5 gallons cause i had some spill out and when i refilled i was almost out something like 18.2 went in. Now that im home driving around town i get 400 +/-

 

Plenty of people have hit the 500 mark. The last two times I filled up I got 467 and 458 miles respectively. First time I filled something like 14.9 and the second time I filled about 14.1. I'll hit the 500 mark soon enough.

 

Driving about 1/4 highway 3/4 city I usually just hit 300 when needle is on E and light turns on. I push it usually to like 320 when I feel like im totally out of gas. But most of the time I fill up only 16-17 gallons so I have a few gallons left everytime. Then again I also have a heavy foot, so i'm sure I could hit 350+ each tank if I took it easy on my car. But it's hard not to want to hear that JWT intake, expecially since I just got it.

 

you have 1.5-2 gallons left. Thats not a few.

 

I measure it from tank to tank. I just got back from St. Charles MO. I got 26 miles/gallon with a bike rack and two mountain bikes attached. My driving style in the maxima is probably pretty tame compared to most on this board. My Maxima is my driving long distances car. I wouldn't want to drive more than 100 miles in my other car which is a 1980 RX-7 with a header, no cat and a racing beat exhaust. I get around 13 mpg when I get that one on the road.

Usually, the cruise in the maxima is anywhere from 65-80 depending on where I am.

 

with a mix of spirited driving on both highway and city, and a few run in with cars going past 100 mph, i managed to get 377 miles on the tank before the gas light stayed on, not on and off, but stayed lit.

 

I think that's fairly decent. Even if you were on the last drop at that point, 377/18.5 is 20.38 mpg. And I know from experience with the light that you've probably got at least 1.5 gallons left. Probably at least two. And 377/16.5 is 22.85. So for "spirited" driving going over 100 now and then, I'd say 23 mpg is good. I've been consciously shifting sooner, i.e., lower in the rpm range and I've seen an increase of one or two mpg to like 22 or 22.5. I'm getting gas today so I'm eager to see how I've done. I have never ever found myself shifting to 5th at 50 mph until I started trying it a couple of months ago. I'm still deciding if this increase in fuel economy is worth the decrease in enjoyment of the driving experience.

 

few ( P ) Pronunciation Key (fy)
adj. few·er, few·est
Amounting to or consisting of a small number: one of my few bad habits.
Being more than one but indefinitely small in number: bowled a few strings.

How is 2 gallons not a few?

 

Who cares?

 

I log my miles every time I fill up, I average 28.5 miles to the gallon which is 456 miles to the tank. I think thats pretty good considering I only have an injen cold air intake and a catback exhaust on my 98 GLE. Most of the miles are spent driving around the terrible streets of brooklyn, but I also go to connecticut every week which is 120 miles there and 120 miles back. So on highway miles I get anywhere from 28-32 and streets anywhere from 24-28.

 

So for sure you drive like a granny, right?

 

Evidently, nismos14 considers "few" as seriously cutting it to the bone. But even when I've went to far without getting gas that the car starts hesitating, I still have like 1.5 gallons in there.

 

... did u even read my post.. i wasnt talking to u i was quoting the person telling me i was wrong when i say i have a few gallons left.

 

Read my lips...who cares?

 

i would say 3 -4 is a few but whatever floats your boats

 

Ok...let's stop comparing apples to oranges for a moment. Max's with 5-speeds are going to get better mileage than automatics, and now that it is Summertime, Max's (and I30's) with automatics that have to run the A/C all the time, and carry more than 150lbs in passenger weight, are never going to get some of the high numbers posted here.

Case in point:

My car carries myself and a girlfriend for a total of 310 lbs. (I carry most of that baggage!), has an automatic, and has the A/C on all the time. If I can get 20mph in the city, it will be because I'm rolling downhill.

 

I drive mostly highway miles and I usually get at least 375 miles out of a full tank

 

5 speeds are actually worse on the highway than automatics. In the city they are roughly the same.

 

This was discussed before and if you're basing your statement on the posted mileages at edmunds.com or other places, that's because the speed at which they test for highway is lower than people drive on the interstate most of the time. Like 55 or something is what they tested at. The RPM for a certain gear with a five speed at 55 is higher for five-speed than automatic at that speed or something. But as you move up to 70, the RPM in fourth gear of the automatic are higher than that of the 5th gear of a five-speed and the five-speed starts getting the better mileage. So in reality, it is better.

And dr-rjp, a lot of the 25 to 28 to 30 mpg club people do have automatics! That's what kills me. I'm convinced that these guys are driving with 240 engines and don't know it. The way they drive, they'd never be able to tell anyway!

 

Only about 15% of the energy in the fuel you put in your gas tank gets used to move your car down the road or run useful accessories like air conditioning or power steering. The rest of the energy is lost. Because of this the potential to improve fuel economy with advanced technologies is enormous.

Motor vehicles need energy to accelerate (overcome inertia), to push the air out of their way (aerodynamic drag), and to overcome the friction from tires, wheels and axles (rolling resistance). Fuel provides the needed energy in the form of chemicals that can be combusted (oxidized) to release heat. Engines transform heat released in combustion into useful work that ultimately turns the vehicle's wheels propelling it down the road.

Even modern internal combustion engines convert only one third of the energy in fuel into useful work. The rest is lost to waste heat, the friction of moving engine parts or to pumping air into and out of the engine. All of the steps at which energy is wasted are opportunities for advanced technologies to increase fuel economy.

The figure above illustrates the paths of energy through a typical gasoline-powered vehicle in city driving. Of the energy content in a gallon of gasoline, 62% is lost to engine friction, engine pumping losses, and to waste heat. In urban driving, another 17% is lost to idling at stop lights or in traffic. Accessories necessary for the vehicle's operation (e.g., waterpump) or for passenger comfort (e.g., air conditioning) take another 2%.

Just over 18% of the energy in gasoline makes it to the transmission. Losses in the drive train to friction and slippage claim more than 5%, leaving a bit less than 13% to actually move the vehicle down the road. The laws of physics will not permit all of these losses to be entirely eliminated. But improvements are possible at every step.

The 12.6% of original fuel energy that makes it to the wheels must provide acceleration (5.8 %) and overcome aerodynamic drag (2.6%) and rolling resistance. In stop and go city driving it is not surprising that acceleration is the biggest need, rolling is next, followed by aerodynamic drag. On the highway the order is reversed: aerodynamic drag, which increases at an increasing rate with speed requires the most energy (about 10.9%).

Each of these final uses of energy also represents an opportunity to improve fuel economy. Substitutions of high strength lightweight materials can reduce vehicle mass and thus the energy required for acceleration. Smoother vehicle shapes have already reduced drag significantly, but further reductions of 20-30% are possible. Advanced tire designs can cut rolling resistance.

 

So somehow the 4th gear of the Maxima automatic transmission is magically variable? Fourth gear is a fixed ratio, and the final drive ratio in 4th gear in an auto Max is lower than the final drive ratio in 5th gear in a manual Max. So cruising at any highway speed, a manual Max is at a higher RPM than an auto Max.

 

The gear ratios on the automatic are lower in all gears than the manual, especially in first gear. Higher gear ratios are more fuel efficient for stop-and-go city driving where weight and inertia are the main force to overcome, than for highway driving -- and that is why the manual outdoes the automatic.

The reverse is true for highway speeds where wind resistance is the main force to overcome -- and that is why the automatic's 0.694 overdrive vs. the manual's 0.795 gives it a slight edge in gas mileage.

Here are the complete specs:

Transmission Type
=============
5-speed 4-speed automatic


Gear Ratios (:1)


1st
2.785 3.285

2nd
1.545 1.850

3rd
1.000 1.272

4th
0.694 0.954

5th
-- 0.795

Reverse
2.272 3.428

Final Drive Ratio (:1)
3.619 3.823