Made a chance discovery today, at least on my vehicle. Have the 2007 SL with CVT.

I've noticed that when going about 60mph or so and let off, the motor holds rpm and I can feel the drag as the speed decreases. At about 20, the drag stops and the vehicle feels as if it's free-wheeling. Good, that helps with the fuel economy. Was wondering whey Nissan didn't do a little better and let it free-wheel at a higher speed. Would sure be a fuel saver. Had a Buick Rivera that did this at any speed.

By chance at a speed of about 40mph I let off and again just tapped the gas pedal. Surprise the rpm dropped to 1100 and continued to coast at 40 as there was a slight drop in the road. I did this again (tap) at higher speeds but could not get the same result.

So it seems on my car at least, if one taps the pedal at 40mph or less after removing foot it will go into free-wheeling mode. Maybe my vehicle has a Fluke? Don't know but I like this way. I'm going to mention this to the shop man at my next visit.

Would like to hear from anyone else that notices that on their Versa.

Automatic transmissions that will hold rpm and "engine brake" are becoming more common. The 5 speed manumatic found in various other Nissans does this as well. While it's not as good for fuel economy, it has other benefits. For instance: it's very helpful on hills, especially in the CVT where you can't just move the gear selector to a lower gear, and saves your brakes.

Understand all that. If gasoline continues to hold or still increase and it will I'm sure, watch manufactors move away from that. When a vehicle can coast down a half mile road at idle and you pass this road every day for years, well think of the fuel saved. The Versa has one option to eliminate the brake issue. The "Overdrive" button. Wouldn't do this if the Owners Manual didn't reommend it. Use it for brake assist when needing to stop quickly!

Mudd wrote:Understand all that. If gasoline continues to hold or still increase and it will I'm sure, watch manufactors move away from that. When a vehicle can coast down a half mile road at idle and you pass this road every day for years, well think of the fuel saved. The Versa has one option to eliminate the brake issue. The "Overdrive" button. Wouldn't do this if the Owners Manual didn't reommend it. Use it for brake assist when needing to stop quickly!

nice! are you saying you can control when you want the engine braking to come on the CVT? MMM makes me want to spring the extra bucks for it, smooth and does what you want! And is there anything about its coasting abilities you have doubts with? Does putting it in N solves the problem? When accelerating from dead zero, can you minimize the rpms to save fuel (even though i understand some can't tolerate that kind of acce but I can like keeping it under 2000? When not coasting when are your rpms at different crusing speeds?

Thanks for the answers!

No, I haven't figured out how to make the motor hold after tapping the pedal to make it coast.

I wouldn't put it in N as this could create problems with the CVT. Maybe not oil properly or something to that nature. Just an opinion.

I'm an old geezer and acceleration is not my thing anymore. I press the pedal to go and once moving if I hold it there I notice the RPMs gradually fall to about 1200. If I'm on relatively level roadway the RPM hold at that and the car gradually reaches about 40 mph, still at about 1200, Should I encounter a hill then all things are different.

I'm glad I discovered the Coast thing with tapping the gas pedal quickly and it more or less going into free-wheeling.

I read a post earlier that the CVT was a "learning" system and I'm beginning to believe that. Hope the Poster was right.

Did I answer your question?

wow very low rpms for the cvt i'm impressed! hm so if i can get this right, when crusing at 30 or 40 mph and then if you were to let your foot off the gas, would the revs stay there or drop like a fly?

If it drops like a fly, (like certain automatics i've driven like the camry or nissan quest) then the car will go into a coast state mode until you hit the accelerator again and then the transmission would rev match for you and accelerate you in the most approiate gear (depending how much throttle you punched) This rule is ignored once you reached certain highway speeds, (like 50 mph or more) and then if you were to let your foot off the gas, the engine revs WON"T DROP and will maintain engine braking. At this point I just let the gas off, wait till engine braking kicks in and then put it into n. The engine is given just ENOUGH GAS so that it doesn't stall and lubricate whatever it needs. (I'm curious to see what the owners manual says about using N.) From there on I'd coast until a) my speed gets to low, put it back into d and the revs don't change. Wait one sec and then accelerate as if everything was okay!

Sometimes if I"m on the highway, and i feel I can use N without needing to stop (like a mild hill) I'd go into it but once I want to go back into D the engine is not synced, so I rev it up and then put it into auto and if your lucky no dead revs will appear (clutch slipping).

So does your CVT Versa act in the same manner ^^ I'm so curious! I'm afraid the test drive won't be enough to answer my questions