I have started to improve my gas mileage by about 20% (as you can probably see in my tag, I DO have the V6 model). I had been able to get about 20 mpg on the highway driving ~65 mph with the cruise on. By drafting semi trucks (or anything that blocked some of the head wind) and dropping my speed down to 60 mph I was able to get 24 mpg. I used a fuel injector cleaner and that seemed to help a little bit, in addition to keeping my tires at about 32 psi.

Like always the city mileage is terrible at best, but thats not why I bought it. Hope this can help some one. Let me know if anyone else can confirm this or offer some advice. The X will never be a Camry, but then again a Camry will never see more than some nice pretty pavement.

i stopped keeping track a long time ago...my life has improved quite dramatically since doing so.

Haha..you are so right. You will a lot happier if you just don't worry about it.

It's true, i stressed out about it for awhile, always checking my mileage, calculating mpg (in my case km/l and then converting it to mpg, haha). You know what, it wasn't until i stopped thinking about it that, hey, well what do you know, i didnt stress about it. Just my opinion, the topic has been brought up and talked about thousands of times.

One day, i said forget it, i want to hear the exhaust and intake, and now i have fun instead of always trying to drive slow (which is fine to, im not flaming, the x isn't a gonna win a 1/4 mile) .

With crude reaching 100USD, we can expect increase in gas prices, especially during spring and summer.

However, I do agree with the rest of the group. Who cares? Drive. Enjoy. This type of fun may be expensive, but it is worth it.

Want good gas mileage ..... get a Honda Civic. Xterra's are trucks no matter how you look at one.

Gas mileage = yaris

I didn't get my X because of gas milage, I got it because a few of my friends got them and I loved them even back in the older years. When the time finally came to get mine gas wasnt like it is today but I'm getting headers on mine and that should help increase a few MPG's. But, I still love my X and I wouldn't trade it for anything!!!
Cruising behind a big-rig is an interesting way to conserve though...

I would think driving closely behind a big rig would be dangerous. They can stop faster than us. They have trailer breaks that allow them to do that.

Very true. The few bucks or cents you save on gas isn't worth your life. I steer clear from big rigs. Even driving next to one on the highway scares me. I zoom (or crawl as fast as I can with the X) past them so that Im not directly beside a big rig.

haha, I only got your name now Defibvt, i looked at your occupation. You should also consider PrecordialthumpVT haha.

what kinda gas do u use? I was using cheapo regular gas for a while thinking that the xterra is a truck, it'll chug anything but I was only getting like 16 mpg.

Then I switched to Chevron regular and now I'm getting 20 mpg, with my usual frwy speed of 75 mph.

Is it worth it to switch to synthetic? I was doing just fine with cheapo walmart oil changes, they use fram filters and pennzoil. I'm testing out castrol gtx, dont know what filter they put but we'll see if it makes a difference.

The local place here does oil changes for 29.95 for regular motor oil (castrol gtx). And 54.95 for castrol syntec. What are teh ups and downs to switching?

Thanks

I'm also thinking about going straight to AMSOIL. So to save me the trouble of the every 3000.

Well at my work we have our regular oil changes starting at 19.99 for the first 5 qts then 3.00 for each qt after that / syn. oil starting at 44.99 for the first 5 qts then 7.00 for each after that. ..... Altogether .... drive up, get ur tires checked, vacuumed,(oil changed), car wash for free. We've gotten cars that shouldn't be using syn. oil .. then some that should use it but dont, not sure why though.

For my '00 X with 79~k miles ... just using reg. oil and im doing just fine, just lay off the skinny pedal sometimes really helps oh ya and coasting down hills ... no braking .... I hate it when people do that ... ur vehicle is'nt going to keep going to fast for that long.... ur just wasting down ur brakes lives heavily.

hope this sorta helps ya.

Oh ya forgot to put.... we use chevron oil and several different companies types of filters.

Huh? No we can't! Not unless you disable three of your brakes on the Xterra! Yes, the brakes on trucks are VERY powerful, but they also have 40+ tons of weight to stop if we're loaded, and if we're empty they overpower the traction massively. And an empty truck takes longer to stop than a loaded one... especially if the road is wet or worse (It takes over 300 feet to stop a tractor trailer combination from highway speed... about double that of an average car). However, with how close you have to be to get a good draft (pretty much tight against the back) it really doesn't matter because as soon as the brake pedal is so much as touched on the truck it's too late for the follower to react! The turbulance from a truck draft is about 25 feet behind the trailer (or thereabouts) and THAT'S way too close too be safe. If you're driving inside that you're within maybe 10' of the back of a trailer, which is a VERY unforgiving piece of metal to hit! Then there's the whole other issue of not being able to see what's going on in front of the truck or around it. Even if you don't make contact with the truck itself you're putting yourself at very high risk of other types of accidents. Is it worth it? I don't think so! Whenever someone gets anywhere close tot he back of my trailer I just shake my head in disbelief. Aside from the paperwork that would be involved, it wouldn't hurt me, so I don't really give a rip, but it just seems so stupid to me.

What really lowered my stress was not reading MPG threads, especially ones where people are claiming 24 MPG or that they saw a 4 MPG increase just by switching gas brands. Sometimes I just can't help myself though.

Here's my thinking: to end up calculating 24 MPG as your mileage, that would have to be your average for the entire amount of gas used. So if you filled up, drafted the big rig at 60 MPH for an hour or so then stopped, immediately filled up again, and figured your mileage, then yeah, I can see 24 MPG. But unless that's the majority of your driving, it's not that significant because your average is what matters in the long run and it's going to be dragged down by the X's wretched mileage in every other driving condition other than drafting a big rig at 60.

And if you're claiming 24 MPG for an entire tank of gas, sorry, that justs pegs the needle on the BS meter.

As for switching gas brands and seeing a 4 MPG increase at 75 MPH...is that possible? I don't know, but it sure sounds bogus to me.

It wouldn't surprise me to see gas prices of $4 or more next summer. With my current commute of exactly 5 miles each way, I'm kind of insulated from gas prices because we can use my wife's more efficient Acura for longer trips. I love my X, but I don't know if driving it is worth $70 a fillup regardless of how little driving I do.

As for drafting big rigs, you'll be cured of that in a hurry if you're ever near a tire explosion. I was 2 lanes over and a couple of hundred feet behind a rig on I-20 outside Atlanta one time when the back tire nearest me exploded. It was amazing loud and scared the s**t out of me even that far away. Tire debris flew everywhere. Had I been behind him my truck would have been absolutely pummeled.

Stay as clear of big rigs as you can. If anything happens and you collide with one, you lose and lose big.

highest mpg i ever got was 21, in the beginning of an oil drain interval. it gradually drops down to about 19.0 mpg at the end.

I commute 30 mins each way for work so that could explain alot.

Gas milage....we don't need no stinking gas mileage!!! Who gives a rats ass!!! GO ahead and buy a hybrid, I can use your gas for you!!

spoken like a true environmentalist!

When I put my new exhaust on I thiught I would see a change in mileage...how wrong was I!! It'll never change even after changing all the fluids to synthetic,I get 16 on the hiway at best,with a tailwind! Then relized something....I'm driving a 2 ton BRICK!! So I think we all need to move on and not try to get better mileage out of our rigs...Just shut up and enjoy them for what they are!!! A do anything,go anywhere vehicle!!

I can't believe I just read this long of an article about gas mileage! duh.

Maybe someone is using the wrong method to caculate gas mileage but I get 15-17 average...

But since you're willing to risk your health for gas mileage... try a hybrid behind a rig, you'll probably get the best results there...

...until then my Terra loves her gas!

My long-term average (36K miles) is 14.0 MPG - this includes towing and offroading. Unladen, my X gets 15.5 - 16.5 MPG.

24 mpg is definitely possible. I got it once. Don't forget people drive on all sorts of terrain in all different conditions that affect mileage.

I make probably 10-20 trips a year from northeast PA back to western PA. Typically driving on I-81 and I-80 with cruise set at 65-68(really, is getting to a place a few minutes sooner worth a speeding ticket?) I will pull down 21-22mpg.

Now, that is without much cargo and with little traffic where i only take cruise off once or twice the entire trip. Long story short...24 is definitely possible, but I doubt anyone can pull it on a regular basis...just my 2 cents.

I've never gotten more than 12mpg which I got that figure from figuring approx 248 miles to the tank and a 19. whatever gallon tank. I'd like to know how many miles people get before there fuel light comes on. I feel like I get the worst mileage on the board. I'm not worried about the money but I do wonder if somthing is wrong with my truck.

What about diesel engines?

I'm in Costa Rica and my X runs on diesel. In this country diesel price is lower than gas... AND the efficiency (mpg) is higher on that type of engine.