I have a 2001 auto fully loaded SE

I was filling fuel yesterday...had my odometer on 221 miles...i filled 12.6 gallons. Used a calculator by dividing 12.6 by 221 and got 17.5 MPG. I rested at the gas station right after the fillup. i drive mostly in the city...in a week i drive around 4 hours on the highway...and the other is in the city. This is lower then 20mpg which is the city MPG that Nissan tells. I don't drive the car hard a lot...over here and there i just floor it for the fun of it...but no races, and no crazy accelerations. I have 23400 miles on the car...the car is completelty broken in and this is really terrible gas mileage.

 

how long are your everyday commutes?

 

to work its 60 miles back and fourth....80% of it is highway. I drive out of the 5 days, 2 to work and sometimes on the weekend another 15 min on the highway. At the city..i do short drives...10 min here and 15 min there...but the mileage was 221 and that's mostly city driving and i shouldn't get low mpg

 

you're using 91+ octane fuel, right?

 

always always 93...the prices are also cheap(1.29)

 

I think this is what's killing you. Short drives will always murder your mileage because the engine isn't warmed up yet. I know on the Accord, it runs a richer fuel program when cold to help warm up the engine faster. The Maxima could be similar. I think TimW has posted on this in a previous "mileage" thread so you might try finding that one.

17 mpg isn't that bad though, especially in mostly city driving with mostly short trips.

 

I get roughly similar gas mileage... up to 20-21ish. On road trips I get 26-27mpg. It's gotta be the short trips.

 

I hope its the short trips...maybe it was just this week...oh well..i'll keep on checking the MPG.

Thanks guys

 

A funky or old batch of gas can easily do that too.

 

at 23K mi air filter change might do good...I have completely neglected my car...not checked an air pressure in tires..not once..

 

17.5mpg is pretty good. I only got about 15-16 in San Francisco for a 15 minute city commute. That was really babying the throttle. They I tried just flooring it then coasting and i got the same mileage, apparently the average rpm's were about the same. Someone once did some research and said slow acceleration, without the engine in the peak efficiency and for longer times resulted in poorer mileage. I also saw no difference with different grades of gas with respect to mileage.

I guess you can just think of it as the integral of your rpm curve, ignoring wind resistance, which is valid at less than 4omph if your windows are rolled up.

For the record my friend with an Accord V6 who drives a different route, but is also a San Francisco city commuter gets about 16mpg too.

I ended up swapping cars to a 4cyl camry, that was back when gas was over 2 bucks a gallon here. The Maxima now gets 25-26mpg with mostly freeway driving in LA, with no mods.

 

15-16 mpg is pretty good if you are in SF.... you have to remember that it is all hills... tons of ups and downs

 

My daily stop n go is about 70 miles, half highway speed have stopngo, and I get about 24mpg

 

will JWT/stillen intake improve ur mileage or burn more gas??
cause after installed the JWT intake, i think my mileage is going DOWN.

 

I think if you have an intake mileage can decrease... More air + More gas = Less MPG

 

An intake can help to increase your mileage very very slightly - at least that's what the AEM CAI does on my Accord V6. The problem is that it sounds so cool when you get on it that you end up driving harder and faster so there goes your mileage

 

I drive 24 miles each way for work (only 1/2 mile of each trip is 'city') but do a bunch of errand running on lunch which doesn't take me a TOTAL of three miles from my office...short trips are, in my opinion, the killer...on the open highway, even at 70+ MPH (remember, if I am not mistaken, most EPA ratings are computed at the old 55 standard) mileage is great...24-27.

 

I think you are in Boston 2001SE...my bad if wrong....what highways are you taking and when? My commute is from the Cape to Peabody. I go Rt 6 to Rt 3 thru the SE Expressway and up 1 to 128. I usually cruise about 80-85 on 3 but going thru town I'm off and on the gas. I avg anywhere from 24 to 28 mpg. My best was 28.6 and that was with 87 octane...go figure.

 

I get a consistant 23-24mpg with 80% local (stop and go with traffic lights) driving. I always use 93 octane gas and do drive a 5 speed. I really believe the 5 speed is good for more than the 1-2mpg that the window sticker says. And yes, I do drive agressively...but not all the time.

I wouldn't be happy with 17mpg at all. That is only 1mpg better than my friend's Pathfinder would get. And that thing sucks gas and weights about 800lbs more than a Max.

 

To jnm2kse
If i take the car to work...I drive on rt 9 for 10 min..then I-95 for like 2 miles and then go on I-90(masspike) and over there do about 22 miles...that's one way so do the other in reverse...If I don't take the car to work then its just quick trips..15min there and 10 min there.

To carguyrob
I think that the 5sp has a better gas mileage by a lot. when do you shift like each gear...around 3k right?maybe 4 and that's better then at 2200rpm (the auto does, if you accelearte normally)

Y2KMaxGXE-R
I went to the dealer for the 15000 miles serivce and it was replaced.

SSandMaxima
I do almost the same driving as you and i get around 17...so its weird...you drive an auto?
60% city and 40% highway for a week