Hypermiling a rental car
 

My Subaru Outback is at the body shop from a small accident and they gave me a 2016 Nissan Versa note as a rental. It is a 1.6l with a cvt, wish it was manual but it is free so I can’t complain. It’s rated at 31 city and 39 highway 34 combined. I drove it for a day then topped it off to start a fresh tank and see what I could squeeze out of it. So far the dash instrumentation says I’m avg. 46.8mpg for my first 48 Miles today on the tank. Well see when I fill up before I return it what I end up with. Anyone else ever hypermile a rental car?

Yes and no. The fastest car you've ever driven is (and should always be) a rental car. :D

When I got married, we rented a Chebby HHR. Got 31mpg by the end...I was conservative but not quite hypermiling. Bachelor parties and all. I was far from the only one driving (sorry, Enterprise!). It was also brand new and tight with 7 miles on the odo when I grabbed the wheel.

Last year my company rented me a Ford Escape. Fairly nice machine, had a 2.0 EcoBoost. I did little other than put a few lbs in the tires and use CC at 65ish and got 36mpg. And that's including making it one of the fastest cars I'd ever driven :)

But back when I worked rental cars...I had a route and it was quite an interesting comparison for FE.

I've had a few rentals in recent years, hypermiled all of them. It was fun to see almost 60mpg out of an automatic 2016 Corolla. Mid to upper 40's was achievable with the Note.

The Nissan is by no means fast so I’m just gonna drive it for fuel economy. Plus it’s nice to see well over 40mpg when anything over 30 is a great tank in my outback.

I keep long term rentals for work. Usually small CUVs. I had a Rogue which did quite well. I could get it into the mid 30s with mild hypermiling. I liked that thing. Very room and comfy enough. Had an escape with the same 2 liter ecoboost. A little smaller than the rogue, mileage not quite as good when I hypermiled it. The trouble is, that 240 hp ecoboost kept asking me, wtf are you doing? You ain't paying for the gas! And I responded, yeah you're right and would put the spurs to it. That thing was damn quick to highway speeds. Didn't do much for mpgs though.

I also has a focus hatch. Very fun car to drive, and would bring mid thirties when driven like a rental. Low to mid fourties were achievable with a bit of hypermiling. I suspect that with a MT and decent hypermiling effort, 50 isn't out of the question.

My favorite rental at the moment is a Fusion hybrid. Gets 45 MPG with no effort. It's very comfortable and quiet.

The dealership lent my daughter a Fusion Hybrid while her Explorer was in the shop, and I was pretty amazed that with over 40,000 miles on it when she drove it, the Fusion had a 41 mpg lifetime average. Considering how people drive a rental, that's a pretty high number for a car that size

The Versa I have had an avg of 37mpg when I got it idk how long it had been since it was reset but I was also surprised seeing how most people drive that the car was right in its epa estimated range.

When I rented a Sentra, it had a lifetime average of 28. I know someone that bought one and averaged 27.

Any time I get the chance to hypermile a rental, I do. Hyundai Sonata one time. Chevy Sonic another time. A spark once, I think. Fun game. Most I do to the car is air the tires to spec. Don't want any trouble if something goes wrong! Just mild hypermiling.