A123 Prius Plugin

[johnrobholmes]

Yeah, like a small moped or motorcycle. Assuming 100mpg vs 15 in a light truck the break even is 10,000 miles for a $6000 scooter (expensive)

Believe it or not, my 07 Maxima only gets 15mpg in city (dealer says there's nothing wrong with it - bought it new, window sticker said 21mpg in city) - guess mines a lemon. Be saying bye-bye to it this month. I'm in the business so to speak (petroleum) and afraid its going to get worse before it even thinks about getting better. My 'scooter' though gets 54mpg even when I'm flogging it.


I guess that stack of a123s is for the really green folks who don't worry about cost and trifling details like that.

[BrianG]

Originally Posted by Duster_360

Believe it or not, my 07 Maxima only gets 15mpg in city (dealer says there's nothing wrong with it - bought it new, window sticker said 21mpg in city) - guess mines a lemon.

Wow, 15mpg in the city?? Something has gotta be wrong with that! Do you treat the gas pedal like an on/off switch? Is that typical for that car (going by user reviews)?

Back when I had an automatic, I noticed an improvement in gas mileage simply by putting it in neutral when idling at a stoplight. The torque converter does slip but there is still load on the motor (hence the need to keep the brake pressed).

Originally Posted by BrianG

Wow, 15mpg in the city?? Something has gotta be wrong with that! Do you treat the gas pedal like an on/off switch? Is that typical for that car (going by user reviews)?

Back when I had an automatic, I noticed an improvement in gas mileage simply by putting it in neutral when idling at a stoplight. The torque converter does slip but there is still load on the motor (hence the need to keep the brake pressed).

Brian, Ive done everything. I ran an entire tank where I never let the engine rpm get over 2200 - hvy with the pedal indeed. I got flipped off more times that week that I prob have been in my life! I ran a tank using crusie control only - as soon as I gently got to 30mph, immed on cruise. I drive no more than 40mph and know how to get this CVT trans to upshift early and lock in top gear. The rewards - maybe a 1mpg improvement. Whats frustrating is I know there's something wrong somewhere with the car. There are 7 of these Maximas where I work and they get 18 to 20mpg. But bottom line for todays top flight mechanic - if it doesn't show up on a diagnostic, then there is nothing wrong. I traded my 5spd truck which was getting 18s for this sucker. Very disappointed - won't own another one ever! Meantime while I'm shopping around, I'll try the neutral business, hadn't heard that one before.

JRH - I don't get calculator out for everything, but try to do what makes sense financially - when our tax deductions no longer helped, I paid off the house, no more throwing interest money away. I elected to buy siding instead of painting every other year 18 yrs ago - thats now paying for itself with each passing year. I ride my motorcycles as much as I can. They are being used as well as my mtn bike (the exercise is great, I've lost almost 20lbs since 1st of year) and walking. I used to buy a tank a week, now its down to a tank a month - even with that stupid gas guzzler I'm driving. When I get something else, it'll be even less often.

[cart213]

Originally Posted by Duster_360

Brian, Ive done everything. I ran an entire tank where I never let the engine rpm get over 2200 - hvy with the pedal indeed. I got flipped off more times that week that I prob have been in my life! I ran a tank using crusie control only - as soon as I gently got to 30mph, immed on cruise. I drive no more than 40mph and know how to get this CVT trans to upshift early and lock in top gear. The rewards - maybe a 1mpg improvement. Whats frustrating is I know there's something wrong somewhere with the car. There are 7 of these Maximas where I work and they get 18 to 20mpg. But bottom line for todays top flight mechanic - if it doesn't show up on a diagnostic, then there is nothing wrong. I traded my 5spd truck which was getting 18s for this sucker. Very disappointed - won't own another one ever! Meantime while I'm shopping around, I'll try the neutral business, hadn't heard that one before.

There's definitely something wrong with your car. I used to have an 07 Maxima, and I got about 21~22 mpg on average. During the first ~1000 miles or so, I was getting 18~19 mpg, but then it increased once it was broken in. How many miles are on your car?

Btw, how are you figuring the mpg? Are you just reading the display screen, or are you actually calculating the amount of fuel used vs. the miles driven?

It got almost 6000mi - most of the time I leave it sitting in the garage and drive/ride something else. I learned early on the trip computer needs to be zero'ed whenever you want accurate data from it, but my gas mileage has always been mileage/gallons at the pump - what the deale calls tehold fashioned way. The number on the trip computer right now is 15.7mpg.

The trip computer is amazingly accurate, but only if you zero it and let it stabilize whenever you want a good number.

What caused you to sell yours?

[cart213]

Originally Posted by Duster_360

What caused you to sell yours?

I didn't sell it. It was a lease.

[BrianG]

Originally Posted by Duster_360

Brian, Ive done everything. I ran an entire tank where I never let the engine rpm get over 2200 - hvy with the pedal indeed. I got flipped off more times that week that I prob have been in my life! I ran a tank using crusie control only - as soon as I gently got to 30mph, immed on cruise. I drive no more than 40mph and know how to get this CVT trans to upshift early and lock in top gear. The rewards - maybe a 1mpg improvement. Whats frustrating is I know there's something wrong somewhere with the car. There are 7 of these Maximas where I work and they get 18 to 20mpg. But bottom line for todays top flight mechanic - if it doesn't show up on a diagnostic, then there is nothing wrong. I traded my 5spd truck which was getting 18s for this sucker. Very disappointed - won't own another one ever! Meantime while I'm shopping around, I'll try the neutral business, hadn't heard that one before.

It was worth a shot...

On cruise I get worse mileage because the comp tries to keep a steady speed no matter what, so down hills it lets off the gas totally, but has to press a lot going back up. Doing it without cruise lets you build up speed slowly down hills so you have momentum to help you out going back up the hill. Not sure how hilly it is where you are...

Also, have you tried resetting the computer? I've been told that some cars "learn" how you drive and adjust settings accordingly. So, if you're a fast driver who likes to punch hard off the line, the comp adjusts for that, but mileage suffers. Might need to be reset so it re-learns your driving style. Don't know the truth behind this, but something to think about.

I noticed better mileage just changing over to a K&N stock replacement air filter.

The mechanics are probably finding nothing wrong because the car isn't throwing any codes, but that doesn't mean something isn't quite right. Any of the sensors could be a bit off and throwing off the computer - but not enough to generate an error code.

I had an old Contour that ran like crap for quite a while and was getting worse. The Ford dealer said I needed around $300+ to fix it. Well, at the time I didn't have that to throw away (on top of the $100 diag fee I spent for them to tell me that), so I looked at it myself. I found (by accident) there was a super fine layer of dust coating the MAF. Took a Q-tip and gently cleaned it. Ran like a champ after that and was FREE! And had nothing to do with what the techs were going to replace so their "fix" would've done NOTHING. I'm sure there are techs that know their stuff, but I woudn't trust them totally...

Good luck, hope you find your issue...