[jer]

I may be crossing the Rockies soon. Has anyone had their 2010 Nox 2.4L 4 Cyl in mountains? On the road, of course.

How does it do?

 

[dm2010nox]

I'll be headed to through the Appalachians soon, and am looking forward to it.

but regarding your comment about keeping it on the road...I sort of know that the NOX isn't a 'rock-crawler', and probably isn't really meant to go far off road at all, but just for the hell of it, I have been driving 'off-pavement' just to see what would happen, and it is still remarkably smooth.

 

[mikek53]

I drove through the Smokies...no problem at all.

 

[jer]

Good to hear - thanks, guys. Ah, the Smokies/Appalachians. I used to live in NC and love those mountains!

 

[RIT333]

I'm assuming that you were asking about power, and I found that on I95, from NY to Fl, that the 4 cyl does a fair amount of downshifting to maintain the cruise. Sometimes I would turn off the cruise just to avoid the downshifts - when it drops to 4th, the engine really revs. And the instantaneous mpg would just about go negative ! But, overall, the 4 cyl / 6 speed makes for a nice combination. Quiet and economical - tough to beat.

 

[jer]

Rit, that is an interesting note. If I experience the same downshifting/cruise control phenomena, I may try turning off/on the "Econ" switch that changes the shifting rates for benefit of gas mileage. I don't know it will be a factor, but I may try it. Thanks for the heads-up.

 

[RIT333]

Yeah - I didn't try running it with ECO mode off. I felt that to "lower my carbon-footprint" it is better to lose a couple of mph going uphill.

 

[bballr4567]

If its downshifting to much, put it in manual mode and keep it in 6th or downshift to 5th on your own. I did it every time we were going back to Ft Campbell from Nashville in our Malibu.

 

[monaco]

Putting the transmission in the manuall mode will not stop it from down shifting. If your engine starts to lug to maintain speed it will choose a lower gear. The manuall mode will keep the transmission from selecting a higher gear.

 

[bballr4567]

Putting the transmission in the manuall mode will not stop it from down shifting. If your engine starts to lug to maintain speed it will choose a lower gear. The manuall mode will keep the transmission from selecting a higher gear.

While true, it does help when the car is going at 2000 RPM and wants to shift to 4th and 3700 RPM to gain 2 MPH.

 

[RIT333]

Not sure that manual mode will keep it from downshifting 2 gears to ascend a hill. At least mine still downshifts. As was stated, manual mode can stop upshifting, but not prevent downshifting. Ah, for a nice stick shift. I do like to controls the gear shifts myself - guess I'm old school.

 

[bballr4567]

I guess we havent hit a big enough hill because it will keep it in 6th for us. Strange.

 

[RIT333]

Maybe I'm running on 3 cylinders, becausde just today, it didn't take much of a grade for my NOX to downshift to maintain 65 mph. It only went down to 5th gear, so it wasn't annoying. The tach popped up to about 2400 rpm or so, from about 1800 rpm.

Is it just mine, or others seeing downshifting at 65 mph ?

 

[bballr4567]

I will have to go test to see what it actually downshifts at.

 

[RIT333]

Hope I'm clear - I was trying to imply that mine will try to downshift if I have the cruise set at 65 and then try to ascend a not-to-steep hill. My stick-Vibe would loose speed under that condition, and the stick-Maxima would maintain speed. I guess I haven't been driving automatics for a few decades - gosh, I'm old !

I told my dealer that I didn't know how to drive an automatic when I picked up the vehicle. He laughed, but there may be more truth to that then I realized !