Gas mileage for my car

[geForce]

Here's a cool story for you, bros:

My fuel economy has been getting worse and worse on my car. I started off getting around 450 kms per tank, now I'm getting 380 kms, maaaybe 400 max.

I brought my car in to get it serviced, and I told the guy I'm only getting 380. His response was - "hmm, that's not too bad". That response already made me pretty mad, but I was calm and said that I didn't think it was good at all and I know other owners are getting better, plus I bought this car because it was advertised as able to get 700 kms per tank!!
Reference:
http://www.nissan.ca/vehicles/suv/rogue ... -Features/

He replied that the advertised mileage is in "perfect conditions and varies with weather" etc etc.
I get that, and I'm not expecting 700 kms, but would 500 kms be too much to ask for? I traded in a 245 hp, full time AWD WRX that got better mileage, and I drove that car hard because it was fun to drive. The Rogue is not fun to drive, but that's okay because that's not why I got it. I got it for the better fuel economy, but if I'm not even getting that, what was the point?

Then his next reponse was what really pi$$ed me right off:
"Well, there's nothing much we can do. We can plug it into the computer and if it reads normal, which it will, then we can't do anything."

They probably get so many people coming in complaining of bad fuel economy that they already have pre-formulated responses. I hate that so much! Argh...

Sorry for the rant.

[[JT]]

Thanks for making me feel better.

[geForce]

Don't tell me you're getting better mileage in your Mustang.... actually, do tell me that - I can use it in my argument against the dealership.

[se7entse7en]

I can go over 500kms in my car when driving home. I can probably go closer to 600, but there aren't many gas stations in the last 100kms or so, so I don't risk it. It's only a V6, though, and I don't recall the tank size.

*Edit: I think it's a 60L tank.

[[JT]]

i'm getting just under 400 km on a 60L tank.................................................

[geForce]

That's pretty good! My tank is 60L too and I'm getting the same mileage as you. You probably drive your car hard too, since it's such a fun car to drive.

[geForce]

Argh - the fun continues.
Dealership calls me up and says everything shows normal on the computer. He also said that the fuel consumption ratings advertised by Nissan is based on numbers given to them by the government and I should go to the government to complain. wtf kind of answer is that?

[Duncan]

my gas mileage sucks too. But that's probably because i'm driving short distances and hardly ever on the highway these days. and i kinda have a lead foot. I get roughly about 400km/tank (when the gas light goes on, i assume you're not talking about running it absolutely empty) and i think i have a 58L tank. I average around 12-13.5L/100km depending on city/hwy use. I've actually tried driving lightly and not like i usually do and i can get it to about 12L/100km. but yea, my normal speed is about 13-13.5L/100km.

our suvs suck cuz they're generally underpowered for the weight of the car. I do know that my hwy consumption is pretty good. after filling up on the way home from the outlets one time, i tried to drive at optimal speed to see how low i could get my L/100km, and i got it down to like 7.4L/100km

[geForce]

I know our SUV's suck, but I know there are other people in Vancouver with my exact same car who are getting 500-550 kms per tank. Sure, the car is underpowered, but it was still underpowered when they were doing the fuel consumption tests.

[se7entse7en]

Do you have your winters or your summers on?

[geForce]

All seasons

[Duncan]

it depends on how you drive and whether or not you drive on the hwy and what time too. When alicia drives the tucson, she takes it on the hwy to work against traffic. When i drive, i drive stop and go traffic between stop signs and lights for all of 5 minutes a time. If she drove 2 weeks straight, she'd get 10-20% more per tank than i do.

[se7entse7en]

IMO, there's more of a correlation between fuel consumption and engine running time than to actual distance covered. If you spend a half hour each day waiting at traffic lights, that's 50km/day that you could have gone had you been at cruising speed on the highway... and burn roughly the same amount of gas.

I live 7.5 kms from church and it takes me about 15 minutes to get there. I typically drive @ ~60km/h. That means I spend half the time waiting at lights.

Driving in the city really burns a lot of gas.

[jeSteR]

Your results don't surprise me at all actually. When I first got my car, my office was on 6 road in Richmond. I would be getting around 475 kms / fill (so maybe 1/8 tank left) using 92 Octane. Ever since we moved to nowheresville in richmond, I've been getting 580 - 600 kms /fill using 94 octane. Stop and go makes a HUGE difference to gas consumption.

Coleen's I4 55L tank can do at best 420 kms. More often than not, she gets 390ish. Honda rates the car at 10L/100Kms for the city, that means that they are claiming that it should be getting closer to 550kms. But if you've ever been in a car with her, you'd know that she is an aggressive driver (she calls me a grandpa driver all the time). All that leaning on the Gas pedal and Jackrabbiting is hard on your mileage, and hard on your brakes.

As for what other people claim they can get in their cars, I usually take everything I read on forums with a grain of salt. There's no magic filter that makes you tell the truth on the interwebz.

BTW... your Nissan link points to 644kms for a Front wheel drive only vehicle on the highway. Losing 100 kms to an All Wheel drive vehicle is par for the course. And then like Shaun said, losing another 70-80 kms to city vs highway driving isn't a reach either. 80 kms then can easily be written off as Manufacturer's BS factor. 400kms / tanks seems about right to me for a 3400 lbs SUV.

[joel]

what were you hoping that the service tech would do/say?

i don't think you can expect even the same year/make/model to perform all exactly the same either. i think there are a lot of variables that can affect fuel consumption, some of them controllable, and a lot of others not.