Averaged 42 mpg on my last road trip

[roboturner]

I took a 5 hour round trip to help a friend scout out a new apartment.

Went 65-70 pretty much the whole way. This was with the air conditioning on full blast (temperature highs here in Louisiana have been around 105 the last week or so) and myself, my girlfriend, and my buddy in the car.

[fjwagner]

I took a 5 hour round trip to help a friend scout out a new apartment.

Went 65-70 pretty much the whole way. This was with the air conditioning on full blast (temperature highs here in Louisiana have been around 105 the last week or so) and myself, my girlfriend, and my buddy in the car.

I want to believe you, but how did you calculate the mpg? 65-70 with three people is so far off my best using cruise at 65 by myself (30 mpg). Fill the tank to the first auto shut-off then divide by the miles driven since the last full tank where you went with the auto shut-off?

[Rockhound]

I want to believe you, but how did you calculate the mpg? 65-70 with three people is so far off my best using cruise at 65 by myself (30 mpg). Fill the tank to the first auto shut-off then divide by the miles driven since the last full tank where you went with the auto shut-off?

I understand your skepticism, and while I can't vouch for the accuracy of his calculation, his Versa's transmission could is a crucial detail.

Not sure what kind of transmission he has, but I know the CVT keeps RPMs much lower at highway cruising speeds than the conventional 4spd auto and manual transmission as well. Our lifetime best mileage (34 MPG) was with the cruise set around 82 MPH, just my wife and I in the car, but we did have luggage, as we were driving back from New Orleans to Tulsa in mid May last year.

[Codelicious]

How many gallons of gas does the Versa tank hold?10?12?

Couldn't you just take the miles driven and divide it by the size of the tank? (that is.. if you filled it all the way up!)

[srellim234]

I'm not sceptical of the calculation but I am sceptical of the completeness of the fill-up. I often find a discrepancy from tank to tank that is clearly due to the gas pump shutting off a little prematurely. It usually evens itself after the next "fuel up" when you wind up putting more fuel in the tank and the calculation delivers a figure much lower than expected. Long term average is much more important than the calculations for only one tank.

My best ever tank was 36.4 mpg but I'm sure I was in the 40+ club for a while on that tank. I was going a really steady 45-55 mph on perfectly flat roads with almost no signals on the panhandle in Florida.

Last week, with two of us in the car, two full sets of golf clubs and 100% freeway at 70 mph (to Palm Springs and back on consecutive days) I had my best tank in over a year at 32.3 mpg. That was nursing it to prevent the rpms from getting to 3,000 on both uphills and downhills.

[kc5f]

I often find a discrepancy from tank to tank

That's why I never look at single tank values, but averages over several, as my sig shows.

[alonsorules8]

I agree with everyone's comments about overall mpg. However last fall when I was in Alexandria LA I filled up putting 11.2 gallons of fuel on my tank and drove all the way to Birmingham AL which is 423 miles and took 11.0 gallons to fill up.

I know some regions use different additives in their fuel but the original posters 42mpg is very possible because they do not have many steep grades.

[oxtsc64]

Evidently, the CVT gets a lot better mileage than the 4 speed auto, which I have in my sedan. I wasn't aware of this when I bought my car. The best I've gotten on the highway is 32. I average around 24.5 in strict city driving. One other point, I don't drive this car agressively at all. I said I would be happy with this car if it averaged what it was rated and it is. Other than that, I have no complaints about this car. My son just bought a Cube with the CVT and is getting much better mileage than I am.

[roboturner]

I want to believe you, but how did you calculate the mpg? 65-70 with three people is so far off my best using cruise at 65 by myself (30 mpg). Fill the tank to the first auto shut-off then divide by the miles driven since the last full tank where you went with the auto shut-off?

Before I left, I filled up and reset the trip. When I got home, I filled up (stopped at the first click-off, as I always do) and divided the gallons I pumped (5.41 into mileage from the trip (227.4) and came out with 42.0332.

I still have the the gas receipt right here that I figured it out on.

[Rockhound]

How many gallons of gas does the Versa tank hold?10?12?

Couldn't you just take the miles driven and divide it by the size of the tank? (that is.. if you filled it all the way up!)

You're never going to use every last drop of gasoline...so no, you shouldn't divide by the tank size, just divide by the volume you pumped.

If you divide by the tank capacity, a difference of one gallon could produce an error of over 2 MPG, depending on the total miles driven, of course.

[Urq]

Yes the ONLY way you can do it,and get it correct is to calculate on the volume you've pumped not by the clicks at the pump!

[frankoV]

I'm not sceptical of the calculation but I am sceptical of the completeness of the fill-up.

My best ever tank was 36.4 mpg but I'm sure I was in the 40+ club for a while on that tank.

Or the overzealous fill. Case in point: my best tank in my last trip was 47.61 mpUSg [57 IMPmpg, 4.94 l/100 km] . . . to which I say "no way".

I did get some great mileage on a per-tank basis [half-a-dozen tanks in the 35 mpUSg range] but overall on my trip not quite so good . . .but good enough.

Average speed 70-75 mph with A/C on; one tank of in town driving.

Total distance driven: 5,659 km = 3516 milesTotal gas used: 404.1 l = 106.8 USGAverage mileage: 7.14 l/100km = 32.94 mpUSg

I can live with it. But I certainly like the best tank and would love it consistently!

[NODES]

The versa tank is

How many gallons of gas does the Versa tank hold?10?12?

Couldn't you just take the miles driven and divide it by the size of the tank? (that is.. if you filled it all the way up!)

it holds 14GL

[Bubs daddy]

Actually, 13 and 7/8 gallons (52.4 liters for you Canucks).