Since I wanted to clean my K&N I took it out and put in an OEM filter with about dunno, 5-7k of usage on it? Went to the coast with only highway driving, nothing else, about 73 mph cruise. And this 99 month old car with about 125k did over 30--not bad. I think the one strong point about the Maxima is it can be stingy on fuel even when it's old. I haven't seen north of 27 in a very long time, but I've not had a pure highway run either. The only thing I know I need are new belts right now....the airbag lamp has not come back in over 8 mos., yet it does its check every time I turn the key. I have to admit I'd never let this car go for the measly $3700 that it's worth.....

 

Yeah.... the Max's VQ / tranny combo isn't just great for passing cars and showing muscle... it's great for road trips, too. I just made a 300 mile round-trip camping drive, and got 29 mpg TO and 28 mpg FROM. And that was with a lot of crap in the backseat and junk in the trunk.

Love my 06 Max. These cars rock.

 

Back in the day, my 86 SE maintained about 28-29.5mpg with mixed city/hwy. Granted 85% of that was on the freeway, off peak times. Downside was when the bearing went on the original tranny, I swapped in a 3rd gen tranny which changed the final drive ratio...and then my best was around 26-27.

S

 

How big are out tanks again? I just came back from a roadtrip of 630 mile roundtrip that probably got me about 25 mi. per gallon. With an engine/tranny/body that only has 90k on it that is not bad. I was averaging about 70-80 mph. Sometimes I would spike up to 90 mph or higher to pass but that rare. I need to replace my fuel filter too that probably would of helped me a little.

 

Tell toyota to kiss your *** with the "i want my mpg" song....

 

Lol. I can't stand that freakin' "I want my MPG" crap... It's a butchering of that great Dire Straits song, "Money for Nothin'" ... song butcherings make me sad.

 

I'd would say the samething.. Everything about these cars rock. The only big things I've had to fix is the alternator, starter, and boots @ 125k. Alternator was mainly due to my +1kW RMS system. The only gripe I have is thet noisy, and I mean NOISY final drive gear on my car.

 

I get about 23 city mpg even when getting on it...

 

That's sweet mileage. Mine only gets around 20 mpg .... if I'm lucky.

 

I love my 06, but so far I can't get more than 20-21mpg.

 

I've gotten 33.5 before. It's nice to know that the car doesn't guzzle gas in most cases.

 

I have gotten 29 on the highway on long trips with my 6 speed vq35. But yeah around town, specially if driven hard the mileage drops quickly! like 20mpg

 

I just finished a trip down to lake powell in my car, and averaged about 27 on the way down. The trip down involved lots of stop and go traffic and floored passing sprints. The trip back was quite a bit more lax and I got about 30. My dad was not very happy as he truck was returning him about 11.

I dont know if this makes a difference, but I put my airbox back to stock on the way down, just to keep the noise down while we were watching movies.

 

That,s pretty decent MPG, Frank Fontaine. I suspect you could do better yet if you were only going say 60/65 mph.

I've had as high as 31.5+ on straight highway driving a few times and routinely can get 29+.

 

ive gotten 28 mpg before!!

 

I ran to NY for a funeral last weekend. I left from Raleigh, NC and drove straight through to Upstate NY. On this trip I spent a total of $65 each way. With a grown male, two adult women and one teenage gal and one 10 year old gal and all the luggage for the vacation.....I averaged 31.5 mpg on the way up. That was even going through the Pennsylvania mountains. On the way back, same load, I got 31 mpg. Phenominal I'd say. (Sticker says I should have gotten 28 mpg.)

Man I love this car...........

 

Did another trip yesterday, a little different where there was a lot of state highway driving, meaning around 55-65 mph, but hitting stoplights now and then......29.6 mpg. I still haven't put my K&N back in because I don't want my mileage to go down!! I can tell you a fairly new OEM puts the car on top of its game....

 

Your results are not normal. So before everyone goes out changing their filters, don't expect this.

 

But is soo makes me want to go back to a paper oe paper filter.

 

best i've gotten is like 24 or ~ 420 out of a tank

 

Actually, I think the other dude misinterpreted me, I was poking fun at K&N. K&N has superior air flow WHEN THE K&N IS BRAND NEW. Once the K&N has been cleaned and reoiled, it has less airflow than a new OEM. That's a fact.

To say my mileage is not normal, that's an absurd comment. When we quote stats they should be reliable (I've shown that over 2 weekends) and valid (if I were trying to attribute my mpg to the paper filter, here's where it would fail--not valid). What is valid is to say I achieved a mpg based on highway, and purely highway driving.

I have a regular 1998 SE 5-spd, there is nothing special about my car. Since the OEM filter I have in there is not new (not sure but less than 7k), in reality my mileage would not change if I were to put my reoiled K&N back in. It's still gonna be near 30 highway regardless. I haven't seen those numbers in a while because I haven't done highway trips.

But you have nothing to lose by trying a paper OEM if you want to, heck, it's $7, right? I agree with that other dude, don't go running out and buy it--that wasn't the point I was making. It was more that highway driving yields some good mpgs on an old Maxima.

 

wow, did you have a tailwind? highest i've ever gotten is 30mpg, but all highway usually i get ~27 (maybe i can do better if i didn't have 17" rims and wide tires)