Comments on: Instrumental Change

By: Armand

Armand — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 07:24:49 +0000

Wow...what a concept Nissan. Instead of making a POS gas guzzler like the G35 and the SUV uglier than sin, make more efficient cars.

The Sentra/SE-R is a good start...CVT. But you can do MUCH MUCH more.

By: langjie

langjie — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 14:26:16 +0000

if they put the same system in as my NAH, then the next screen will display average MPG (mine is at 38.8 right now)

but having the real time gauge is very nice to have

By: Greg

Greg — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 00:14:13 +0000

If you could input the price you just paid per gallon and have a display show the running cost you would could watch your dollar per mile impact.

By: Stefan

Stefan — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 17:40:33 +0000

Whether a cars get 8 mpg or 40 mpg, having an mpg indicator is better, at least, than having no indicator. I used to think the faster you drive the more gas you consume. Not according to the EPA. If you drive 10 mph, a typical car will consume more gas than driving at 40 mph because you need to overcome gravity. Then again, there's the highest mpg at the highest constant speed which means that 80 mph is less efficient than 50 mph. So, environments, you need to determine where your speed of your Prius at your most efficient.

I also find that as newer cars get more horsepower, they seem to have a higher efficiency speed. That's because of fuel injection, turbocharger, etc. HIGHER SPEED DOES NOT ALWAYS LEAD TO LESS MPG.

By: Dave Cascino

Dave Cascino — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 13:01:04 +0000

It should have both a real time mpg display and an average mpg (perhaps off in the corner). That way you can see how your current driving is effecting gas consumption but also know your overall ‘score’.

By: Andreas

Andreas — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 07:01:11 +0000

I recently bought a 2008 VW Rabbit TDI here in Germany. It has a mgg or l/100km gauge hidden in the multifunction display. It shows digital numbers. and its really ugly if you floor the pedal after a red light stop to see the car consume 49.9l/100km and while approching the red light its really only 0.0 l/100km. So you want to approach often that way and not to push the pedal to hard because you see it very clearly what it means to the gas (or Diesel) in the tank.

YES such a gauge will change the driving habbit of anyone who thinks about the impact dirving makes.

By: Al

Al — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 19:27:35 +0000

I hope that red bar you showed is not the actual indicator Nissan intends to have, If it is, don’t get your hopes up about drivers changing their behavior. A bar that essentially shows more red as you get better fuel economy is not exactly intuitive and having enumerations every 20mpg is not very useful either. However, perhaps both of these bad design choices are intentional; if I am driving a Titan getting 12mpg, I won’t be pestered by a big red bar reminding me that I drop to 8mpg every time I floor it away from a light and I won’t really notice that when I light foot it, the big beast would still only improve to 16mpg; both of these facts would be delightfully obscured by just being a little red blip fluttering around there somewhere in that nebulous zone under 20mpg… Come on Nissan, anyone that can make a car as pretty as the Infiniti G30 surely understands design well enough to make a better mpg gauge.