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In town, on mostly trips of 4-5 miles or less, the car is getting 18 to 21 mpg. Overall this is pretty close to the EPA estimates of 22 city and 27 highway.
Contrary to what some reviewers have said, I can't say I have any complaints about the power. Occassionally I needed to go down to fourth gear to maintain 80 mph on steep upgrades, but there was more than enough power to accelerate with a downshift even under those conditions.
The car was also very comfortable. While the seats do not seem conspicuously supportive on a short drive (the seat cushions seem a little short), I found that after 27 hours sitting in them on the way out, and 24 hours on the way back, I did not have a sore back or backside.
Overall, I am very satisfied with the performance of the car. I would even consider giving up some power for better mileage. Too bad you can't get the diesel version in the US.
5sp Sport. USA units.
25.5 mpg city - averaged over 1,306 miles and 4 tanks of gas. Most of my driving is around town, including cross town stints on the freeway. Many short trips, but not much LA style stop and go. I drive very easy on the pedals.
30 mpg hwy - averaged over 1,639 miles and 5.5 tanks of gas. This was on a long road trip with 2 adults, 2 kids, a big dog, and camping gear (including a loaded rear receiver rack). On the interstate cruise was set between 75 and 80 mph.
I keep a log in my car and I manually calculated the numbers posted here. I excluded the first tank (don't know how full the tank was when I took delivery) and one outlier (topping off a mostly full tank before a trip).
I latter entered the raw data into the EPA calculator and the numbers match for each tank...
The way I did it was to keep my speed to 60 and use the manual mode in the following way:
-- always shift to 2nd gear at a light -- you can start up in second gear
-- keep the gear as high as possible when driving. As soon as I can shift to 3 or 4 I do it, and I leave it there until more power is needed
-- go easy & be smooth on the gas and brake pedals
-- use cruise control when possible
John Davis, the program host, claimed that their Mazda5 with an automatic transmission returned 31 mpg during their testing. Can this possibly be correct? 31 real-world MPG? Or did one of their staffers forget to record a gas purchase?
On the other hand, if you look at what people on this thread have been reporting, 31mpg is quite possible. The Mazda5 seems to be one of those vehicles that over-achieves with mileage. Perhaps it's just tuned better for the real world than for the EPA.
PF Flyer
Host
Automotive News & Views, Wagons, & Hybrid Vehicles
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I'm unaware of what that breaks down to in terms of exact figures, but I can vouch that our 5 is getting some killer gas mileage, even beating out my xB
Note to my fellow Manual Transmission Clutchhead Geeks: Help Preserve the Manual!! I think that automatic transmissions, for mysterious reasons, are a big factor in the current buzz about EPA mileage estimates being overly optimistic. My manual Jetta, Accord, Integra, and now 5 have all easily beaten their EPA city mpg, every gosh darn tank, over 20 years. Mazda deserves huge positive PR for giving us all the choice of an economical 6 passenger car with simple and dependable manual trans. It's icing on the cake that it's so pleasantly precise and nimble to drive. Let's talk it up!! (if vanity license plates ever become free, I'm getting NOPRNDL)
1. 35.4 - 115 miles all highway @ 65 to 70 mph
2. 23.1 - zoom zooming my way thru the gears
3. 28.9 - taking it easy in rural/town driving
4. 30.2 - 130 miles rural/town; 215 highway @ 70 to 75 with 4 of us and our gear
5. 28.4 - 315 miles highway @ 70 to 75; 50 miles stop and go city
Overall 28.0 MPG -- about the same as our Camry and 7 MPG better than our old Sienna. Very happy with the mileage and the car.
We use my car for long trips and that really bugs her.
It is just not as comfortable for her as my last car.
1465 miles
499 Gallons of gas
average miliage 27.9 MPG
As I said before I don't live in the city so I do more rural driving. Really impressed but then I don't try to see how fast I get to the next stop sign.
it should be 14165 miles
499 Gallons
Average of 27.9
sorry about that good catch.
369 miles
12.699 gallons
29.1 MPG!
My absolute lowest tank after 10,000 miles is 21.6 MPG. My average is about 25 MPG.
6. 27.6 - mixed rural/town, city and highway
7. 33.3 - mostly highway @70 to 75
8. 30.7 - highway and rural/town
9. 26.6 - all rural/town
10. 28.4 - mixed
so far, 2811 miles, 98.452 gal = 28.55 MPG
I live in NYC and when I don't take any road trips and drive mostly in the city/town, with careful driving, I normally get about 260 to 285 miles out of my tank. The BEST I have done is about 300 miles (but that usually includes some highway jaunts). Most of the times, it doesn't even reach that. Then, I usually fill up with 13 to 13.5 gallons (though recently I discovered I can squeeze in about 14 gallons). SO, if you divide up all the numbers, I am getting anywhere between 18.5 to 22 MPG in mixed cit/high driving - though mostly city. This doesn't seem to match the numbers everyone else is getting.
Now, for road trips it's a different story, of course. I have driven to about 350 to 400 miles on one tank, which would equal to about 28 to 29 MPG, which is good. BUT, then I hear of some of my family members' V6 equipped cars getting about the same or close to highway mileage ('04 Odyssey and '05 Mazda6).
So, I'm wondering if there is something wrong with my 5. Are the numbers I'm getting ok? I keep my 5 very well maintained and everything else is great. Though the economy is good, I don't think it's anything to write home about, especially compared to everyone else's experience with their 5's economy and compared to other owners of v6 equipped cars and minivans that seem to be getting comparable MPG numbers. What do you think? :confuse:
PF Flyer
Host
Wagons, & Hybrid Vehicles
The Mazda Club Chat is on tonight. The chat room opens at 8:45PM ET Hope to see YOU there! Check out the schedule
Odie
Odie's Carspace
We are getting similar numbers to you. Our 5 only gets used for city driving and its all stop/start. We typically get 21MPG. If you live in NYC I expect you have a similar driving pattern.
We rarely get it on the highway. The one time we did an 800 mile road trip we got 27MPG with it fully loaded. We cruised at 80MPH most of the way.
I suspect folks who are averaging higher numbers are averaging more time on the highway.
The Mazda Club Chat is on tonight. The chat room opens at 8:45PM ET Hope to see YOU there! Check out the schedule
Much more fun and quick than the ford station wagon I was driving.
I am satisfied with the car, and this is much better mileage than my Honda Odyssey, which has a hard time averaging 20 MPG (usually closer to 19 MPG).
I've had it for 8000 miles, about a 50/50 mix of 55 - 75mph highway, and stop and go on Highway 6 and around town. In the spring I was getting 26-27mpg in AT, with the AC mostly off. In manual mode, I lead-foot it, and only get 23-24mpg. I also get 23-24mpg in AT with AC on all summer. Not as good as I'd hoped (I was hoping to double my mpg to 34, seeing how my old truck got 17mpg). Oh well, it's still good for a car
bc
The Mazda Club Chat is on tonight. The chat room opens at 8:45PM ET Hope to see YOU there! Check out the schedule
IF this car can work its way up to 30 MPG, I'll be really happy, but at 28 MPG I'll still stay satisfied.
Model: 2006 Mazda 5 Touring 5-speed
Driving: Commuting on mostly windy surface roads with hills, stop signs
Period: 2006-08-15 to 2006-11-15
Overall miles: 1502
Overall gallons (std unleaded): 60.47
Overall MPG: 24.84
Best MPG: 26.94
Worst MPG: 23.82
Avg cost per mile: $0.10/mile
Been loving our 5. It's a good kid hauler and even managed to get some 4'x4' plywood in there the other day when it was raining.