22-23 March 2011; Nebraska --
It is a popular conception that a little four-cylinder automobile will get better miles-per-gallon traveling similar speed and highway conditions compared to a larger-displacement six-cylinder. Grumpy can now confidently state that "... t'ain't necessarily true!"
During his recent safari to Central Nebraska to witness the Sandhill Crane migration spectacle along the Platte River, Grumpy reserved a compact car for his transportation from the commercial airport in Omaha to the viewing site some 200 miles to the west. His preference was to rent a Toyota Corolla; the purpose was to observe the relative quietness from road noise that this model of the Toyota brand exhibited, compared to Grumpy's Red Rocket. Unfortunately (for Grumpy), no Toyota was available at the rental site in Omaha, so he chose instead the comparable Nissan Sentra.
Unlike the Toyota (Lexus and Camry, at least!), Nissan models are not noted for quietness from road noise, and this Sentra was not expected to dispel this reputation -- and it didn't. However, Grumpy was interested in how well this little (well, it was plenty roomy for the two adults -- Grumpy and his sister -- who rode in it from Omaha to Kearney NE) compact performed on I-80 at legal speeds. This economy rental car even had a dash-board indicator of outside air temperature, and cruise control, which Grumpy was able to figure out how to engage after traveling 20-30 miles down the freeway. It also had air-conditioning -- for which Grumpy and his sister were thankful, as the outside air temperature registered 80deg F for awhile west of Lincoln!
But gas mileage! Sorry, that is not one of the bragging characteristics of this Nissan! We drove 403 miles in the 30 hours or so that we had possession, and bought 14.58 gallons of unleaded gasoline to fill it up. That calculates out to 27.64 mpg; Grumpy's Red Rocket has consistently exceeded 30 mpg under similar driving conditions. The observed Nissan RPM was a tad over 3,000 at 70 mph; Red Rocket's RPM is a tad over 2,000. Thus, the engine displacement per mile is about the same for the two cars. All other things being equal (equivalent tire rolling resistance, equivalent aerodynamic cross-section) one should expect that the miles-per-gallon should have been about the same. Grumpy concludes that the Honda V-6 is a more efficient design (higher compression ratio? less internal friction losses?) than is the Nissan 4-cylinder in-line.
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