Drove 50 miles to my dealer last Saturday. After the oil change (only 2560 miles) I reset the fuel economy gauge when coming home(not sure if it's different in the nav or the non-nav version), and suprisingly saw 45 mpg initially? Then after about 10 miles it settled down to a steady 34.5 mpg. This was traveling at 65-80 mph on I80 east in NJ.

I set my Nav to the nearest Home Depot (I love the Nav. I was able to find my way out of high traffic just by following the detailed street level maps), and when i left from the home depot to my house (surprisingly a crap load of traffic on Saturday) I ended up with 32 mpg.

My 3.0 Liter 2000 Max would only get 25 mpg, no matter what. Is this my imagination, or is this engine really that efficient?

I also can't put my finger on it, but aftet the oil change, the engine felt a lot more responsive. However, like alll the Maxima's i've owned the engine response varies by day.

 

The acid mileage test is to fill the tank to the top, drive some specified distance, then refill the tank. Divide miles traveled by amount of gas required to refill the tank, then you have an accurate MPG estimate. The farther you travel before refilling, the more accurate the estimate. Why not try this method and compare its results with the electronic estimate?

 

Depending on driving conditions, I ca get my Max into the low 30's as well (although I haven't quite hit 34.5 consistantly; I have hit abour 31 or 32 after driving for several hours, and even that was over hilly terrain... so I would imagine that 34 is possible).

As a side note, last night reset the MPG meter just as I started to cruise down a very long hill... by the time I got to the bottom (before I applied any gas), there was enough time for it to register 99.9 MPG.... 5 seconds later (after applying some gas), it dropped to 60.0

 

im only getting 16.5 after my oil change last week on mostly city driving, how are people getting such high mpg (i've been staying under 3000 rpm too)?

 

Well, that ought to be enough to raise questions about the accuracy of the car's computerized MPG estimates. I refer you to my previous post (#2) on this thread.

 

Best at 70mph.. 38+mpg

 

We all will get lucky from time to time and get a good batch of fuel combined with the right temp, wind direction and light traffic to get numbers in the 30's. I know people have also went from that extreme to the low numbers also, 16 - 17 MPG. A lot of factors come in to play but we all know it won't be consistent unless you live in an area where traffic is light, the wind blows in the same direction and you get lucky and get an excellent grade of fuel on a flat stretch of roadway.

 

I avg 29 - 31 strictly highway @ 70 mph. I'm able to keep my in town milage ~23 if I'm verry careful... I usually get about 20 in town. The car is much more fun to drive at 19/20 mpg. than it is at 22/23 mpg.

 

I know this was a fluke, but it was fun to see a V6 getting better fuel economy than some 4 cylinders.

And the odd thing was, I wasn't babying the throttle, but I wasn't flooring it either. I'm curious, for the non-navi displays, do you guys get real time economy info?