Consistent 42 to 46 MPG in a 2019 Sentra 1.8 CVT

[Miller88]

With no modification other than max PSI on stock tires!

We picked this car up for my fiancé as a DD in January 2020. It replaced a 2017 Sentra, we were planning on keeping the 17 but it got rear ended and fixed when it should have been totaled.

We all know what happened a few months after January. Fiance is permanent WFH. The car sits a lot. 19 months in and it has 5600 miles. Most of which I have put on.

Lately I have been using it to make a 140ish mile round trip to my parents every weekend to help take care of my father. I take the same route every weekend and fill up at the only gas station in town that won't cause my debit and credit card to get shut off.

It took a while, but I've learned to use and like the CVT. Of course Nissan wants to make it act like a stepped automatic but there's ways around that.

First, eco mode is useless. Like most vehicles it makes the pedal less responsive. But too much. Once you get to a point , it will just go crazy and Rev up and fake shift
That kills it all.

I've found to take off, the best thing for fuel economy is to take off as light as possible to get the torque converter to lock at 7MPH. Then increase throttle to low/moderate levels to get to speed, then let off hard once at speed.

Light throttle doesn't always work. I think it's programmed to think you're going to want to take off quickly so it'll hold higher revs. Low/moderate throttle will hold lower revs and act as a CVT should. However much more and it will fake shift.

Heavier throttle right from takeoff doesn't work because it will keep the torque converter unlocked until after the high range shift or it will unlock, shift, lock- yes this has a 2 speed planetary. Low / mid throttle it will shift with the converter locked. And the fake shifts , high rpm thing that nissan CVTs love.

This car can coast great! The tac doesn't really react well but as far as I can tell it keeps the torque converter locked most of the time at highway speeds. The car is light, relatively aerodynamic and the terrible continental tires have lower rolling resistance.

I don't have a way to tell if it does DFCO, but longer coasting does help a lot. It has NO engine braking and seems to immediately go to a higher ratio when trying to slow down. That allows it to roll further.

I have also found if I stay on the pedal the least little bit and slow down, it'll hold 1100 RPM at 35 through towns!

The route I'm taking has about 10 stoplights and goes through Rome NY. Relatively flat except a climb of elevation from Rome to where my parents are.

There's quite a few speed zones. But I canslow into them and ease out of them at low RPM.

All state highways. Max speed of 55mph. If I keep it at or under 55 it works out well.

The last four times I've made the trip I got
43
46.3
44.1
42.8


Without trying or knowing how to drive the CVT I used to get 32 to 35 out of the car doing this.

[freebeard]

Congrats.

I get 45MPG in my little Metro deathtrap. All I have to do is short-shift up through the gears using the little green Eco light on the dashboard.

The Dasher diesel gets 45MPG too, but it idles so rough it's almost undrivable. Definitely a road trip car.

[Miller88]

These are pretty much ideal conditions. I bet your Metro, or a Mirage would easily exceed 55!

I start up the car and once I get gas, drive it 70 miles in one direction, mostly flat, never exceeding 55. Them turn around and do the same.

[freebeard]

I bet your Metro, or a Mirage would easily exceed 55!

I was trying to encourage you to raise your own expectations.

[Miller88]

Originally Posted by freebeard

I was trying to encourage you to raise your own expectations.

There's still room for improvement for sure. I'm still trying to figure out what speed I have to go through Rome NY (the Mitsu Mirage headquarters) in order to beat the stop lights. It's definitely not the speed limit. Possibly below the speed limit?

[freebeard]

'Do you have a moment to talk about' wheel spats?

[Piotrsko]

Originally Posted by Miller88

There's still room for improvement for sure. I'm still trying to figure out what speed I have to go through Rome NY (the Mitsu Mirage headquarters) in order to beat the stop lights. It's definitely not the speed limit. Possibly below the speed limit?

For starters: are any of the lights set for a demand change? If so, then you'll never be able to beat them. You could ask the traffic department if they have any settings. Slower is always better.

[Miller88]

Originally Posted by freebeard

'Do you have a moment to talk about' wheel spats?

It does have some form of wheel spats from the factory. Absolutely zero aero done otherwise underneath. I can change the oil without removing any plastic for what it's worth.

Originally Posted by Piotrsko

For starters: are any of the lights set for a demand change? If so, then you'll never be able to beat them. You could ask the traffic department if they have any settings. Slower is always better.

The main lights through the city are on demand. That does make it impossible to beat them. I just have been accelerating as slow as possible so I don't waste a ton of fuel getting moving just to stop again.

[Daschicken]

Are these tank averages or using the lie-o-meter? I had a 2019 sentra rental when my V6 accord got rear ended and it was significantly off. My experience with eco mode was that it just offered a visible guide on the dashboard to keep the engine below 1700 RPM, I don't think it changed the throttle response for mine. The fake shifting drove me crazy, so I tried to use very low throttle to stay in true CVT territory.

https://ecomodder.com/forum/showthre...way-37813.html

[2016 Versa]

My Ultra Gauge doesn't give any indication that the 1.6L in my Versa uses DFCO. I suspect you still have a pretty good margin of possible improvement. I've been driving my Versa since Feb. 2019. My worst tank to date is the first tank I ran through it at 42.345 MPG in cold/damp winter weather. Most of my driving is in the 40-45 MPH range on secondary country roads with c/c set. My overall average since purchase is currently at 50.1 MPG with my best ever tank about a month ago at 58.908 MPG. A little tip that I've found useful is when using c/c feather the gas on uphill runs to keep speed up and RPM's from going crazy because the speed dropped 1MPH below set speed. All my numbers are hand calculated. The dash readout has proven to regularly show about 4-8 MPG optimistic. On the tank that got 58.908 MPG my dash readout was showing over 65 MPG.