Agreed... if you think about it, a cruising gear is made for highway cruising... ala 55mph. Anything below that, you should be in a lower gear, otherwise the engine is lugging, as someone said above.

 

Did you reset/zero teh milege computer when yu dropped down to 55? Tht's the only way yu will see the difference.

At normal highwy speeds, (75-80) i get aout 28. But at 55, i get about 31. (But I do very litle driving at 55!)

bill

 

The only accurate way for people to measure this is to fill up their tank, drive for any distance, and fill the tank back up. Take the miles driven, divided by the gallons used to fill it back up and you have your mpg.

do people just drive to a highway, reset their trip computer once on the highway and just watch it for a few minutes?

35mpg sounds so unreasonable.

 

I notice that the fuel guage tells you your empty, when you really aren't.. for example.. It said I was empty, but when I filled up, I was able to put 17.5 gallons into the car (which has a 20 gal tank).. next time around, I drove a little longer when it said I was empty and put in 18.5 gallons.. So just wondering why they programmed the computer to tell us we're on empty, when we still have 2 to 2.5 gallons of gas left..

oh, by the way, for the past 500 miles of city/hwy driving, I avg 20.6 mpg

 

I was averaging 30.7 MPG on the way to Oklahoma.

 

I'm only getting 19

 

the owner's manual actually suggests that in SLOW ACCELERATION, presumably in a flat plane, under 4000ft above sea level, the z can shift to 6th at 38 mph. obviously, due to changing driving conditions, and atmospheric density, you have to adjust. if your car is starting to slow down climbing a hill, for example, you should gear down. So ultimately, it all depends on where you live and where you drive your car.

 

Lead foot!
(Oh. So am I by-the-way. ) I run about 27 on the highway.

 

If I remember correctly, the "empty" warning is supposed to kick in with around 50 miles to go on a tank. I may be wrong, but i think it's a governmental thing.

 

I don't see how you can not get anymore then 19MPG in a Z I DD my Z and I drive it everywhere not running 80MPH + everywhere either

 

No, I reset my B tripometer after every fill and do what you said above. I let the gas milage calculator go for about a week.

 

Do the aero changes of the track change the drag coefficient? I usually get about 30 mph averaging 70 mph. The Z is the only car I've been in that I can not hear the wind doing 100 mph or so. So that tells me it has a pretty slippery profile. I'm too impatient on road trips to slow down to 55 mph to improve my milage but it feel that in 6th at 55 or 60, the Z really is not lugging that bad. There's not tons of power but its not shaking and still feels smooth and linear. I guess I need to know what exactly defined "lugging" because the VQ doens't seem to mind as long as I stay about 2k rpms.

 

What is this "lugging" in 6th gear? I'm always in 6th from about 40mph on up (city driving) - I don't notice any lugging...

Cruise control, btw - great for increasing mpg on average. Use mine every day.

 

I don't get it. Why would MPG have anything to do with what gear you're in. Shouldn't it be how heavy you are on the throttle, seeing as MPG takes place in the cylinders, not in the tranny? I understand that your engine revs as well, but amount of gas in is determined by amount of air in (see maf or whatever that thingy is called).

And if my logic is correct (watson), wouldn't that mean your best gas milage would come from an appropriate ratio of throttle to gear? such as chilling between 2500 - 3000 RPMs.

I'm just guessing, but I always thought that going >35 in 6th was stretching your gears a little much... not that I don't do it all the time because I like that exhaust note

 

Incorrect. Refer to owners manual or post #27

Incorrect. Refer to owners manual or post #27

My guess is they don't know what lugging actually is. The VQ35 is known for making plenty of torque at low RPM.

To maintain speed in a lower gear on a flat surface = higher RPM = more compression resistance = more throttle required to maintain speed = more gas.

 

well said roast!!

 

I get 44mpg highway... beat that... .. I will hit up the Ozarks this weekend.. and springfield!! We should plan a meet in MO......

 

A get 22/23 mixed...About 27/28 Highway...

All in all no complaints here

 

the owner's manual says that the 350z has a 20 Gal tank, the tank acually has 20.2 Gal. I haven't really seen the empty light on my z but i've seen my trip computer go to 8 miles to empty, yet when i filled up, only 15 gallons would fit in my tank. Theoretically, i still have 5 gallons remaining when i filled up. have you actually seen the empty light? and how many gallons did your tank take when you filled up? this is good info....

 

I've seen the "empty" or "fill" light a few times. I've let it go for awhile after that. The most I've ever put in was about 17.8 gallons.

On a side note. You all might want to watch when you fill up your tanks. I think I went to a station today that was doctoring their gas. While I was filling up my tank, the pump kicked off at 7 gallons. It took me another 10 minuted to dribble in another 6.5 gallons. The gas was foaming like crazy. Needless to say, I was a little more than fired up.