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39 MPG on a Highway Drive - 2014 Mazda MAZDA3 S Long-Term Road Test
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39 MPG on a Highway Drive - 2014 Mazda MAZDA3 S Long-Term Road Test
Our 2014 Mazda 3 hatchback is rated at 37 mpg combined. I drove it 240 miles on the highway to see what I'd get.
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I always wonder on the single fill-up measurements like that just how closely the pumps from one station to the next shut off. Admittedly I don't pump in much gas after they shut off so if you guys run it till you can see the gas that would make it closer but I'll get 20 miles more range on a full tank when filling up at one station in town compared to another (even within the same brand) and I'd have to attribute that to the pump putting more gas in the car at the one station. I rarely run it close to empty so I can't tell a difference by how much it actually puts in the tank.
I have never heard of a car's trip computer being 3 mpg PESSIMISTIC, no matter how official your calculation was. I'll bet you a dollar it got more like 36-37 mpg and your official calculation was off due to just what zim said below.
I can believe the computer's pessimism. Mazdas seem to be that way. Refilling on the same gas pump at the same time of day, I've seen a CX-5 consistently around 1mpg pessimistic. 3mpg is stretching it, but still within the realm of plausibility.
We've hit 36mpg on our 2013 CX-5, but that was just one full tank on the way up 81 from Tennessee. 32-33 is more typical for our highway jaunts.
This mirrors my experience with my 2010 manual 3 S sport hatch. In town, the calculator tends to optimistic. Highway mileage ranges from dead on to substantially pessimistic. The higher the actual mileage the larger the disparity. As a side note, the cars mileage continued to improve until about 17,000 where it leveled off.
I've found my 2013 3 to be pretty accurate overall, and on long highway trips I've gotten 42 MPG driving at reasonable (70+ MPH) speeds with the AC on.
You guys ought to calculate a three-fill average to help eliminate some pump-to-pump variability.