I returned the Micra having covered 940 km (584 mi.) and burned 50.8 L, which works out to...
- 5.4 L/100 km = 43.6 mpg (US) = 52.3 mpg (Imp.) Fill-up method: slow 3-clicks.
Remember, this is the automatic, rated at ...
- City: 8.8 L/100 km city / 26.7 MPG (US)
- Highway: 6.6 / 36
- Combined: 7.8 / 30.2
44% over the combined rating isn't bad.
Driving style...
This was using conservative eco-driving, not hard core hypermiling, mostly because I wanted to demonstrate what a "regular" driver could reasonably expect to get by changing a few habits. Most regular drivers already see driving just at the speed limit as "extreme"!
Speed: The majority of my driving was fuel-friendly cruising on secondary highways at or very close to the speed limit (~80 km/h = ~50 mph), plus about 120 km of freeway (@ ~100 km/h / ~62 mph). Urban/suburban/ex-urban driving probably made up about 200 km.
Very few short trips: by "short" I mean less than a couple of km.
Little A/C use: it wasn't very hot this week, so I only turned the air conditioning on to try it out for a few minutes -- most of the time I had windows down in town and the right two cracked open a little bit when on the highway.
Eco-driving: things like...
- never idling for more than a few seconds,
- moderate acceleration, aiming to get the torque converter to lock early in 3rd & 4th gears,
- minimizing brake use (letting off the gas early to coast as much as practical toward slowdowns/stops/turns, depending on traffic),
- reading conditions ahead to keep from wasting momentum by rushing into avoidable slowdowns, eg. choosing the lane with the best "flow", timing traffic lights, etc.,
- sticking to the speed limit (or very close to it),
- turning off the engine at long stops (when safe)
Owners' fuel economy reports
- 5.3 LHK / 44 mpg (US) ... 5-spd ... 7 fill-ups ... "not trying"
- 5.5 LHK / 43 mpg (US) ... 5-spd ... "I am a turtle"
- 6.0 LHK / 39 mpg (US) ... 5-spd ... "liberal acceleration, mixed driving"
- 6.4 LHK / 38 mpg (US) ... 5-spd ... "rush hour Toronto commuting"
- 6.5 LHK / 36 mpg (US) ... 5-spd ... 13 fill-ups ... "right foot can be a little heavy"
- see: thread with more details
Factory trip computer:
4.8 = 49 mpg US. That was my first ~120 km in the Micra ... mostly secondary highway cruising at the 80 km/h / ~50 mph limit.
All Micras come equipped with a factory trip computer that includes a resettable fuel economy display (average) and instant display as well.
Calibrated against my 940 km and 2 fill-ups of mixed driving, the gauge in the car was optimistic by ~4.5%. Not too horrible.
I think it's awesome that entry level cars like the Micra and Mitsu Mirage have factory gauges, even on the base model. It used to be that only fancy (gas guzzing) cars had gauges and the economy cars got zilch. Irony!
Overall:
Nice little car to drive, and fuel economy isn't bad for an old school 4-speed automatic.
The Micra's tighter handling/steering make it FAR more enjoyable to drive than the Mirage. Though personally I prefer a 3-banger -- more character & better efficiency.
I wish Nissan offered the more efficient 1.2L 3-cylinder (n.a. or supercharged) that is available elsewhere. Also, CVT instead of 4AT, or at least the option of 5MT, 4AT or CVT as is done with the Versa sedan in the U.S.
Also, it could benefit from a weight-loss program:
2363 lbs for this loaded 4AT compared to just 1973 lbs for the base manual Mirage I drove last month.
400 pounds difference! The Mirage also has a lower Cd (0.28 vs. 0.32), though Nissan could close that gap easily if they wanted to.
Naturally, I'd pick the manual Micra over the AT. It's worth 10-20% better fuel economy than the automatic (despite their nearly identical ratings). And that's 10-20% better with basic eco-driving techniques; if you throw the whole bag of hypermiling tricks at it, there's much more where that came from!
And the car has some ecomodding potential as well. Very few factory aero mods on this one.
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