Miles and Thoughts

[electech]

Well, after 9 days of owning our new Versa, I thought I would share a few thoughts. First, on the way to work tomorrow, I should be breaking the 1200 mile "break in " period. When we picked up the car on August 19, it had 12 miles on it, now it will have 1200+ on the 10th day! So far, the couple of times I have checked the mileage, it has been good. The last 2 fill ups were 30.5 and 31.7mpg. Here are some other observations:

-When the yellow low fuel light comes on, it does indeed have 2 gallons left. It has checked out both times I have tried it.

-It looks like a good indicator on whether you are achieving 30 mpg is to watch the fuel gauge and make sure you are at or over 100 miles at the 3/4 mark, 200 miles at the 1/2 mark and 300 at the 1/4 mark. When the yellow low fuel light comes on, you need to be at 330 miles in order to be getting 30 mpg.

-With the 70 percent highway, 30 percent city driving, it looks like it will settle into a 31 to 32 range after some more miles if I can drive it like I should!!

-The seat back needs another notch in the adjustment or a finer set of adjustments. I find myself too straight up in one notch and too far back one notch back!!

-On sunny mornings, going east, I find the lack of a dark tint strip across the top of the windshield annoying. I don't get that one!!

-The AC seems a liittle weak in bright sun and the window tinting should help a lot. That is scheduled to September 15.

-So far, I have only encountered one other Versa while out and about, in the local grocery store parking lot. It is like spotting Bigfoot when you see one!!!

-The CVT is great and once you master the "egg under foot" throttle approach, I believe will pull down some great mileage numbers.

-The AM portion of the radio absolutely sucks!! The JBL system in my '02 Explorer is much better. Of course, I could buy 2 1/2 Versa's for the price of my Explorer!!!

-To me, the AC compressor sounds a bit noisy and I will have to pay attention to it to see if it gets louder.

-Whoever is in charge of assembling these needs to tell the workers to wash their greasy paws before handling interior components. The rubber trim around the pillars and door opening is dirty looking. I am talking about the beige rubber trim pieces.

Overall, I would have to say this looks like it is going to be a great little car. The best part is, it doesn't look cheap either!!

[Ever Victorious]

The tint does indeed make a huge difference on interior temperature in the sun. Since you haven't taken yours in for tinting, I would suggest when you do so to have them do a 6" strip along the top of the windshield (if legal in your locale... it is here).. as dark as they legally can make it.

The Versa windshield is HUGE, and it won't block your view, but will cut out a lot of that excess light.

And I know what you mean about spotting another one. Today I saw the third one I've seen since I bought mine (a month). It happened to be a mile down the street from my house, and a Blue Onyx SL. I waved. I got looked at like I was on crack.

[electech]

LOL!!! I know they are selling these things, I don't know where they are hiding them though!!! That is a good idea on the windshield, I hadn't thought of that. I will ask them about that. The guys are very professional at the place I go to and should be able to tell me.

[Elmojo]

I asked my tint guy about doing the windshield strip. He said in NC, he can do a 5.5" strip across the top. The downside is that it's not a faded tint like factory tint would be, but an actual piece of the same tint they use for the rest of the windows, so you'll have a defined line between the tint/no tint areas. I decided against the windshield strip for this reason.I doubt there would be any restriction on the darkness of the strip, since they sell those ugly "camaro" and "chevy" windshield stickers that are totally opaque, but I'd check to be sure.Just my $0.02 <- this emote is hilarious!

[JeppAbando]

yeah, so far here in MD, i've seen 1 on the highway, only because i have so much time to drive. 60 miles to work, then 60 miles back.

as for the windshield strip, actually, the tiniting in general, mind if i ask what are the going prices to tint all the windows/windshield? average price in your area. this versa is my first new car ever and i dunt want to mess up, at least by saving some benjamins.

and yea, with all the talks on the manuals in this messageboard, now i wanna switch mine from CVT to manual.. would that be an easy task?

1.8 SLSuper BlackCVTWaldorf, MD

[Ever Victorious]

Noone's tried a transmission swap, but in general transmission swaps require a donor car so at this point it would actually be cheaper to just trade it in on a manual.

I've probably paid the most for window tint ($369), but...

1) I didn't have to make an appointment over a month in advance (just 24 hours in advance) and

2) They used Llumar's best metallized film, and it has a lifetime warranty on it.

[electech]

The price of getting the windows tinted is $215 here. That is for the best metallized film by Formula One. On the transmission, I love the CVT in mine. I initially wanted to get the manual but am glad I got the CVT. It is very smooth and good on gas so far.

[ruthfish]

electech - thanks a lot for the mileage-gauge markers on the fuel dial.

i filled up for the first time on monday and have been keeping tabs.

doing well with the fuel economy - the Versa is great!

cheers

[FlightNurse]

After owning my Versa now for almost 2 months, I'll piggy back on your thoughts..

I agree with you about the front windshield, I wish the sun visors were wider, I think tha would fix the problem.

Regarding the A/C, I live in PHX,AZ and I don't have a problem with the A/C even when we were in the 112-115 degree weather, granted my windows are tinted and used a front window shield. But I can tell you the A/C in our 05 Altima is the best A/C unit I have ever owned...

I wish the front seats could be lowered more then they are (yes I know how to adjust them) when sitting at a red light I can NOT see the lights in front of me as I'm sitting too high..

But I really do love this car, its easy to drive, easy to park, love the Intelli Key and Bluetooth...

Tony

[OKVersa]

The book says not to run the Versa over "long periods" at a constant speed for break-in.

Why?

And what is a "long period?"