Mazda 3 - city MPG

I'm getting only 20-21 on my 2006 2.3s in city driving. What do you get?

Thanks

Reply to
Dave Combs
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my '05 is just at 4000miles and gets 24 if I am very conservative on good weather days. Closer to 21 if use the manu-matic tranny to have fun.

dave === you must first take out MYUGLYSISTER to email me privately ==

Reply to
DAVE

Is there really that much difference between the automatics and the 5 speeds? Even driving like a maniac I get 27. Yesterday I refilled with 400 miles on the tank, mixed city and highway, and it was 31.7.

My sister in law is in sales at a Mazda dealership. I'll ask her if there have been any complaints about mileage.

-- Jack

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Reply to
Jack Hunt

It is alleged that DAVE claimed:

I have a Mazda6, not a 3, but I discovered early that in automatic OR manual mode, it makes zero to negligible difference to my fuel economy, so long as I use the top gear in the city.

Reply to
Jeffrey Kaplan

My 6 (Wagon GT) will do 24-29 on the highway no matter the speed. I do a lot of commuting between the California Central Coast and Southern California and it doesn't matter of I do 70MPH or 85MPH.

When gas was hitting $3 a gallon I figured slow down a bit but it didn't make much difference at all, if any. Since buying the car in 03/05 I have averaged 24.63 over 21,000 miles...

My highest was 29.70 (long commute averaging 70MPH) and my worst was

17.76 when the car spent a week in Orange County, CA traffic and not once on the highway!

-- Taylor

'03 Audi S6 Avant '05 Mazda6 Wagon GT '98 Jeep Cherokee Sport

Reply to
Just Taylor

It is alleged that Just Taylor claimed:

WTF? My 6 ('03 6s, Sport Package, SportAT) has never topped 26mpg. We've got the same engine, and I presume the same transmission, and you've got more vehicle weight. Why do you get better mileage than me?

I've tested each of the last three cars I've owned (03 Mazda6s SportAT,

00 Mazda Protegé ES manual, 92 Geo Storm manual) at speed-limit speeds and at the speed people really drive at, and it has never made any difference in my mileage.

I'm averaging 20.0mpg over 37.6K miles.

Reply to
Jeffrey Kaplan

I have a six speed auto vs. your five speed auto. I am turning about

2200RPM at 70MPH.

My Jeep and my truck suffer more MPG loss at higher speeds... even my older '89 200 will drop to as low as 19MPG at anything above 80MPH. Last year my Jeep averaged 15.60MPG but a majority of the mileage was off-road or down to the beach with my dogs. The '89 200 averaged 17.55 for 2005. My '01 F-250 4X4 that does a lot of off-roading/23' trailer pulling did a respectable 13MPG last year.

The better half drives our S6 Avant and she averages about 19MPG because it is mostly city driving with lots of slow and go traffic and idling. Out on the highway I'm always so balls out I can never get a reliable number but I've seen as high as 24MPG :)

Other than the better half's first Honda ('91 Civic) I haven't seen such good mileage from any of the cars I've owned as I enjoy with my 6...

-- Taylor

'03 Audi S6 Avant '05 Mazda6 Wagon GT '98 Jeep Cherokee Sport

Reply to
Just Taylor

It is alleged that Just Taylor claimed:

So you have an '05 1/2 or an '06? I always said this car needed a 6th gear.

Aerodynamics, I guess. The Protegé was the boxiest of the three, but I rarely exceeded 75 with it as it did tend to get skittish at 80.

I'm getting highway mileage with my '03 6 that I got in the +city+ in my '00 Protegé. The Protegé would get at least 28MPG highway, usually

30, and once topped 35MPG (Montreal to Boston). It's been so long I don't recall what the Storm got, but considering it had a 1.6L and a manual 5-speed...
Reply to
Jeffrey Kaplan

It's a 2005, I bought it in March, 2005 and the trans is really nice unless you want to use it in manumatic. It is slow to up shift and hardly lets you choose your own gear at low speeds... If I wanted a manual though I would have just bought a car with a real manual. Auto is fine with what I do.

-- Taylor

'03 Audi S6 Avant '05 Mazda6 Wagon GT '98 Jeep Cherokee Sport

Reply to
Just Taylor

It is alleged that Just Taylor claimed:

I didn't want to give up my Protegé with the manual tranny. But my knee gave out on me, and the Mazda clutch is a heavy one. I didn't want to give up on manual control, but couldn't reliably use a foot clutch anymore. So I basically needed what Mazda calls a "SportAT". The Protegé's was a four-speed, and everyone eles's was either too expensive for a brand I don't trust. If I was going to get the 6i, with a four-speed I may as well have gotten a P5, so I got the 6s.

I'm almost always using it in manual mode.

Reply to
Jeffrey Kaplan

yeah.. I noticed the first few weeks I had the 3, I really just putted around. It was getting closer to 150miles/half tank now that I like to use the manual mode a bit more, it seems to be getting closer to 100/half tank I do not do anything scientific to calculate this.. so it is a very rough estimate. I just notice my mileage and how much it takes to fill half to full and find my avg there. the weather has gone from the 80's to a range of -5 to +30 since I received the 24-25 mpg cold weather up here affects the mpg quite a bit. so I am assuming that is a good portion of the in the noticable diff in mileage.

I went to full synthetic mobile 1 too. doesnt seem to help anything

dave in Wis.

Reply to
Dave

I'm the original OP. Thanks to all of you for your input. Since I live in "the OC" (just barely--LA county is about 3 blocks away) I appreciated Taylor's feedback especially. The Mazda 3 is for my son who turns 16 next summer. My wife uses her car during the day and I'm not about to teach him to drive on my 1990 Mustang 5.0 five speed (I'm retired). After finding the price of 3 year old Hondas with 30,000 miles to be totally unrealistic we decided to buy him a new car. After considerable research we did consider the Mazda and the new Mustang (6 cylinder version not the V-8) but the Mazda

3 was cheaper and more efficient in hauling passengers (note--In California new drivers cannot carry passengers under the age of 20 for the first year--good law even though I first drove at 12). All of the good reviews on the Mazda 3 were certainly a plus. But the key was that my wife's first new car was a Mazda GLC and my son thought the Hondas wwere "girls" cars. Guess he doesn't know about "tuners". Great!

For years I've been appalled with parents buying their just licensed kids a new car but I broke down because the kid will have a known car well into his first job after college and I won't have to worry about major repairs and multiple car purchases over the next ten years. In otherwords I'm cheap! My Mustang is 16 years old and the wife had her Taurus for 10 years before we replaced it with a Catera.

Reply to
Dave Combs

I've been following this thread closely (and I haven't heard anything back from my sister in law at the dealership).

I've been wondering: You guys who are getting in the very low 20s, what kind of rpms are you running when this happens? If I keep my revs under about 2500, I get over 30mpg every time. Of course it's going to be over 2500 while going through the gears, but I'm talking about normal running speeds. 2500 in 5th gear is about 55mph. It takes about 3500rpm to keep up on the interstate, and that drops my mileage to about 29.

But I don't do very much real city driving. My work commute is mostly country roads, passing through three small towns (the largest has three stop lights, the smallest doesn't have a stop light). I drive about 70 miles a day when I'm working.

My step-son turned 16 on Dec 31. We bought him a 2000 Chevy S10 pickup. It's an anemic 4 cylinder with automatic. Must not have been what he wanted because he hot-footed back to his "other" parents - without the truck.

Wise move.

If you think that's unrealistic, price a new one.

Some friends of mine just bought a Mustang 6 for their daughter - who just turned 14. Go figure. I bet the insurance company charges a lot more for a Mustang, no matter how many cylinders, than it does for a Mazda (unless it's an Rx8 * )

Today I revisited the field where I first drove, at the ripe old age of three. I was standing on the seat of a '52 Ford pickup and steering between hay bales. Then, not today. :)

Some friends had a '79 or '80 GLC when I was stationed in Monterey. One should never ride in the back, lying on top of a pile of flattened boxes, with the hatchback open, while going up a steep hill. Ask me how I know.

The boy has a lot to learn. The time will come when he'll want a car that the girls like. That's when your fun really starts.

That's the same line of thought I had when I bought my daughter's first car. I was able to find her a '97 Geo Metro with less than 30k miles on it for wholesale. For over 6 months, everywhere we went, she drove. Rain, snow, sun, dark, you name it, she drove it. She was so proficient, I wasn't afraid to turn her loose to go anywhere by herself. She passed her license test and hit the roads. 112 days later she was leaving church and was trying to get a bug to fly out the window. While she was concentrating on that, she let her wheels drop off the pavement and wedged the car between two trees, rendering it a total loss.

But there was a bright side. Since the car was only two years old, I had full coverage insurance on it. I had only paid wholesale but they paid me retail. I was able to get a comparable car and actually pocket a little.

Now we're getting somewhere. I have a 10 year old Taurus that I'll sell really cheap. After your son gets the "first crash" out of his system, give him the Mazda.

  • Rx8 - I got to drive one the last time I visited my sister in law's dealership. If I had something like that all the time, I'd have a criminal record. A big one. The only thing I've ever driven that runs like that is my
1100cc V-4 Honda motorcycle.

-- Jack

Reply to
Jack Hunt

It is alleged that Jack Hunt claimed:

75 MPH on the highway, in fifth gear, my 6s turns somewhere around 3500 RPM. I don't have a sixth gear. The 6s has a 3.0L V6.

Not only that, but traditionally, Hondas, even fully stock, can really move and maneuver. I got the '00 Protegé because it can move and maneuver, but doesn't look like it. All else being equal, I liked having a stealthy road rocket.

Reply to
Jeffrey Kaplan

Today I had the privilege of pushing my '05 M3s through Deal's Gap (think Mt. Hamilton but in the East). It's the soul of a Miata in the body of a station wagon. I had to let off because my wife was getting sick.

Deal's Gap is mostly a place for motorcyclists to wear out tires and tear up equipment, but a few times a year the Miata club shows up there.

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Scroll down, you can see a pictureof more Miatas in one spot than most dealerships can claim.-- Jack

Reply to
Jack Hunt

Reply to
Dave Combs

All too kool! Old guys don't lose their zest just their ...

Reply to
Dave Combs

It is alleged that Jack Hunt claimed:

I would have loved to run through the Gap back when I had a bike...

Reply to
Jeffrey Kaplan

It is alleged that Dave Combs claimed:

But it's still a Mustang. Once you go for the sports car, your stealth is blown and you may as well flaunt it. :)

Reply to
Jeffrey Kaplan

So do it now. If you'll wait until late spring this year, I can provide you with a place to stay while you do it. At least, we hope to be open.

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're primarily geared toward motorcycles but we can make room for a car or two.

-- Jack

Reply to
Jack Hunt

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