That depends on the specific car; the calibration of both the trip computer and the odometer has some individual variation, so YMMV.

I think the trip computer is plenty accurate for comparisons against your own past performance (i.e. if the mileage suddenly gets a lot worse, check for problems), but not so much for comparisons against other cars (and their drivers). The hand-calculated method is fairly useless for comparisons against past performance (too much 'noise' variation from tank to tank), but it can correct for the calibration errors in the instruments.

By the way, those instrument calibration errors are not unique to the NAH; all cars have them. Being off by +/- 2% is not unusual, from what I've seen on the forums.

I read this on Wikipedia:

The vehicles constructed to meet the PZEV requirements also fall within the Super Ultra Low Emission Vehicles (SULEV)-category. Various techniques are used to reduce pollution in these vehicles. In order to qualify as a PZEV, a vehicle must meet the SULEV standard and, in addition, have zero evaporative emissions from its fuel system plus an extended (15-year/150,000-mile) warranty on its emission-control components, which incidentally covers the propulsion electrical components of a hybrid electric vehicle.

Where did you get the .07% per day? I tried to find something about .07% but didn't have any luck. Is this such a small percentage that it's consisdered zero? I realize that Wikipedia isn't always correct and maybe they didn't explain it fully.

Well according to this we are also supposed to get a 15yr, 150K mile waranty on the electrical components and I don't remember seeing that in the NAH warranty :-)

The information as to the classification of the vehicle is correct, but I would definitely question what the "zero" in "zero evaporative loss" is. There is no such thing as zero evaporation... Heck when you open your gas tank cap you are greeted with a nice breeze of gasoline vapors, so there goes the zero... LOL

the .07% came from a study which I read quite a while back. Granted the study was averaged across many different cars and the NAH is prb not as bad, but certainly not 0. I will dig for links on that article.

I'm not sure where the claim about "electrical components" being covered for 15 years/150K miles comes from but per warranty booklet at http://www.nissanusa.com/pdf/techpub...Hybrid_WIB.pdf, there is the 15 year/150K mile California emission performance warranty.

06 Toyota Prius, 04 Nissan 350Z; mom has 07 NAH

Yeah, I am really curious about this statement in the PZEV definition now... "which incidentally covers the propulsion electrical components of a hybrid electric vehicle." If that were true, then the electric motor and batteries should also be covered by the same 15yr/150k mile warranty and that would be jsut awesome

HEV 96 months/100,000

Well I was unable to find that article, so I take back everything I said about the .07% thing. My apologies to anyone that might have gotten confused by this information.

--A