Quote:
Originally Posted by SPL
Nissan's ICE is, however, not the same as the TCH's ICE. Apart from its slightly larger displacement, the Altima's ICE is not an Atkinson/Miller-cycle engine, and thus does not have the efficiency advantage of that design. Nissan also does not have Toyota's ten years' worth of hybrid experience, and this probably is reflected in their hybrid programming. I'd expect these to be factors that might also be responsible for any lower FE performance in the NAH.
|
If that's true (and I'm not sure that it is - the Altima's ICE is definitely tuned differently than the same engine in the base Altima model), that still doesn't explain why the gap has been widening over time. I still think the shorter database history and smaller sample size has a something to do with it.
That said, I agree with you that we should expect the NAH to have somewhat lower overall mileage than the TCH. The larger engine alone should ensure that.