alexdi

Some notes:

- The most efficient speed is around 50 MPH.

- There's a point in the throttle travel that gives 35-40 MPG. It's just enough to maintain speed at 50 MPH. It's so subtle, I wouldn't even call it acceleration. You can find it with the instant MPG readout.

- Any real acceleration, light or heavy, will drop MPG to about 5. So accelerate fairly quickly to 50 MPH, don't spend all day gaining speed. Even the 1400 RPM lug is under 10 MPG.

- Stop pulsing the gas with light traffic. Just breathing on the pedal will let you maintain about the right following distance.

- In heavy traffic, make it your mission to keep moving. This might require a following distance of up to 200 feet. Watch traffic fifty feet in front of your lead car; if you see brake lights, he'll have to stop too. Pace your speed so you've soaked up the distance right as he begins to accelerate. Then let it expand again, and repeat. The people behind you will appreciate the constant pace.

Do all this and you can get your average above 20 MPG around town, and up to nearly 35 MPG on the highway. It's also boring as hell. I've recently decided that for the upteen thousand I spent on this 4DSC, I can afford the extra $10 at the pump to treat it like one.

Ghozt

I noticed the first two points as well. Doesn't seem to matter if I accelerate slowly or quickly I get terrible mileage according to the instant MPG readout. Definitely saw that around 50-55 if you keep your foot on the pedal very lightly you can hit 40+ MPG via the instant readout.

One comment on the following distance - that's not always possible. Here in MD traffic if you put more than 1-2 car lengths between you and the car ahead someone slides inbetween. If you back off they do it again. 200 feet following distance means 2 hour commute home for me...

G09madmax

I like the ideas on here, but honestly the maxima wasn't designed to be a HYBRID car. I sure didn't get this to increase MPG.

James92SE

iTrader: (31)

Do you guys all really rely on the instant readout (aside from AIMRob)? Even if I had an instant readout I'd still calculate it properly at each fill-up manually.

Too bad you can't get the 7th gen in a true stick. A true manual is one of the easiest ways to get fantastic gas mileage because you can coast for (nearly) "free" with it in neutral (hell, in my old Civic I can coast with the engine turned completely off because I don't have to worry about power steering and all that). If you want to get really hardcore break out the pulse and glide - realllllllly boring but fantastic gas mileage. I did a tank once in my VE of pulse and glide nearly all city and got 29 mpg.

Ghozt

Rely? No. If you watch it while you drive though the MPG representation it shows you when you press the pedal makes plenty of sense, especially when it comes to seeing your overall average MPG after calculating between fill-ups. I have a simple app on my phone I put in gallons, mileage, etc and it calculates it and shows history.

The little live meter though helps me stay aware of my driving habits and lead foot, sometimes it's like a game to see if I can keep it above "20 MPG" as long as possible. I don't care if the meter is exact, but it definitely seems at least roughly accurate and helps explain why even when I accelerate very slowly vs quickly, my mileage doesn't really change much. According to my meter, like the other guy said above, you can see the car just eats up gas at the low speeds regardless of your acceleration. Almost better to speed up quick so your car has momentum to carry it.

James92SE

iTrader: (31)

I wonder how similar that is to the popular ScanGauge meter?

I've always wanted to stick one in my Civic but can't since it's not an OBDII car

uberdrift

What are people experiencing in general for MPG with the 7th Gen Max?

BBmaxi

iTrader: (1)

It's pretty go yo! last fill up I clocked 415 miles with 17 gallon giving me about 24.3 mpg.

that's pretty darn good for an almost full sized, good looking, beautiful sedan. It gets same as lexus ES350 and GS350.

Ghozt

I still don't understand this. Granted I'm stuck in traffic most of the time but I can't get my car above 18.5 MPG for the life of me. Wondering if maybe after changing my oil and going into the warmer months will help at all...

BBmaxi

iTrader: (1)

maybe it's bcause your stuck in traffic most of the time.

maybe u have lead foot ?

the max is easy to drive with a light food since it don't need a lot of push to get it going.

Ghozt

I'm thinking it has to be the traffic that is doing it, I keep it under 2k RPM's 99% of the time. Kind of hard not to, I'm only going 20-40 MPH at any given moment...

Norm Peterson

If traffic is continuously accelerating / decelerating, you'll be running the engine with a little [acceleration] enrichment for a much more significant portion of your drive time. Some places, traffic will let generally you "rubberband" your position relative to the vehicle ahead without cutting in, other places not (and you get to choose between fuel economy and not getting cut off).


I should have expected all of these "fuel economy" discussions to come floating back to the top . . .


Norm

the_tags

It cracks me up that it always comes down to this, whether the discussion is fuel economy or type of fuel to buy. Look, none of us bought big dually trucks or giant V8 racecars for whatever purpose we have a Maxima. We were obviously looking for a blend of power and mileage or we would have bought sports cars and trucks that guzzle gas. Stop with the spend, spend, spend. It is not helpful to the discussion. Most of the people on this board bought a Maxima because it was an acceptable blend of performance, style and economy, not because they were under some delusion that this is a performance sportscar (regardless of what that sticker says). If you are so unconcerned about money, why do you have a Maxima? Go get yourself a lamborgini, throw racing fuel in that f'er and be done with it.

afy4u

If you go to AutoZone, you can get Lucas Octane Booster(or get it on Ebay), half a bottle to a tank of regular gas, your performance and mpg will increase significantly. Try it!

maxxxxspeed

I promised MooShoo I wouldn't call anyone out afy4u.... You make it SO HARD not to

Ghozt

I think what people are trying to say is you should have known the Max needs premium fuel before buying it, and complaining after the fact just makes you look ignorant to what the vehicle requirements were before buying it. Now don't get me wrong it doesn't exactly make me happy that Premium fuel has gone up from 3.14 a gallon to 3.88 since I've purchased the car in November, but I'm not going to sit here and complain and put a lower octane in my car to save a few bucks. What's hurting everyone more is the increase in gas prices, not so much the difference between regular and premium which really isn't that much.

As others have mentioned before, look for other ways to save some money with your car - do oil changes yourself, hand wash and wax, lay off the gas pedal, cut down on overweight passengers, etc...

I've heard an assortment of other things such as changing your oil regularly with full synthetic can help keep your MPG up, reports of people having their tranny fluid changed and seeing an increase for a while, cold weather of course effects things negatively, stop and go rush hour traffic can murder your MPG so try changing work schedules if possible.

rudals1281

When driving on the highway, put the car in Manual and shoot all the way up to the 6th gear setting, if you happen to step on the gas a little bit more, the engine wont go crazy and rev too high because of the programming for 6th gear.

I don't get this. Put the gear up to 6th?

Ghozt

I just changed oil with Mobil 1 full synthetic and am seeing a MPG improvement. Wondering if the previous owner used regular or some garbage because normally oil changes aren't supposed to improve MPG that much.

Update : normally I see 16.7 MPG (yea...) in a heavy traffic commute and very little high way driving. with Mobil 1 I'm seeing 21 MPG in the same commute with same driving habits. I am SO HAPPY right now.

2010BlackMax

I too run Kendall Full Synthetic, and I saw a small increase in MPG too. Not sure if its scientific or not, but I did see a small improvement as well. Like 1 maybe 2 mpg.

I switched to full synthetic on my toyota truck too, it has 96k miles on it. I saw it go up maybe 1 or 2 mpg as well. But for me I like the full syn. I plan on keeping the max and my truck for a long time. So i would say its worth it. But to each their own

PS Maxxspeed that was a funny statement I like it

anjy834u

well i am getting around 27 mpg and well it doesn't matter how u pedal and start.

Ghozt

yeah i reset my MPG right before a highway trip and I averaged high 20's too...this is awesome. sucks that my daily commute is bumper to bumper but im still lovin the 21 over the 16.7.

Norm Peterson

In which parallel universe?


N

the_tags

I have always used mobile 1 (well after 15k or so).....I put in the advanced fuel economy version and did get about one to two MPG.

MaxMan2010

The only way I can get increased MPG is by reducing the amount of time my car sits in idle and does nothing (not moving at stop lights and stop signs).

I do my best to map out the streets that offer the least amount of stop lights as I live in the urban core of KCMO, there are a billion stop lights and none are timed to be very effective...for example, if you drive downtown you encounter a red-light every 1/2 block and it's just stupid; so I stick to the highways more often to avoid disastrous city planning.

Shift_A32B

iTrader: (14)

Learn Hypermiling techniques. Its free. Anyone can do it.

Norm Peterson

Wrong answer ↑↑↑.

Many if not most of those hypermiling techniques either interfere with other traffic, are specifically illegal, or are otherwise risky. Downright dangerous when carried to the extremes that some hypermilers take them.


Norm

Blackmax12

The biggest mistake I am constantly finding is dealers or garages that incorrectly fill tires to the pressure listed on the sidewall. The tire manufacturers don't know which vehicle the tire ends up on. You should always go by the pressure listed on the sticker on the drivers side door jamb. My brand new 012 Max came from the dealer with the tires all filled to 44 psi as stated on the sidewalls

Blackmax12

Actual pressure on door jamb is 33 psi. I lowered all to 33 and the car rides so much smoother not to mention not wearing my tires out sooner. Sorry for the 2 part reply. Hit send by accident before I was done.