First tank: 39.9 mpg. Next stop, 40!

[The Other Andy]

Hi everybody,

As you may remember, I bought a Chevy Cobalt a couple of years ago. Unfortunately it was a car I wound up hating for a number of reasons (chief among them: the previous owner had been in an accident, and the dealer did an absolute s&#% job fixing it). So I've gone ahead and ditched it for a 2015 Nissan Versa Note.

This means that my hwy mpg rating has gone from 34 to 39, which I've already beaten on my very first tank I don't have any mods planned for it, aside from installing my Scangauge. Which brings me to a question: where do you Versa owners keep your Scangauge? I've normally stuck it on top of the steering column, but it looks like that might block some stuff in this car.

[Daox]

Congrats on the new wheels Andy! I am surprised we don't see more Notes around here.

[straight5]

My only experience with a cobalt was when I rented one a few years ago. It was smaller than what I'm accustomed to, but driving from the Nashville area to Gatlinburg and back I have no complaints, and the mileage was good. I reset the trip / mpg on the way home, and when I turned it in, it was showing right at 37mpg. Even if that is optimistic by a few mpg - I still thought it was pretty good.

[ECO-AKJ]

Does your Versa have the cvt trans or is it automatic?

If cvt, put revs at 2000rpm and then stay under 50MPH, I had one as a rental and got 41.74 MPG for the 9 days I drove it!

[The Other Andy]

Originally Posted by straight5

My only experience with a cobalt was when I rented one a few years ago. It was smaller than what I'm accustomed to, but driving from the Nashville area to Gatlinburg and back I have no complaints, and the mileage was good. I reset the trip / mpg on the way home, and when I turned it in, it was showing right at 37mpg. Even if that is optimistic by a few mpg - I still thought it was pretty good.

The mileage was pretty decent. I could usually pull 40-41 mpg out of it driving up north to visit my parents (freeway). It was also fairly quick.

That said, I found it to have a ton of road and wind noise on the freeway (I was ready to punch a kitten after enduring it all the way to South Dakota), and its driving manners at those speeds were probably best described as "squirrely."

If those had been my only complaints, I would have been much happier with it. My relationship with that car started out pretty bad, since it decided to pee transmission fluid all over the driveway shortly after I got it. A few months after the pan gasket and another gasket were replaced, it did it again.

There were a bunch of issues with that car. As I said, it had been an accident repair that I bought from a budget lot. They didn't fix it so much as pretty it up very cheaply. Among other things, it had a shake that nobody could figure out, the anti-theft system would run the battery dry if I locked the car with the remote (which I didn't learn until I replaced the dead remote the dealer gave me), and the clear coat on the bumpers decided to start peeling off in the car wash.

When I bought it, I was hoping to keep it for a while. Unfortunately, I was in a rush to replace my self-destructing Taurus and made a lousy decision. Good riddance.

Originally Posted by kingster1989

Does your Versa have the cvt trans or is it automatic?

If cvt, put revs at 2000rpm and then stay under 50MPH, I had one as a rental and got 41.74 MPG for the 9 days I drove it!

I don't think the Note gets the 4-speed auto in any form, only the Versa sedan. Regardless, Nessie comes equipped with the magical CVT. Oddly, it has an overdrive lockout button on the shifter. I can't understand what on Earth that actually means with a CVT.

The mileage has been great so far.

On a somewhat related note, I just got back from spending five days in San Diego. I had a Nissan Rogue with a CVT as my rental car. Loved it, and managed 40.4mpg driving down I-8 to Glenview.

[The Other Andy]

Originally Posted by Daox

Congrats on the new wheels Andy! I am surprised we don't see more Notes around here.

Thank you! The Versa sedan has been torn to shreds by the big auto rags, so I think many shoppers pass it by (unless they're shopping only on price). From what I gather (I've never driven the sedan), the Note is a nice improvement in NVH over the sedan, but comes with a higher price tag. I would guess that this puts it out of the range of the typical Versa shopper, but it goes overlooked by the comparison shoppers due to its association with the sedan.

Or not, who knows? As to Ecomodder, I think this crowd tends to either go Honda or Toyota when we're discussing newer cars. The Mirage is the exception to the rule, since it wears the mileage crown.

If anyone is curious, my 2nd and 3rd choices were probably the Kia Soul and Hyundai Accent. The Soul is a great car, but was more slightly more expensive and falls flat on fuel economy. The Accent has more pep (and the sedan is one of the most attractive small cars around), but has more wind noise. Both Koreans also have really vague steering, with absolutely no feel whatsoever.