[Old Mechanic]

We bought this Rogue (wife's car) in January of 09. Yesterday and today we took a weekend trip from Williamsburg up to the Shenandoah Mountains. We were going to go up to the Skyline Drive yesterday but when we got close the rain hit us hard, very heavy, with some serious puddling on the roads. so we went north to our daughters home and spent the night.

This morning the front had passed through and things were much nicer but colder, temps in the low 60s. We left the Leesburg Virginia area and headed down route 15 to Warrenton, then picked up route 211 to the mountains.

Got on the parkway and cruised the mountain tops for 50 miles in heavy traffic. The sights were absolutely breathtaking. The highest elevation was 3800 feet. The parkway speed limit is 35 MPH and there is no passing allowed on almost the whole stretch of road.

We exited on route 33 East and came back on that route until we got to Richmond, then hit the 295 Beltway and I 64 east to home. Speeds were mostly 55 MPh except the Parkway and the Interstate.

At 62 MPh the Rouge is taching 1900 RPM. The CVT allows you to accelerate moderately at 1500 RPM, and you can climb a fairly significant grade without engine RPM ever going above 2500 RPM. Nice with a 2.5 liter 4 cylinder in a 3200 pound vehicle.

We got within 10 miles of home when the low fuel level warning light came on at 468 miles on a 15.9 gallon tank. Got to the gas station at 475.9 miles and refilled the tank with 14.318 gallons of cheap regular gasoline.

Only mod was topping the tires off at 40 PSI before the trip began. The only fuel we can get around here is E10. Considering the driving conditions and the ethanol fuel I was very surprised to see the 33.25 MPG fuel consumption.
I drove the whole distance and we had a great little weekend trip.

EPA is 22 and 27.