Everyone,

I got to be honest one of the things I am not big on our cars is the gas Mileage! Thats just my experience coming from Honda 06 Si + even a 98 M3.

I am sure the fact that its a v6 and weight it does help with using more gas. And especially with me wanting to constantly push the car either..


I was wondering what are upgrades that we can do better our gas mileage?

Does intake help?

 

What mpg are you getting and how are you calculating the mpg? Im get roughly 20.5 mpg. What's the percentage of city to highway driving you are doing? What does the car say you avg MPH is?

 

I get 22.8mpg and use mid-grade fuel.

 

Yea I am not doing to great either. I average about 17-18MPG

 

One thing I will always recommend if the factory does is use premium fuel.... the extra ten or so cents will make up in fuel mpg and better for the car when its burnt. I have been getting 23mpg of a mixture of highway and some city.

 

i'm getting about 15mpg... but mostly drive local

 

Stop that. Use premium fuel. I know we're all hard-wired to flip out over a 10 cent per gallon difference... but it's seriously less than $2 difference per fillup.

 

The gas mileage you get in your maxima is not worse than the M3, at all. Unless you drive uphill both ways in your maxima to make up for all the downhill driving you did in your M3. Otherwise, it's not possible.



You want to modify the car to get better gas mileage? Good luck. I'm sure someone here has an effective, cheap way to do better than Nissan and their hundreds of thousands of dollars spent employeeing engineers and technical experts to do things like research and development to maximize the efficiency of their vehicles in light of stricter fleet fuel regulations tougher competitors in the market.

 

Here's another smart a$$! I'm sure he didn't mean it in that context! Didn't your mother tell you to keep your mouth shut if you didn't have anything nice to say?

 

Lucky you. My Shell station is charging $2.29, $2.59 and $2.89 for the three grades. BIG difference.

Also, in my '04 SL, I found I got exactly the same MPG with either premium or midgrade. As long as we use octane somewhat near the octane the engine is set for (91 octane in the 7th gen Maxima), increasing the octane has absolutely no affect on MPG.

In my '09, I get anywhere from around 18 in city driving to 30 on open, level freeways. These are excellent numbers for a 3,600 pound car with a 290 HP engine. If I drove 55 MPH on open level freeways, I'm sure I could reach 32 MPH, but, just like that old song said, 'I can't drive 55.'

 

you could always try the Tornado Fuel Saver....

Sorry, couldn't resist.

 

My Honda Accord gets about 7mpg better locally than my Maxima, but the ride and creature comforts are waaaaaay better in my Maxima. It is fairly hilly down here so, I expect to get horrible mileage on what ever I drive.
I just got back from a 450+/- mile trip to Florida where the terrain is fairly flat and averaged 23mpg at a cruise of 08mph.

 

with a mix of about 70% highway 30% city, and relatively hilly, I always seem to average 25mpg or higher. Then again, I don't gun it as much as I would like since I am still taking it slow until at least after my first oil change.

 

According to my calculations; Think I am getting an average 14 miles per gallon!!! And I am pushing the car maybe 20% of the time, not even that hard!

I only have 1000 miles so far, so I have not really even pushed it yet

I do not know whats going here - people are posting 20mpg!!!!!! Either there is something wrong with my car or I am just wrong/crazy?

I calculate the amount of gas (gallons) pumped from miles I drive...
The last time I got gas, I filled up for about 19 gallons and I reset the speedometer gague to zero; so far I have driven 220 miles and only have 3/8 left. So lets day i end up getting 280 miles, so thats 280/19= 14-15 mpg. i am doing this wrong?

30% city and 70% hwy

The car average ALWAYS says 18 and it really does not seem to change.


Man if I was getting 20-22 mpg I would really be satisfied.

 

You have more than 3/8th left. When the needle reaches the zero mark on the fuel guage, most 6th and 7th generation Maximas still have between 3 and 5 gallons left in the tank. That is because the fuel pump is inside the gas tank, and needs to be covered in fuel in order to avoid overheating. Also, running out of gas in these cars is a HUGE no-no. Doing that could easily end up requiring a new catalytic converter (somewhere north of $350), among other things. If you added 19 gallons, then you ran the tank too low.

There is only one way to accurately measure MPG, and that is to measure the miles driven by the gallons of gas required to refill the tank. Since every fuel station has a slightly different slant to the surface beside the pumps, and because every fuel station pump nozzle cuts off (saying the tank is full) at slightly different conditions of 'full', a really accurate measurement would require that you do this over a three or more tank refill period.

If, after you carefully measure your RPM using this method, and your MPG is still 14, then either you are doing lots of idling, or something may be not quite right with your car. Keep after this measuring thing, and let us know how it is coming.

 

get a R2C intake!

 

Same here... If i'm lucky I sometimes see 17mpg avg.

 

19mpg for me....mixed driving. the only thing i could recommend just drive a bit more conservative. like have the instant mpg meter on(the info screen not the nav) and just watch how you drive using that. yea it sounds stupid but i tried it few times and it helps.

 

Wow... just to let you know, I have a number of sarcastic and hilarious places I could go with this one, but I'll let it be.

I admit, I was in a bad mood yesterday, I usually try to be a bit more helpful than sarcastic, but my tongue got away from me.


The point remains true though, there really isn't any healthy and effective modification you can do that will get you better mpg than if you just keep the tire pressure where it should be and slow down a bit.

 

Wow. That's nuts... and does make a decent size difference. This makes a $4.80 difference each fill up (using an average of 16 gallons per fill up) which can add up over time.

Where I live in CT, Regular is $2.58; Midgrade is $2.79, and Premium is $2.91. By dropping down to midgrade saves me $1.92 per fill up, less than have of what you save... so for me it's worth the jump to premium.

This is true... adverse effects of using lower octane fuel I can realy only see happening if there were constant pinging going on, which shouldn't really happen unless you live in Arizona where the temperature is constantly above 100 degrees in the summer.

18 in the city? You get worse in the city than I do... ouch.

Although, I can only get up to 28 on the highway... so you got me beat there. My sister-in-law drives a civic and gets 30+ around town... if only going faster than everyone else wasn't so important to me...

 

We have almost 4k miles on our 2010. we are now averaging 23 mpg in the city. cant wait for it to warm up here, hoping to get better. overall happy with it. our tsx, i could get as high as 29mpg in the city. but our max is nicer!!!

 

I am averaging about 22-23 in mixed driving in my 2010 Maxima. I have just over 2000 miles and noticed the numbers have improved slightly with some break-in. I have also experimented back and forth with premium and mid-grade fill-ups with really no difference in mileage.

 

The one thing I have noticed if I drive with my foot (constant pressure not constant speed) instead of Cruise Control I can average 31 on the highway. If I use Cruise it goes down to 27 or so.

 

At one point, I argued it was not possible to get 30+ mpg in a maxima.

As it turns out, I was certainly wrong. It was just not possible for me to get 30+ mpg in a maxima.

I could never drive that way

 

One thing to try is to install a K&N air filter. They're supposed to improve gas mileage. I'm sure it's not a crazy improvement, but it's something.

Joe

 

I never use cruise control (unless I am on a long trip out in rural areas of the great plains or the desert southwest) for that very reason (drops MPG). Cruise control can be a convenient thing to give the old foot a rest, but it CANNOT ANTICIPATE ANYTHING. It doesn't gently pick up a little momentum just before heading up long hills. It downshifts near the crests of hills because it doesn't know it is virtually already at the top of the hill, hence doesn't need to downshift and refuses to let the speed drop even 1 MPH.

The worst aspect of cruise control for me is that when I am descending a hill which is immediately followed by an upgrade, it won't let me pick up momentum on the downgrade to help carry me up the upgrade. Even on reasonably level ground (like in south Florida), there are often gentle slopes up and down, and cruise control does not handle these as well as a good driver.

Any system that is h.e.l.l.-bent on keeping the car at the exact same speed, and has no ability to anticipate anything, will never beat the MPG of an alert, knowledgable and careful driver (such as our LtLeary).

 

Try replacing your air filter with a dropin K&N. It gave me a noticiable increase on my 07 from a clean OEM filter that was in the car when I bought it...1-2mpg's across city and highway miles...

 

Make sure your tires are not low, Cold weather can be sneaky. A tire that has 33 psi is hot weather will read below 30 psi when the weather turns very cold. I keep my psi around 36, and that definitely helps my MPG.

 

First of all, I will recalculate the mileage again 2-3 more times and will post details.

There are a few things that might have affected the low Gas mielage; like the tire pressure and the fact that the car is still in its breaking in stage (heard from 2-3 people that can cause it).

But I am sure that the way I like to drive; I will never get 22-23+
I will be satisfied even with 18-19.
I do not like driving slow/speed limit, *** that.
I bought a 300 hp car to push and enjoy the comfort.

Yes cruising will be an option too, just 20% of the time. Now that's just me...

Then around 5k miles I will do some mods; like intake, etc...
Sounds like some people think it can help (K&N and R2C)

Thanks

 

I really like what you have done with your. Nice Job.

My other choice of color was blk.

Anyways i was wondering if you could post some more pics of the wheels, close up, and other mods you have done, thanks

 

Well there you go. If you're driving it as a hotrod, you're never going to be able to get the real efficiency out of the car. Drive it like a grocery getter and you'll see some dramatic improvements. But you can't have the best of both worlds...

 

Have not even started to drive like that! I do not even want to imagine what it would be like when I do!

But sure if I was; you are correct buddy...

 

I just got a K&N filter hoping to get better mileage, just until R2C releases the 7th Gen Cold air kit.

 

Might just wait for R2C to come out. Was reading the posting on it last week... Any news when it might be ready?

 

hey guys, i have been using GAS Cubby for the iphone,

here are my stats from 8-17-09 till present

AVG 21.60
max 23.62
min 19.66
total miles 7100
total gallons 328.68
total fill ups 19
total days 180
cost per mile .14 cents
miles per fill up 373.68
miles per day 39.44
miles per dollar 6.92

hope that helps

Leo

 

Leo - Thanks a bunch. The only additional thing we need to know is your driving conditions. The percentage of city, inner suburban, outer suburban, rural, open road, freeway miles, as well as your speed on freeways and style of driving (agressive? moderate?) would give even more meaning to these interesting numbers. We appreciate anything you can add.

 

Yeah real good info, please post your driving details.

 

I drove a 7th Gen Maxima for the first time today and going from the 4th Gen to 7th Gen felt like I was right at home. It had that classy comforting feel kind of like that one couch you always sit in when you watch TV and at the same time it feels kind of like you are in a whole different environment, like when you step into a brand new house for the first time. And the stock sound system was AMAZING!

Haha besides my burning need to own a 7th Gen Maxima, I think installing a new intake would be a good step in the right direction, and along with maybe lighter rims, or keeping all unnecessary things like A/C and all that off while driving would inch you closer to better MPG. And keeping a extremely light foot on the gas is a big one, I decided to have a little experiment and tried to keep my car between 1-2K RPM when accelerating and at around 1.5K RPM at a steady speed and keep the RPM as low as possible on the freeway, and although at the end of a tank I pissed off a ton of people behind me off. I got an extra 25 miles to that one tank.

 

I speak for myself when I say this becasue I haven't heard or discussed it with anyone else but I seemed to get not so good MPG when I first purchased the car. Through the breakin period of 1200 mile ( that's acording to the owners manual) I noticed I got better and better gas mileage as the car was worn in. I went real real real easy on it for the first 1200 miles and despite not pushing the car the first 1000 miles MPG were not impressive. I reset the cars avg mpg after 1200 because I didn't like what it was reading. I'm at 1700 miles today and avg MPG according to the car is at 20.4 which is a lot better than before. I credit that to the car wearing in.

At the mileage your at it is soon time for your first oil change. Change the oil and reset that MPG calculator and I bet after a week your MPG will be looking better.

 

As usual I agree with Light. The best most acurate way to tell the MPG of your last trip if you filled the tank up last time is clock the miles refil the tank when the time comes and divide with the miles traveled.