1-23-09: 2008 Altima Hybrid Update & Fuel Mileage Test

Time to check-in with an update on our 2008 Nissan Altima Hybrid, the hybrid parked in our garage.

Mileage: 13,083

Fuel economy: 32.4 mpg

Weather conditions: Cold, cold, cold. The past two weeks have been below freezing most days, with nights dipping into the single digits, and it's no secret that cold weather can be a real fuel economy killer. Look at some of our summertime Altima logs and updates and you'll see mileage in the 40s.

Maintenance/Repairs: A couple weeks ago we received a recall notice from Nissan, so it was time for a service call at our local dealer. Seems that there were some faulty weight sensors affecting the airbag system in some of Nissan’s front passenger seats. The dealer said that apparently less than 1 percent of vehicles were affected, but they were checking them all, just be sure. Turns out that ours was A-OK and didn’t need any replacement parts.

Comments: Now that we’re in the deep freeze, our hybrid system needs extra time to come up to full operating temp. Translation: less EV (Electric Vehicle) mode in normal everyday driving situations. In the interest of experimenting with fuel and fuel economy, we did two complete all-gasoline fill-ups at a rural filling station that offers “pure gasoline” in the our area. Pure gasoline is just that, 100 percent gasoline with no alcohol added and it is usually only available in moderately populated areas. The reason? In most traffic-dense metropolitan areas of the United States, ALL pump gasoline is supplemented with up to ten percent ethanol (E10) which acts as an as an oxygenate for smog reduction. (Think Los Angeles, especially in the summer.) Seems some of our friends are proclaiming much-improved fuel mileage with pure gasoline versus the normally available E10. Check out our article about E85 for an explanation as to why fuel economy drops with alcohol fuels. In the meantime, we’re running our own little test to see if we can notice a difference also. Check in with us in two months to find out our official results.

photo © Adrian Gable - 2008 Nissan Altima Hybrid