Went on a road trip across Wyoming this weekend. Over 1200 miles added to the total this weekend. Tackled everything from the mountain passes close to home to the flat interstates. Even did several miles of back country on crappy roads.

My 6 speed Blue Onyx handled everything great. The ride was good, the seats very comfortable and never lacked power. I actually had a hard time staying at the 80 mph on the inter state, 85 was a great cruising speed.

Two adults, two dogs and supplies. Lots of room. I am very happy with this new car.

Jill

I'm glad your Versa is treating you so well. I haven't had mine on any mountain passes yet but we did take a 6 hour trip down south not too long ago and it performed admirably.

Did you have any trouble tackling any steep inclines?

No problems with steep inclines or even passing on steep inclines.

We usually travel in my husbands 2500hd Silverado truck. This could do everything but the bushwacking at 1/3 the price in gas.

I am more than pleased. It also handles very well in the curves.

Still need to get cruise control though.

That's good to hear. I've been sort of avoiding mountains for fear of being dissapointed by how it would take them.

Like you, I'm loving my Versa. I went with the Sapphire Blue, btw.I wish there were some way of getting cruise control into the S models, but I figure that I'll probably be trading mine in on an Altima in 2 years so I'll live with it till then.

well done, 32 mpg for speeds up to 85 mph is very impressive! you must have not used any AC for the whole trip

imagine if you forced yourself to go 55, then your mpg numbers would be way more impressive

Air conditioning was on almost all the time.

Jill

That is good mileage. I am trying to just get it to stay at 30 mpg!!

Mountain passes are no problem in 6th gear @ 65 mph. The revs are high enough to have more than enough hp to keep going even at 10,000 ft.

6 speed SL - almost 1,500 miles - LOVE the car !!

My last tank got right at 400 miles, with about 300 of that on the interstate (55 to 70 mph). I don't "top off" the tank - figure that if I want to get accurate mpg's, then just pull the nozzel when it clicks off - every time. I got over 33 mpg with the a/c on all the time !! I have NO doubt that had the 400 miles been ALL interstate, I would have gotten at least 35. Around town, so far I'm getting a little over 28 mpg.

Paula

Firstly, I'm thrilled to hear you're happy with your Versa. I love mine too.However, I'm sick to death of everyone posting these 30+ mpg numbers! I've been through 4 tanks now, and have never gotten over 26mpg.Needless to say, I'm not happy about it.I don't drive like a riceboy, nor do I putter along like your grandma.I just can't understand why my '95 Honda Civic Automatic with 110k miles gets MUCH better mileage than my Versa, with similar driving habits.I'm gonna go stew now, any advice (other than the 'egg on throttle' thing) would be appreciated.

Take it in to the dealer and have it checked. When they tell you the air-fuel alpha number is XX% tell them so what. That only proves there is a problem beyond the capability of the computer to diagnose itself.

IMO the issue is in the programming. There are lots of things that can cause poor fuel economy, but most can be picked up by self-diagnosis in the ECU. NOt so crappy software.

The dealer will also tell you software is out of his capability to modify or repair. That's where you have to insist the service manager raises your issue to the helpline at the factory. The word has to get through and the only channel NISSAN has open to their engineers is through the dealer network.

I have tried to push the issue through consumer affairs - it's a dead end.

I've had my car checked out, but I haven't pushed the issue with the dealer yet. I'll take it up when I'm in for my first oil change.

Anyone having unsatisfactory mileage despite driving in a conservative fassion needs to raise the issue through the dealer to the factory. You have to insist the service manager does his job and sit down on the phone with the helpline.

Best of luck.

Ben

LOL!!! My advice is to start driving like you stole it and make the dern things tongue hang out!! If mine does not improve somewhat, every take off is going to full throttle, every on ramp is going to be 6000 rpm and I am going to flat foot it on country roads around here and show it just how my FORD runs!!!! I do like the little rascal but enough is enough. When my parents big land yahct Mercury Grand Marquis that checks in over 4500 pounds with a V8 can get mid to upper 20's on the road, something is wrong when I only get barely 30 with the same stretch of road!!! To me, it should get close to the window sticker. And hell no, I ain't running it with no AC nor do I intend on coasting, pissing people off in traffic while I lolly gag around or any of the other tricks I keep hearing. The thing will get what it is rated at or I am going to have a lot of fun as it sucks the gas down!!! Sorry for the rant.

Quote »I'm gonna go stew now, any advice (other than the 'egg on throttle' thing) would be appreciated.[/quote]first off if your a highway driver the best advice is to slow down and start driving on the right lane! As slow as you can feel comfortable without getting tailgated all the time.

Get up to 6th gear asap, if my civic can cruise at 1200 rpms, 30 mph @ 5th gear then I'm sure your Versa can too however I'm sure your car is still being broken in so don't attempt this yet... until you feel you really need the mpg since too much gas and you can lug the engine. But with the right amount of throttle you can give the engine moderate load (higher load the better efficency but greater risk to strain the engine) and maintain your speed.

Start coasting up to the traffic lights, instead of being first in line at a traffic light try being the last guy to approach them. You'd be surprised by the time you reached towards the light its already green, ready for you to go! Remember you touch the brakes you waste energy (heck even hybrids when they regenerate their energy the amount is so small that even the regen feature is avoided at all costs!) and when you sit at a red light burning gas just to keep the engine on waiting for the light to turn green.. you know you godda slow down a little to get that light right.

Combine your trips, short trip kills mpg. ON a short trip your not giving enough time for the engine and the catalic converter to warm up so in a cold start the engine is programmed to use way more gas than usual just to get things running at an optimal temperature. If you reached your destination before things can warm up, then boy you know you wasted tons of gas just to travel like a mile! So combine your trips and start with the LONGEST TRIP FIRST so that by the time your at your destination, your engine is all hot and toasty so that the next time you start it up, it doesn't have to burn more gas than usual to warm it up.

That's it for now, master those techniques first, then you'll get the steak.

Phil, your suggestions are all valid, if we were talking about ways to conserve fuel on a large displacement engine.No doubt, the same techniques hold for the Versa with it's micro-motor, but the point electec and I are making is that there should be no reason to employ any of these 'tricks' in order to get fuel economy at or near the EPA numbers.As I said before, I have a '95 Honda Civic LX Automatic, with I think a 2.0L engine. It's 11 years old and has over 110K miles on it. I drive it like I'm always late (which I usually am!) and it still has never given me a tankful less than 30mpg.Something is seriously wrong with this picture.I think I'll try Ben's suggestion and take it up with my dealer. It can't hurt, and if enough of us complain, maybe Nissan will take notice and either fix the issue or revise (again) the window stickers to reflect more reasonable numbers.

Elmojo wrote:Phil, your suggestions are all valid, if we were talking about ways to conserve fuel on a large displacement engine.No doubt, the same techniques hold for the Versa with it's micro-motor, but the point electec and I are making is that there should be no reason to employ any of these 'tricks' in order to get fuel economy at or near the EPA numbers.As I said before, I have a '95 Honda Civic LX Automatic, with I think a 2.0L engine. It's 11 years old and has over 110K miles on it. I drive it like I'm always late (which I usually am!) and it still has never given me a tankful less than 30mpg.Something is seriously wrong with this picture.I think I'll try Ben's suggestion and take it up with my dealer. It can't hurt, and if enough of us complain, maybe Nissan will take notice and either fix the issue or revise (again) the window stickers to reflect more reasonable numbers.

hey man, a car only acts in the manner how his master drives it. You press the accel the car will give GAS to propel the car. Now I know you say you drive your civic in the same manner and get different mpg but remember your comparing two different beasts here. Just like how hybrids were compared corolla vs prius the same goes for civic vs versa.

Yes i know the two cars are in the same CLASS (ie: economy cars) however you have to give the civic the benifit of the doubt as it is one of the most efficent cars you can buy. The Versa was more of a luxury people's hauler and good amount of torque for city driving, and that of course comes with a price: fuel. Remember the Versa is at a hefty 2700 + pounds while the civic you mentioned (which has a 1.6 liter engine by the way) at a mere 2300 pounds. Also the civic has terffic power to weight ratio so that can get the car reaching its cruising speed really fast without much power.

Also I'm sure the civic is fully broken in, so all the parts are loose which translate to less friction! Your versa still needs a good 10000 miles or so before you can start seeing some magic and doing tricks like i am

Also its not the dealer's fault what the sticker says, those stickers are not even suggested by Nissan themselfs! Every car has to go through a test which simulates a 1970 city driving run, and then a highway run. And depending on what scores they get (and get this... the milage is calculated by how much exhaust the car produced, there's a suction thingy that sits on back of the exhaust and then the computer calcualtes it) those were the scores that must be put on the window sticker. This is goverment regulation (also know as the EPA or Enviromental Protection Agency) and every car must do this, manufactors cannot submit a number of their own ever.

The EPA is going to revist the tests, this time including A/C use, the stickers will go in effect in 2008.