Whats the Fuel Economy and Emissions for this Car?
Created January 11, 2007, at 11:12 pm by oklasooners
anyone know?
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Well, for my first 524 miles I used 15.044 gallons of gas which comes out to just shy of 35 MPG. That was about 50% highway and 50% city driving with the A/C on about 50% of the time*.
* It's actually getting hot in Vegas already.
The new federal mileage estimates say 34 MPG so at least thier estimates are close to reality. If I ever get one of these I'm keeping my same swift driving style for comparison. For years now, I've been averaging 22 MPG in my 95 Millenia. Cool thing is the Altima is the same size as the Milly to within an inch or two in all dimensions, except for trunk space of course.
well, one thing i would do different is i would coast longer and spend a longer time braking....that will get you more efficiency
Altima hybrid 3 weeks.
I am getting betwee 32 and 34 mpg w/ 50% air conditioner. Best mileage 36 to 38 on freeway at 70+ mph (normal So.Cal driving speeds) w/ no aircon. . EV mileage good in slow freeway traffic.:)
so far, after 1 week of driving, i've gone 340 miles and the computer has told me i'm getting 35.2 mpg. when the engine breaks in, i expect this to be more easily achieved. i am starting to accelerate a bit faster and my fuel economy has gone up! :D
Hey Everybody,
I just spent one week with an Altima Hybrid test loaner. The Altima definitely has more power and style than the Camry. Although I didn't love everything about it. I posted my impressions here about half-way down the page:
http://www.hybridcars.com/compacts-sedans/nissan-altima-hybrid-overview.html
I'm wondering if the new Altima Hybrid owners agree.
Wow the Camry interior must be REALLY nice for you to say the Altima interior is 'inferior'. I really like the interior on my Altima Hybrid. It is a significant improvement over my last car (Mercury Sable). For the most part you are dead-on. The Altima is a little 'rough' at times but does have great acceleration, particularly from the electric motor! And is much sportier looking than the Camry. I have about 1500 miles on my car and I am getting just about 37 MPG's. For a car of this size and style, that's FANTASTIC!!!
Now as far as 'only if you live in the 8 states' part...
Hogwash! (Wow, I don't think I have ever used that word before).
If you want one, go get one! Let's teach Nissan a lesson!!! :-)
A good lesson that is! Nissan really needs to be in the Hybrid arena.
Bradley,
I take exception with one area of your review:
"The Altima’s dashboard, on the other hand, made reading the mpg a guessing game. Instead of delivering an exact number, the fuel efficiency showed up on a display graph."
The mode you were monitoring is kind of a instant mpg display mode - one more step into display mode gives you an exact mpg number that you can monitor.
um...i've been in the camry hybrid interior that was fully loaded minus the sunroof.
i felt that the camry's interior was cheap and very very plastic-y. i don't like the soft dash that just feels like foam tape. the materials felt very thing. i wasn't impressed. it was going to be between a camry and an altima for me...but being in the camry 1 time, i already knew i wouldn't be able to stand the interior
I am looking for a mpg gage on the dash where is it?
after 1 week of driving my NAH substitute (a 2000 Chrysler 300M), I've averaged 19.9 mpg. ouch. at least I can hope that my next car won't run on gas... 4 year countdown... maybe I'll get an Altima or Maxima full eletric. haha. nah, I won't get my hopes up too high.
It's a LCD readout / lower center on the instument panel.
Behind the steering wheel to the left there are two push buttons - kind of hard to see. The button on the left will scroll you through various modes: average mpg/speed > instantaneous mpg > outside temp > warnings/alerts. The button to the right is used to reset.
I Was Looking In The Wrong Place.:)
lloyd beat me to the punch, haha
how's the fuel economy now? i'm at 2222 miles and i average 35.0 mpg from the pump. computer is a bit off as it says 36.2
i go to fueleconomy.com to track my fuel records
Telling you more gas than you really bought to charge you more. ?:confused:
i would say some are probably off. the pumps do get inspected by the weights and measures office
Topped off last week and then topped off again today at the same pump - about 300 miles in mixed driving. Doing the math I got 38.2 - the NAH's computer read 38.1 so I feel confident that whatever my car's computer calculates is fairly acurate.
seem like you all are getting really good fuel econ. I have like 150 mi on my NAH, and right now I am averaging about 32.9 m/gallon. I acc really slow but how come I don't get the mileage you guys getting. Is it going to get better? When I first purchased from dealer, it is at 19.9 m/gallon.
I still haven't reset my car's FE computer number since I picked it up from the dealer - about 1,600 miles - and it has now climbed up to 39.7 mpg. I don't know what I'm doing special - I accererate gently but not so much that I'm a road hazard. In fact, I spend a lot of time in the left lane. The main difference in my driving style over my previous car is that I'm now willing to put in more "sweat equity" meaning I drive without the AC on. I've been surprised that even up to about 85 degrees outside I'm still quite comfortable with just the windows open. I think the cloth seats in the NAH are very good at helping me keep cool.
Doing the exact same commute with my previous car - a 2003 Passat sedan with the 1.8T - a got about 28.5 mpg so the NAH has improved on that by over 11 mpg.
I think I'll be taking a big hit on FE in the winter as my old Passat would loose about 2 mpg in the cold weather.
Someone told me that mileage on a new car sux - that the engine has to loosen up. Sounds silly to me, but he's a mechanical engineer, so maybe. Anyway, that's about what happened to me, really low mileage when new, going up slowly. I think I was about the same at 150miles. I got 36.2mpg on my first tank, but the display said 34.5.
-Gren
i agree with this...my mileage has gotten 1-2 mpg more after a couple of thousand miles
Well I got 30.5 for the first tank, Not very impressive. About 1/2 way thru on the second and at 31.5 better but not a winner yet.
AND TODAY !! Ta TA finished the second tank for an overall tank mileage of 34.5 Drum roll please. Hey this baby is gona be a winner.:)
it'll only get better
I am at 9500 miles and it is getting 37.1 mpg. Mostly highway keeping to 65 as best as possible. Quite happy with that!!!
Just bought my Altima Hybrid 2 weeks ago. One long trip about 400 miles and the rest local errands. With the long trip and 1 week of local travel the gauge indicates 38.3 MPG. Driving mainly with cruise on at speed limit.
I'm keeping running data at my blog. Please feel free to comment. Also posted picture of the instrument cluster.
http://blog.mygreenaltima.com
The saleman told me that it takes about a month for the Altima Hybrid to learn how I drive before it would get the best fuel economy.
http://blog.mygreenaltima.com
I could be wrong but I think your salesman is typical of most of them out there - they don't know thier axle from their manifold.
I've read quite a bit about the NAH hybrid system and I've never run across any mention of an adaptive system based on driver input. I know some cars with adaptive systems adjust shift points based on how you drive over time but the NAH has the Toyota power split device which doesn't have shift points. I believe that the NAH system always tries to maximize economy and it's more or less up to you to adapt to get the most from the system.
One way to boost fuel economy is to shut off the climate control when you slow down/stop (whenever you would normally expect to go into EV mode) when you are running the heat AND the engine is not fully warmed up (1st ~10 mins. of driving). If the engine is cold and the climate control is struggling to bring the cabin up to the set temp., the engine will not shut down, even if you are stopped dead, because it is trying to make you comfy. Stay cold and save fuel! Just remember to turn the climate control back on when you start up again to warm your tootsires!
lol, I have an entire system during the summer. when driving on the highway, I allow myself to have the AC on until it's cool enough and I cycle on/off as needed. During gridlock, I open the windows
Wintertime is more difficult and it really killed my overall fuel efficiency to the ground
how come i can't get the mileage over 32.9? i coast whenever there's power in the battery. i brake long and slow and steady. i'm in socal, so weather isn't an issue. i don't even think i've turned on the AC except for one trip out to coachella last week. but i can't get it over 32.9mpg. any ideas? also, how long does the batter last when it's charged? i get it charged all the way to the top, then it drops to half-charge soon after that, then i have maybe 5-10 minutes of batter power to coast on before the gas engine kicks in again. is that normal? and is it normal that the gas engine is a bit loud and sounds like sticks hitting each other when i start the car in the morning before the hybrid system is warm enough to kick in?
wamwam, It sure don't sound right to me. And how do you get the battery to charge "to the top" ? I never see that. My battery gage is usually around 2/3. You may be running the battery too low. Staying on battery power for up to 10 minutes will not do you any good. You need to cycle it more IMO. I can get between 36 and 42 around town pretty easily but my engine comes on quite a bit due to hills around here. If your engine is running just to charge the battery (i.e. even at idle) that will kill your mileage. The only time I have gotten mileage as bad as you is in the dead of winter, or fast (80mph) highway speeds. Don't forget the electric motor runs all the time, even when the gas engine is running, you don't need to cruise on electric to see good numbers. More important is to keep the Kw gage below the first line (around 40Kw I believe). BTW, my mileage went up considerably when the weather got a bit warmer, but that was also the time I had about 4K miles on the car. My brother swears his Nissan truck got much better after 5K miles.
hmm...interesting. (btw...i'm wamwam...created an account now with screename 'kotoriwam', but i'm the same person as wamwam).
the battery usually charges to the top when i do what you say i shouldn't, which is run the gas engine to charge the battery or when i'm on the highway and the gas engine is providing the primary power for the car (except of course in the dead of los angeles, when i've been known to completely empty the electric battery just idling on the 405 freeway...but that's another story). but yes, most of the time it's around 2/3.
when you say i need to cycle it more, what do recommend i do? how do i do that? basically just drive it like a normal vehicle? never run the battery all the way out before using the gas engine to recharge it? still coast as much as i can?
i will certainly work on keeping the kw gage down below the first line. that never really occurred to me. and i'm at about 3500 miles now, so we'll see what i can do to get that up. looks like i'm coming up on the 4-5k mark that seems to be a milestone in the lives of your and your brother's vehicles.
thanx so much for your input. will certainly make this happen! there is no other way!
peace,
w
w wrote
"when you say i need to cycle it more, what do recommend i do? how do i do that? basically just drive it like a normal vehicle? never run the battery all the way out before using the gas engine to recharge it? still coast as much as i can?"
I only ran my battery down completely (to the lowest line on the gage) once. I was in traffic that just allowed me to stay in EV mode for quite some time. That is when I noticed the car just "takes over" control of battery management. Nothing at that point can get you back to EV mode, and I suspect that you are receiving no assistance from the electric motor at this point, so it's total ICE. I believe I have read on other forums that this is "battery depletion mode" and you want to avoid it. Now when I see that coming on, I just punch it a bit to get the ICE started, or look for a hill.
But if your just sitting in nearly stopped traffic, I can see how this may be unavoidable. I seem to get the best mileage when the battery stays between 1/3 and 2/3 charged. You may want to go over to the Ford Escape site, there are some hypermilers that know more than I do about this condition.
One more thing, you have reset the mpg counter, right? If you never reset it, it will take the average since you bought the car. Very hard to get that to move.
oh my. thanx so much for the insight. all this time i figured i was driving the sucker right, apparently i was wrong. i literally drain the battery daily trying to coast as much as i can in ev mode til' it runs down, then, yes, the gas kicks in to run the car and recharge the battery. hot damn. i'll have to change that habit. i will certainly check out the ford escape site as well.
one thing...reset the mpg counter? nope! didn't know you can. it must be the average because i can't get the sucker to move from 32.9 no matter what i do. how do i reset that? thanx again for all your words of wisdom. i'm learning as i go. coming from a ford exploder, it's taking a bit to get used to. but still the best decision i ever made.
Oh my is right! If you never reset the mpg display, that sucker will never move. Press and hold the right side button where you change the displays. I think it's the one with the dot on it.
brilliant. i did it two days ago and i'm now at 35.5 mpg. had it at 36.2 for a minute, but that faded once the gas engine kicked in in the morning. but it's hovering between 35 and 36 right now, which i'm comfortable with for now. thanx so much for the info. i'd have never known you can reset that thing. chalkin' up another victory to the magic of messageboards. thanks man!
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