cosmo

I own a 2000 maxima gxe and I usually get about 240 miles per tank with a health mix of highway and city driving. Why is my fuel economy so damn low? Also, at what speed does the 2000 maxima reach its peak fuel economy?

WoodEar

240 is about what i got on my '98 with 50/50 hay/city.

MAXDriver

Then again, I drive with baby on back seat (reads 65 mph on hi way).

Y2KevSE

iTrader: (13)

That's not horrible... most of us (2000 Max) get somewhere around there.

got rice?

iTrader: (2)

what do you expect from a vee 6 engine pushing 222+ hp? 240 w/ mix driving is about right.

Omegasrk

iTrader: (1)

In my 2000 Maxima SE (5spd), I get between 23-25mpg on the average. So I get somewhere between 300-350 mile between fillups, usually before I reach the 1/4 mark on the gas meter thingy. My peak was 28 mpg, my worst was 20 mpg. I usually drive 25% city / 75% highway. I accelerate normally from stand still, and when on the highway, I go about 70-85 mph. Hope this helps.

The_quorum

VERY spirited driving (70% hi-speed highway 90mph and the rest, in town stop & go...quick take offs)...avg 350-400 miles a tank. Best ever was a cruise to NJ at 70mph cruise straight through got a 31mpg tank. Worst ever was when my wife filled up my car w/ 87 octane, and I wast trying to just burn it as fast as I could...about 12 mpg. I'm averaging 25-27 though. Which is good considering the miles I drive for the company. At least gas and oil changes are all expensed!

LeoB

when she has the car for the week and does her highway commute to work, she easily gets 390 miles out of a tank, with some to spare (Y2K GXE), about 4,000 miles on car

The_quorum

That super tank that I mentioned on the trip to NJ was with the soon-to-be-ex driving...It was right after that tank that she filled up w/ 87 octane to be nice after bashing me about how she can get better mileage than I can. but what I do find funny is that she has a '98 Altima, and on average, I get better gas mileage on the highway than she does. She kills me in town, though.

TimW

iTrader: (6)

and all the new v6's. The A6, Accord, and our maxes get 13-16 mpg for the first 8-12 mins of driving due to emissions. If you are taking short trips, it will run rich. I get 240 a tank with mixed driving but always under 20 mins. Hit the highway on a long trip and it goes up to almost 400+ per tank. Even stop and go traffic isnt bad if everything is warmed up. I was told by Nissan not to go by the temp gauge on this. they said exhaust system and such takes longer. I too was pretty upset that our Pathfinder got the same mileage.

btw, comsumer reports backs all this up in the issue about 5 months back on v6's.

VQdriver

i can easily get 430+ miles a tank on my 97gxe 5 sp..it can be attained if you can get into 5th gear before 40mph. avoid jackrabbit starts and throttle lightly during acceleration. in fact i've taken some full throttle runs and still got about the same mileage. make sure your tires are properly inflated and the car in good working order. but the cold seems to affect the mpg. it could also be the change to reformulated gasoline which really eats performance. what do you guys think?

EZEMaxima

Is that really true that you get poor gas mileage if you don't let your car warm up? I only need to drive for about 5 to 10 minutes every 7 am to get to work. Is that why i get por gas mileage? Does the weight of your wheels and tires affect gas mileage too?

maximaisokay

Install a truck-size of tank in your trunk! You would fill it up per month. Problem solved!

John

TimW

iTrader: (6)

so, on the way home, you can take the long way, you wont use that much more gas

Che

my 95se 5sp gets 350-400 miles each tank.....about a month ago, I filled up at conoco and got under 300 miles for that tank, since then it is back to normal....I figure I got a bad batch..

ryz

I use mobil all the time ,but have tried sunoco and the car runs better and gives better milage; my best with mobil is 20mpg & thats driving the cross island everyday(moderate traffic)

got rice?

iTrader: (2)

no, it's the other way around. When the car is first running each morning, it will run ultra rich until the engine temp reaches ~ 170 to 176 deg F. You are doing no good in letting it idle for 10 min.

Yep, more unsprung weight will make the car work harder to turn the wheels, plus put extra stress on the suspension components.

DDD

is a murder not only for mpg, but for the engine and battery as well especially in a cold weather.
Try to warm up the engine at least for 3 minutes, and don't rev it higher than 2000 rpm until it reach operating temp.
Also use light-weight oil like 5W... or 0W... in winter. It's cheaper than to repair the engine.

Regards,
DDD

humaras

My car--front monday thry friday takes short trips--1 mile each way and that is because my parents use it to drop off my brother and to pick him up. I see that I barely can touch the 20mpg mark with those short trips--somwhere around the 17-18 mark I assume cause I do see that them driving about 20 miles puts a big dent on the amount of gas in my tank.

I do have a question, what is the reasoning for why short trips eat away at the life of a battery? I am very curious as to what the answer is.

And btw, today, I changed the spark plugs in my car--they look kinda dirty--but hard to tell from the platinium plugs--and I took it out for a drive--pretty nice, it seems the mpg went up along with the use of the synthetics.

=)

VQdriver

our 95 SE auto has been experiencing hard cold starts. my theory now is because it's been driven many times for trips less than 5 mins when its still cold (condensation on the windows and everything). so the plugs may need to be replaced or fuel injectors/system checked. yes, the engine does run very rich if you drive it when its cold. that same 95 sometimes fails to get over 300 miles per tank.

MaxRX7

In case any of you didn't know, gas stations are cheaters! Whoever is getting "poor" mileage, try switching to another gas station. The reason is because some stations mix in some crap with the gasoline, and others do some tricks to make the pump think you poured gasoline while it actually is just vapor. For example I mostly get 320 miles for a full tank, and twice I have gotten 260 miles in the same exact type of driving.

maximaisokay

Remove your pic of your post. It gave me dizzy. DO IT NOW! jerk!

John

Johnny

My car hasn't left the city in about 15,000 miles. My avg mpg used to be 25.7 when I used to do city and highway driving. If you really get only 240 miles out of 18.5 gallons you've got a problem. But the gauge looks almost empty with about 4 gallons left. If you're going by the needle then maybe you're getting 240 miles with 14 gallons, which would be ok with PURE stop-and-go traffic.

I've always found that optimum mileage happens at about 72 mph on cruise--my bad-boy used to top 30 mpg under those conditions.

The best thing is to measure the mpg between fill-ups, meaning drive 150-200 miles and then see how many gallons it takes to fill. Keep in mind your fill can vary by +/- .5 gallons as well, so it's more accurate with more mileage.

I don't know how many miles your car has but my car took a serious dip in mpg at about 8,000 miles. When I looked at the factory air filter it was completely clogged already. A new filter cured it right away. The next time after that (another 7,000 miles) I went to K&N because this VQ was gonna cost me $14 every 2 oil changes in air filter replacements.