RHMax

I agree with SilverMax_04 regarding summer formular. I was getting better MPG when I first got the car, late April to around June. I was getting 30-31 MPG highway on my first long trip. Now I'm barely getting 28MPG on the same drive. Weather has some effect, but I was getting 30+MPG in 100 degree heat.

SilverMax_04

I don't think they have started putting ethanol in California gasoline. 10% ethanol will cut your mileage about 6%. That will take a car that get 30 mpg down to almost 28 mpg. This sucks, but what can we do.

RHMax

California summer grade used to contain 11% MTBE (poisonous to envorinment, but does not effect MPG), and now (since 1/04) contains 6% ethanol (4% poorer MPG?); which means about 5% more gasoline needed = higher price.

logik05se

Honestly before I got my 05 SE, I was reading a few complaints about the gas mileage, but tell you the truth, i filled up a week ago and have been beating the hell out of the car racing everyone I see on the ride to and from work and anywhere in between, gas mileage aint to bad at all lol.

chernmax

iTrader: (15)

No one on Maxima.org condones street racing, I always take it easy for public safety reasons , But on the track...

ramberg

iTrader: (29)

Be careful with that pedal to the metal stuff.

belal242

i avg about 20mpg with very mixed use. I live in Northern VA so our highway miles are like city miles too, just no damn break unless you drive at 3am.(4am is morning rush hour)

92 Max

We've been getting about 17.7 mpg in the city and about 25 on the highway. This car is at 5k miles. This mileage is with the tires at the label 32 psi. For this last trip to Oregon I uped the tire pressure to 36 psi and got 27 mpg. Does anyone know how this increase in tire pressure will affect driving in the rain? This is the only worry I have that increasing the pressure will reduce wet weather stopping ( I live in Seattle). I noticed no great change in handling or dry weather performance.

mailjbrown

I just took a round trip to Connecticut from Florida. 1300 miles each way.

I was driving fast all the way. Average was 26.1 mpg. I only use 87 Octane gas.

Taxvictim

Here's a related Q: how big is the 6th gen gas tank? The manual says it's 20 gallons, but both the "Miles to Empty" computer and the gas gauge act like it holds only 15 gallons.

FreeRyder

Who here uses Premium Fuel? I know on our gas tank doors it says premium is best for best performance.... But do you guys use it? Maybe this should be in a new thread to setup a poll. I use reg fuel as the dealership guys said it wouldn't make a huge diff either way. Let me know.

Taylor

Taxvictim

I use 93. In my 4th gen Infiniti, I used 87 for a long time, then had to have a knock sensor replaced. Plus, everytime I would get the engine in the high RPM's it would suddenly lose power. In the 4th gen forum there was a good discussion about how knocking is so bad for your engine that the computer works overtime trying to adjust performance to compensate for it. I suspect now that the strange behavior at high RPM's was the computer acting as a rev limiter to prevent knocking.

I figure it's $2.80 per week ($145/year) to use Premium, so I'll stick to 93 in both my 4th gen and my new 6th gen. In the 4th gen, that stopped the strange behavior at high RPMs.

chernmax

iTrader: (15)

Go to the fuels and lub section of the Org, great topics about the subject. I use Premium as recommended in the owners manual...

masama

only 130 miles on my babie. Still in the period of break in.

22.5 MPG local and freeway combined.

SilverMax_04

Good suggestion about the fuels and lubes section here.

Reading my owners manual, I see it recommends premium (91 octane) for maximum performance, but advises that regular will also work OK if you are not looking for maximum performance. Since I don't race my Max, I don't need maximum performance and usually burn regular.

Scott D.

iTrader: (2)

I have been averaging just over 23 mpg over the last 3 tanks of gas. I do a good mix of city and higway driving, but I must mention that I am usually a little light on the gas due to 3 speeding tickets in the last 18 months (All in my slow *** Ram). I get between 380 and 400 miles per tank.

SilverMax_04

Your computer will tell you the mileage. Don't try to measure mileage by miles per tank of gasoline -- it is too variable. My experience with the computer reading is that it's quite accurate.

tubells

started with 87 for the first 10K - 15K (KM) or so, then shifted to 91 (maybe 2k) and then 94 oct sunoco ... WHAT A DIFFERENCE!!! my car loved it!! and me too!

with the high prices, recently, i went back to 87 and started driving like a grandma (as someone mentioned ohthatshot?? ) ... two weeks back i changed again to 94 ... and this time hopefully, I'm not going back!!!!

I bought this car for fun and no matter what the traders do to the price of "refined" gas... i'm going to enjoy driving it, the way it was meant to be!!, flooring it!!!!

I have abt. 48+K KM on it now.

Mike_TX

This thread comes back every 6 months or so, and we plow the same ground ... but it's still interesting.

I continue to see 23+ around town and close to 30 on the highway. That's with AT, A/C on all the time (summer AND winter), premium fuel only, and 30psi (cold) in my tires.

My car now has 33,000 miles and I continue to be thrilled with the mileage, especially considering the lively performance the VQ serves up. I also have a 2006 Infiniti M45, and while it is a screamer, the 17mpg I get makes the Maxima a friendlier ride. After all, on the highway I can go 100 miles further on the same 20 gallon tank of gas!

Atomic_Ed

I am getting pretty consistantly 23 mgp combined in traffic driving mostly and the AC on 100% of the time. I now have like 8k miles on it and still the same mileage so far as when I first bought it new in January. I was pretty pleased with 23 mpg but I wonder why some are getting so much less than this.

logik05se

my mileage seemed fine overall, until installed my intake...the intake seemed like it made a decent difference on the mileage the car gets. Besides the fact that when I first got it I was driving it harder just to hear it etc...It just seems significantly worse.

UnMaTcHeD

iTrader: (2)

I have about 1300 miles on the car and am only getting about 11 mpg in city driving

TheGame

iTrader: (1)

It will go up as the engine wears in. But driving on the BQE and LIE will give you crap results no matter what. (I wish there was a smilie for rubbernecking)

Monotaur

Well, I just got back from a 415 mile roud trip (95% highway, about 10 stops along the way; mostly hilly terrain). I averaged 29.1 MPG, average speed was 54, and for the most part the speed limit was 65. I've been noticing that the MPG seems to be improving with engine age (I'm at 31K now). Oh, and it was about between 20 and 35 deg F (depending on time of day) today. I have made smaller segments of the same trip at around 32 MPG, but not the entire thing (and that was cruising steady at 55). All in all, not too bad.

logik05se

60/40? Can you tell me how to perform the conversion to make our cars a hybrid?

jasonjm

iTrader: (1)

Always got 23mpg.

When I had a bad EGR I ALWAYS got 16-17mpg. Since then, 23 always on the dot.

luigi'smax

i tried but couldnt read all this info... the letter on the screen are moving too !! anyway, i used to get about 18 to 19 mpg on my daily commuting and no more than 28 in the higway (from va to ny) but after i got my CAI i get between 19.5 to right now is on 21.1 MPG on my daily commuting and last time i went to ny i got the higgest of 31.5 but got to ny with an average of 30.8...not bad huh ??

Luigi

oh yeah i was told at the dealer that after 18k miles... fuel economy is supposed to '''''skyrocket'''''' whatever...well seel...i am at 173XX so we'll see.

Luigi

SMOKIN'MAX

i get 18.2 w/ 6700 miles on it. mostly hard city driving though

OmarBadu

i know it's been touched on in other threads in the past - but what's the most amount of gas anyone has ever been able to put into this supposed 20gallon tank - i've never gotten over ~16.5 after the light has been on a while

GT350

21mpg here tonite too

mr1254

i get about 26-28 mpg on the highway with about 38,000 miles on it

4drsleeper

21.9 mpg in summer and 22.1 in winter. Driving a very similar amount of time in the city and hwy.

Ludxima

iTrader: (1)

I'm getting about 16 mpg with about 7k on it in the city. Maybe about 23mpg on the highway

groston

I gotta wonder how you were able to get these numbers. I have been carefully tracking my mileage and average speed and the two are only weakly correlated. I just ran the numbers in Excel: Over a 2.5 year period (83 tanks of gas): r^2 is 0.44. This is a damned lousy correlation.

Also, the displayed mpg is quite innaccurate - for me, it averages a 4.2% error (reporting high).

RHMax

The correlation between the right foot and the accelator pedal are different from driver to driver. Difference in air temperature, cleanliness of air filter,tire pressure, humidity level, gasoline mixture (seasonal), weight of driver, passengers, and cargo (if any) make a difference in the MPG for each of us. I have seen reading from 28-31 MPG on the same stretch of highway at different times at speed well above 80MPH. I have gotten from about 350 miles to 500 miles, to a tank at about 17 gallons fill up. Our cars suck gass sitting in traffic (especially like LA traffic), but good cruising on highways. If I sit in traffic an extra day in a week, I lose 50 miles on that tank.

AscendantMax

iTrader: (7)

so far mine reads 15.3 mpg...but then again i only have 210 miles on the car

altymoose

wow, my average is higher, I dont know why. around 25, i guess its the 60 mile to work comute ;-p. also anyone know how to make the computer show instantaneous mpg not average?

RHMax

Reset as you drive.

altymoose

i take it that there is no way for the computer to show instantaneous mpg then?

Monotaur

Yeah, my MPG seems to be increasing quite a bit now that I'm over 30K. Just finished a 1500 mile trip, and averaged 27.1 MPG. That was with about 600-700 lbs of driver/passenger and probably 200 lbs of cargo.