Just purchased a 2008 Pathfinder SE 4x4 about a week ago. 32,xxx miles and in GREAT condition.

I did lots of research on 7 Passenger SUVs and decided on the Pathfinder because of a few different reasons, one of which was most people with normal driving habits were averaging about 16mpg city.

Well, for me that was not the case whatsoever. My wife drove the majority of the first tank and she is very aware of driving lightly to conserve gas. Still, after the first tank was gone we averaged a measly 10.8 mpg on 87 octane.

Any suggestions on what/why the mileage could have been this bad? The tires on it are brand new Hankook Dynapro ATM. We live in the desert with an average temp of about 110 degrees but with no humidity.

Any suggestions before I ditch this vehicle for something else already?

Up the octane to 93 and you will eek out a few more mpgs, also, did you have your a/c on in that 110 degree heat? If so, turn it off!

Plus remember to make sure your tires are at the correct psi, your air filter is clean and you are not carrying around a lot of unnecessary items in the back of your truck. The more weight it has to haul around the more gas you'll use.

A/C was definitely on, but only set at 85 inside so it was being used lightly.

Air filter is clean and no unnecessary hauling (just 3 small children that weigh under a 100lbs combined).


I'm not a noob when it comes to cars/mechanics so I know all of the standard items to check for, but 10.8MPG seems to be unacceptable by any standards unless you drive a S/C V10!

I agree with you that is way too low for comfort.

taking your experience into account you will probably already thought of giving the fuel system a clean out using Seafoam or equivalent. It might be that it is a little waxed up at 32000. It is cheap and easy to do and if it remains the same it might be some other issue.

Couple questions here:

1. How did you calculate this 10.8mpg?

2. What kind of driving was this?

3. What engine?

Regardless you really can't come to any real conclusions on one tank of gas. Was the first tank actually full? Dealers are great at not giving you a full tank when you buy a car!

Also before you do something crazy...realize how big of a beating you would take trading/selling this vs buying a crazy amount of fuel.

Those tires will burn a little more fuel than a typical highway tire but certainly not that big of a hit. Premium will help a little...but not much. I was getting 20-21mpg on highway driving last week running regular. I see maybe .5mpg better on my normal commute running premium but there's lots of hills and I'm usually running warp speed where the premium helps.

Tank was definitely full from dealer.

1. 175 miles driven divided by 16.2 gallons added = 10.8 avg mpg (I filled up with about 1/4 tank left)

2. Driving was/is city with an avg. speed of about 45-55 miles an hour. My wife drives it and is very aware of being light footed to save gas.

3. 4.0l V6 4x4 (but driven in 2wd)

I am honestly perplexed about how we could have come to this average.

Are the tires the original size? Should be 265/65-17 on an SE.

When you say City driving but avg 45-55mph I assume you're referring to the speed limit on the roads you're driving? There are stop-lights/traffic mixed in I would guess. This isn't the "average speed" on the trip computer correct?

I guess the bigger question would be what did you drive before and what kind of mileage were you getting. That's really the only fair way to compare YOUR mpg.

I still say first tank and only 175 miles...it's not a very big sample size. If it continues I would check for sticky brakes, severe alignment issue, and I would recommend going to premium and see what happens. 91 is recommended for this engine and it certainly helps with power. Speaking of which..how is the power? I realize you might not notice if it was down since you're not used to it...but these are pretty quick once you put the pedal into it. Should hit 60 in around 7 seconds.

Tires are proper size. I will double check the psi but I do not believe they are low.

As far as avg speed is concerned, 45-55 is the average speed limit and never accelerating over 2500rpm to get there. I highly doubt there is any lack of power because it feels great even accelerating gingerly.

I just added some Lucas fuel system cleaner and will do another treatment with the next fill up as well. Hopefully that helps but I'm not expecting to gain 4-5 mpg from just that alone. Another thought I had was to change the oil to a more gas friendly weight such as 0w-30 or so. Any experience with oil weights helping/hurting performance?

I also own a mazda6 3.0l v6 and average 17-19 city with that vehicle and previously owned a 2001 mustang and averaged 17 with that as well. I will continue to post updates as time progresses and maybe this thread will help someone else!

The only thing I can assume is that:

A) something is wrong with the car

or

B) someone was driving with the emergency brake on

I have a 2008 4x4 4.0v6 and we average 17mpg with 70/30 highway/city and even when we do the other way around 70/30 we still get 14mpg.

Well your other vehicle history says a lot. You're averaging the city mpg even on cars...so you're not that far off the mark here. 14 is the city rating on a 4x4 V6 Pathfinder and honestly if you're only getting the city rating on a car you'll be really lucky to hit that with any SUV. Those A/T tires alone could be costing you 1mpg off the average.

Since you have an '08 you should be able to see the real time fuel economy gauge while you're driving. This helps to give an indication of what your driving style is doing to fuel economy. I believe this is under the Info -> Fuel Economy section of the menu.

My Path is similar to yours minus the 4x4. The on board comp tells me I'm getting 18.2 currently and that is down from the 19+ we were getting before summer started. It sounds like you live near me, high temp & low humidity so our operating conditions are similar as well as our driving mix. (my wife uses it during the week to haul the kids around). I also run regular unleaded and my tires are between 35 - 40 PSI depending on the outside temp. I'm not familiar with the Hankook tires, but unless they are mud bogging tires, something else is causing your low MPG.

I would turn on the real time MPG indicator and pay attention to it. Once you are cruising at 45 - 55, you should be near 20 MPG at the least. And if you are accelerating at less than 2500 RPM as you say, then the indicator should not drop to near zero during acceleration.

I would see what happens with another tank or two. Who knows, maybe the dealer put a fuel additive in for you (i.e. water). 10.8 would not be acceptable to me either.

To add to the replies I would say:
1- Mileage is poor until it gets into 5th gear, which varies between 40 & 45. Watch when it drops the RPM’s
2- I air up my tires 45 rear, 40 front. May not be right for everybody. Be aware how your specific tires handle on bouncy roads and adjust accordingly.
3- Keep idle time at a minimum. To prove the point, just watch the avg MPH gauge click downward at a 1 or 2 min red light. How much stop & go on her commute?
4- Did anyone remove the under panel behind the front bumper so as to access the oil filter & not put it back on? I think it is there also for aerodynamics.

My PF does better MPG on 55MPH roads than the interstate at 65.
I use syn oil and add MotorKote hyper lubricant.
I installed a VOLO FS3 that installs at the OBD2 port, to get an addition 8-10%
I feel that prem gives enough increase of MPG to warrant the expense. I think I come out ahead but not by much. Some say there is less ethanol content in prem. Do the math.
Long trips on the interstate will get me 20-23. A recent 150mi round trip using a few hyper mile tricks (i.e. coast down hill in N) netted me 26.2 @ 50-55MPH with prem.

CPLTECH wrote: A recent 150mi round trip using a few hyper mile tricks (i.e. coast down hill in N) netted me 26.2 @ 50-55MPH with prem.

Article you might appreciate in #1 below. I discovered this a couple years ago when running a Scangauge on my Tundra. I have a long boring commute with lots of hills and I discovered some very interesting tidbits using the "fuel flow" function on the scan guage which reports gallons/hour:

1. Coasting in neutral uses more fuel than coasting in gear. See the link below. I figured this out on my own using the scan-guage but also did my research to confirm my findings. Only difference is you could coast further in neutral than in gear...but I'm betting it's not a big difference.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/al ... el-economy

2. Fuel burn at cold start is HUGE. Until the engine reaches operating temp, it's burning basically twice as much fuel at idle. When I leave work I have several miles through town, stop-lights, etc. and these first few miles hit my average mpg hard. For ideal fuel economy, the best bet is to get the vehicle warmed up as quickly as possible to get it out of the "cold-loop" fuel burn. At the same time you don't want to run it too hard when the engine is cold. So I try to drive somewhat gingerly the first minute and then get a little more hard on the pedal and even keep the engine in a gear lower than normal. You'll note your transmssion is somewhat designed to do this normally. When it cold loop, it extends your transmission shifts to help warm the vehicle more quickly. I just help it along a little more than usual and sometimes when it's very cold will high-idle at a traffic light.

3. Lugging up a hill (staying in a higher gear) uses more fuel than downshifting. I have several long hill climbs that the PF will go up in 5th gear if you let it. You would think lower rpm = less fuel burn. Not quite. More pedal equals more fuel burn so even in that higher gear you're staying hard on the pedal to maintain speed. If you let it drop a gear you can really back off the pedal and pull the hill easier and the gallons/hour will drop.

I average 18-19mpg on my commute to work and 17-18mpg on the way home. I drive very hilly two-lane state routes and I run 65mph or so. If I try hard using the methods above and keep the speeds more reasonable (particularly climbing hills) I can easily get 20-21mpg on the way to work. Coming home though with a cold-start in town makes it almost impossible to average 20mpg.

Could it be possible that you are engaging auto-manual? I.e. pushing gearstick to D, and then tagging it to the right? I believe this drops you to 4th.

AZ_Path wrote:Since you have an '08 you should be able to see the real time fuel economy gauge while you're driving. This helps to give an indication of what your driving style is doing to fuel economy. I believe this is under the Info -> Fuel Economy section of the menu.

My Path is similar to yours minus the 4x4. The on board comp tells me I'm getting 18.2 currently and that is down from the 19+ we were getting before summer started. It sounds like you live near me, high temp & low humidity so our operating conditions are similar as well as our driving mix. (my wife uses it during the week to haul the kids around). I also run regular unleaded and my tires are between 35 - 40 PSI depending on the outside temp. I'm not familiar with the Hankook tires, but unless they are mud bogging tires, something else is causing your low MPG.

I would turn on the real time MPG indicator and pay attention to it. Once you are cruising at 45 - 55, you should be near 20 MPG at the least. And if you are accelerating at less than 2500 RPM as you say, then the indicator should not drop to near zero during acceleration.

I would see what happens with another tank or two. Who knows, maybe the dealer put a fuel additive in for you (i.e. water). 10.8 would not be acceptable to me either.

Ok, so I tried this yesterday on a trip to the grocery store. During acceleration the real time gauge was showing in between 5-7mpg but once I was up to speed (lets say 40-50mph) the gauge was showing 16-20 while lightly on the gas and 30mpg while coasting.

I'll give it a few more tanks and see where we are landing and update here again.

Thanks for all of the replies guys. This is a great thread full of great info so far.