A123 Prius Plugin

Houston traffic involves a lot of sitting, a lot believe me. I want to at least be comfortable which was why I looked at this kind of car to start with. It was also listed as premimum recommended, not premium only. It will only run regular on the highway though. I have taken only one trip in it and it had barely 1000mi on it when I started, driving to Athens, Ga for my nephews greaduation (~1000mi) which turned into a family reunion. It got 26-28 on the highway and I felt like it working like it was supposed to (28 hiway rated).

But as soon as I got back home the mileage went away, I switched back to premium and a week later still with lousy mileage I took it to the dealer -ran a diagnostic and said there is nothing wrong - they tried to blame it on the gasoline sold in Houston, then they tried to tell me I wasn't driving the car far enough to get it up operating temp - I live 4.6miles from work.

I know of 3 of the same model cars at work burning the same gasoline I buy, but getting better mileage. Just for grins for a tank, I drove 15min away from work, turned around and then drove to work making the one way trip 16-18miles. Nothing changed, it gets an avg of 15mpg regardless and this is not brand either, I've tried Shell, Chevron, Sams, Citgo - makes no difference. I don't care what a diagnostic says, there is something wrong with this car - but try telling the service guy at the dealership that - they just look at you like you're stupid or something. I wrote Nissan USA months and months ago, but I didn't even rate a reply or a phone call.

I wish there was something I could do, but these are now ecu based and theres not much even a good mechanic can do without a diagnostic pointing you in the right direction. I'm not a dummy when I comes to cars, I did a ground up restoration on a 440 74 Ply GTX/Road Runner thats a show quaility car. I'm putting together a 71 Ply 360 Duster currently. I worked my way thru grad school for my masters in ME working as a Yamaha mechanic (factory trained) and I did a summer at a Chrysler Dealership as a mechanic before getting smart and moving to motorcycles - they're cleaner, you don't have to crawl under them and generally you don't get as greasy working on them. Paid just as much too.

I do know a guy that took a VW something and converted it to diesel and he makes his own biodiesel from restaurant cooking oil. He spends a lot of time doing that, but says his bio-d costs him about a buck a gallon. My buds Avalanche (sp?) gets better mileage than my Maxima, crap everybody gets better mileage than this sucker does, lol!! Donm't think I haven't tried doing something about it cause I have. I had to wait a yr to ease the financial hit on trading, but I'm looking currently and will be in different wheels end of the month. Wish me better luck!