Let's Talk CVT

[RicoOnTheRocks]

OK, I see that some of you are getting pretty significantly higher mpg than I am in my sl w/cvt. I'm wondering if there is a certain technique that you are using while driving that is aiding you? I tend to keep the rpm under 2000 and don't accelerate or break hard. Being winter, I even tend to not use the Heat/AC. Anyway, how do you drive your cvt to get the best possible mpg?

I've posted this here before, but my city driving typically consists of a 2.5 mile drive to work in the morning, 2.5 miles home for lunch to let the dog out, 2.5 back to work and 2.5 back home. I tend to take the bus on the days that my wife goes home for lunch/dog. I suspect that the extremely short nature of these trips is the culprit for me. Thoughts?

[kc5f]

I think you've got it as far as the short trips. I get pretty good mileage (30 in winter, 32 in summer) but it's mostly long trips, with a 54-mile drive to work almost all at highway speed. I'm also pretty conservative in my driving.

One thing I'm able to do, being in the mountains, is coast for anywhere from 1-3 miles at a time when conditions are right. The car will hold its own just fine in Neutral, where if I were in Drive I'd either have to give it gas from time to time or at least watch the rpm's stay at 2000-2500 instead of idling at 700-750.

[proxim2020]

I remember the other topic and it was agreed by pretty much everyone that the short trips were probably the cause of your problems. Let's make a hypothetical situation.

Lets say you make you 2.5 mile trip to work where it's a complete straight shot. You only need to accelerate from home and stop when you get into work. Lets say it take it very easy and it takes you half a mile to accelerate to your cruising speed. That means you're spending 20% of your time accelerating. Now lets put kc5f in that same situation with a 54 mile commute. They would only be accelerating 0.9% of the time. This is a total perfect world scenario. Acceleration is a MPG killer. I'm not saying that this is your only problem. You should take you car out on a highway trip to get your top number. Do more city driving to get you low number.

[Jemdawg]

Now is a bad time to judge your MPG ratings, as it is winter and they will be low no matter what you do. I managed to finish a tank at 360 miles, with 70% of it as highway driving. This number may have reached even 400 miles if it were warmer outside. I find that you get better MPG in the city if you spend your time coasting as much as you can, and braking early before a red light to, hopefully, get there when it turns green so you don't have to stop completely. As for highway driving, I find it better to average around 80+ mph; I've made several 250 mile highway trips (I usually do this every two weeks) and I've noticed that I get significantly worse fuel economy when I keep my speed at a steady 70 mph. Go figure. It takes a while to get a real feel for these driving habits, but the best you can do is what I do: when you get bad gas milage, do the opposite of what you were doing and compare the results. If you're driving at slow speeds and low revs in the city, try turning the O/D off to raise the revs and see what happens. The car definitely has potential for a 400+ mile tank, we just have to do some weird things whereas those with the 6MT can achieve greater fuel economy with much more ease.

[Bubs daddy]

The CVT, something I was curious about when I bought the car, is now one of the best features that I like now. Just a cool, nifty contraption.

I make sure I don't go over 3000 RPM most of the time during acceleration, even on freeway ramps. You really don't need to go over that as the Versa picks up pretty fast and before you know it, you're at highway speed.

Having a gentle foot on the accelerator helps tremendously.

[Jemdawg]

Yep, I'd say that 3000 rpms is ideal for accelerating at any speed. That's what I do and it has earned me fairly decent fuel economy so far.