I'm getting the hang of this hypermiling thing. I just drove my SE-R to Albuquerque, to give it to my daughter's family. It's an 1100 mile drive, in a car that has a 22 mpg EPA combined mpg estimate. I averaged 42 mpg on the first tank, and 43 mpg on the second tank, nearly 200% of the EPA estimate. Both could easily have been 500 mile tanks, as the low fuel warning light hadn't gone on, and I have another 30 miles in the tank after that.

If the Scion IQ comes with a gas sipper engine, I'll bet I could beat TDI mpgs with it. Not sure what I'll do for my next vehicle. I'm likely to wait for small 1.2 and 1.4 liter turbos to reach our domestic market, or perhaps buy a Leaf or a used 2G Prius.

 

Taking this mileage thing to new heights. I drove a 5 mile test loop using my normal P&G technique, and got 61.9 mpg. Then I drove it with third gear P&G, and got 68 mpg! When there's no traffic around, I can slow down and add 5 mpg on many trips.

 

thats some amazing numbers...

I've yet to crack a 31 mpg tank

 

I got 48.26 mpg on my last tank, driving down US 101 to Pismo Beach. My worst tank ever out of 53 fill-ups was 32.9 mpg, when I drove 70 mph to meet some friends.

I'll give you a window into my week. On Monday I drove 60 miles round-trip to buy live lobster for our wedding anniversary. I planned a route to take empty country roads and avoid freeways, so I could drive 25-40 mph without slowing anyone up. I averaged 49 mpg for the drive. On the way back, I did my 5 mile experimental drives on a dead-end spur. The experimental stuff is because I'm entered in a fuel economy contest this quarter, and I want to learn what I have to do to win. Obviously, 62 mpg is outstanding for 5 miles in an xB, but 68 mpg is even better. I can get 62 mpg between 25 and 40 mph, so most people barely notice me as they pass that slowpoke on the country roads with 25-45 mph limits. 68 mpg requires me to poke along between 15-25 mph, which is dangerously slow. Thus, I'll only do that when there's no one else in sight, and I'd never tried it until this competition. The new knowledge will come in handy during this cold weather season, driving around the neighborhood 25 mph PSL streets and the local industrial park until the toaster is warmed up and I get out of town.

Tuesday I drove my wife about 35 miles round-trip to her college so she could turn in some papers. It's also on back roads, and I averaged 49 mpg going out. On the way back, I tried my maximum mpg stuff for about 5 of the 17 miles, and averaged 53.7 mpg.

Driving that slow may seem tedious, but those drives are through farm country and marshland. State Fish and Game just flooded its property in the marsh, and 1200 Canada Geese and 100 Tundra Swans just arrived this week from the north. I'm always looking for Ferruginous Hawks and Mountain Plovers, used motorcycles for sale, etc.

 

I started this tank with some low mpg drives, including into downtown Oakland for a Dr's appointment for my wife. So I'd only been averaging 42 mpg for the first 120 miles. Since I upped my game, I've been averaging 60 mpg drives for the past 100 miles. That's good enough to bring my entire tank average up to 48.4 mpg, and it will continue going up with more than half a tank to go. My record tank was 550 miles at a 51.5 mpg average. I should beat that easily if I cherry pick my drives. I can do that now, since we've got my wife's car back (we'd loaned it to her daughter for a couple of months while I did some repairs to the daughter's car). I'm doing real world driving - just avoiding high speed highway drives and short drives in town. Monday I drove to Costco (32 mile round-trip) to buy a box of ten reams of paper, on country back roads, averaging 60 mpg.

I figure I'll enter the winter competition, too. So my next tank is likely to be a kilotank - 625 miles, or 1000 km, on a single tank - in the dead of winter. I'm not likely to drive that slow that long very often, but I will during these competitions. So stay tuned for some amazing xB fuel economy postings.

 

Update on my current tank. My low fuel light came on at 518 miles, before Christmas. I drove my wife's car down to San Diego for the holidays, so I haven't refilled my xB yet.

When I got my personal best 552 mile tank, the low fuel light went on at 500 miles, and I ended up with a 51.5 mpg average for that tank. My current tank should be better. Not bad, for salvaging what started as a a 42 mpg tank after 120 miles.

 

I just filled my record tank: 554.0 miles on 10.547 gal, for a 52.5 mpg average. Next Summer, I'll try for a metric kilotank: 1000 km before refueling.

 

My current tank is going to be better. Here's a photo showing 399.4 miles on the trip odometer, and the fuel gauge is barely below the half tank mark. I fully expect to get more than 600 miles before I have to refill.

 

Wow I'm usually at the 150 miles mark at half a tank. You sir are quite awesome.

 

I agree....
no matter what...we cant seem to get more than 28 or 29 mpgs

hats off to you Sentra!!!

 

My highest ever was 33mpg even. I drove the box like an old lady for a whole tank.

My worst tank was around 12mpg. I was in a hurry to get to ATL and ran a whole tank down going quite fast indeed.

 

Thanks, guys. Considering that the 2008 EPA combined mpg estimate for our 1G xBs is 28 mpg, you're right where you should be. When it starts costing us $50 to fill up, I think I'll have lots more company trying to improve fuel economy. Right now, I enjoy playing my real-time video game.

Current tank average 54.1 mpg, 400 miles driven, about 200 more miles distance to empty.


Recent trip round-trip mpg. I got this mpg on a mostly flat drive, not a 30 mile downhill like you might be guessing,'

 

Hey sentra, Can you provide a link to that device? I am quite interested in one. And do you connect it to your OBD in the car? Thanks

 

It's an Ultragauge, with something like 44 different gauges you can choose to display on an xB1. Costs $60, but it doubles as a scan tool to read and reset trouble codes, so it's worth the cost just for that ability. Here's the link.

 

sweet thanks sentra! I purchased one and look forward to using it. Something I have been wanting. Plus bought 4 new tires, have had my old ones since owning and I am sure they are getting pretty bad. I checked my psi for the front 2 and they come out to 20PSi. Pretty bad I know but I have just been too damn lazy to change it. My new tires will be installed on friday! woo!

 

I'm a touch under 500 miles on my current tank, with a bit more than a quarter tank to go, averaging 54.4 mpg. 100 more miles should be a sure thing.

 

I did it Sunday. More than 1000 km (621.37 miles) on a single tank. I went 621.6 miles on 10.563 gallons, for a 58.84 mpg average! The low fuel light came on at 575 miles

 

Nice feat sentra! I still dont see how you do it in the bay area but congrats! Hey got the tool and boy is it awesome. I am loving it. Thanks so much for posting that pic of it, it really helps me adjust my average MPGs. My current tank is at 31MPG!!! WOO! and that is a lot for me! very happy.

 

The Ultragauge is going to be about 15% optimistic until/unless you calibrate it. It will definitely help you improve your mpg if you watch its displays, and adjust your driving. I use the following displays on my primary screen:

I accelerate keeping engine load <85, for the best brake specific fuel consumption. I've done cruise-controlled test drives at different speeds to confirm that the slower I go, the better average trip mpg I get.

 

yeah, i will do the mpg calibration the next fuel up. it says to do the calibration a couple times to become more accurate so i will do that next time. quick question: the average MPG (general), is that for all time use of the car? or will that reset during the next fuel up? or will i have to rely on the average MPG trip that you have used above ^^^. Currently my primary has Inst MPG, MPG Ave, DTE, Fuel Used, Fuel Level (gal), and Inst. Gal/Hour. I guess i could replace Gal/Hr. with engine load. that might be more useful. I dont see how timing advance can help with saving fuel. I dont understand what that gauge does.