Mazda3 Real World MPG

dudleyr

Look it up! :shades:

psy

It would appear the 2.3L will get near Civic mpg driven right. The low end torque helps alot in over all drivablity for my style. The R-18 Civic is proving in most folks hands to only get a fraction of a better mpg Than the MZ3. I would hope to see a high 40 mpg tank before fall. 50 mpg tanks next summer.

As for all this tire crud. Ive been running max sidewall psi for years. Ive ran over max sidewall on lower profie tires for years also.

The 06 Civic I just traded had 40400 miles on it. Max sidewall was 44 psi on its tires. I ran those tires at 53 to 54 psi on all for corners. There was only 1/32" diff. in tred depth between the inner two grooves and the outer grooves. Most of that I will blame on my daily drive. Straight hwy. The right rear always worn the inside edge more because of what I feel was a early production problem. I know folks that run 60 psi and have tires with 60 to 90k miles on them...

Hypermiling is just slowing down and making the most of every drop of fuel.

dudleyr

What about the MZ3 2.0? It does better than the 2.3. Seems that would be a better choice for hypermiling. Of course no hatchback is available - don't get Mazda sometimes.

mrblonde49

The 06 Civic I just traded had 40400 miles on it. Max sidewall was 44 psi on its tires. I ran those tires at 53 to 54 psi on all for corners. There was only 1/32" diff. in tred depth between the inner two grooves and the outer grooves. Most of that I will blame on my daily drive. Straight hwy. The right rear always worn the inside edge more because of what I feel was a early production problem. I know folks that run 60 psi and have tires with 60 to 90k miles on them... ""

I don't see how you can get close to the same handling with rock hard tires, but maybe it's just me.

Seems dangerous...

pulgo

May be it's just me but I would never run the tires at more than the sidewall maximum pressure.

At 60 psi I would not trust my car's handling in rainy weather and I would be very preoccupied with the tires blowing up at high speed, especially if the car is fully loaded and in hot weather.

60 psi could easily end up being 65psi or more under those conditions.

I also wonder what my insurance would say in case of an accident, upon discovering that the cause of the accident was severely over inflated tires.

Tires are not that expensive, are they? Buy a new nice set every 4 years and be safe.

markman

We've had our new Mazda3 for almost four weeks and on the first 2 tanks we have got 23 and 22 mpg. The car has 500 miles on it so it has a way to go til it's fully broken in. The driving is 12 miles each way M-F mix of highway/city plus errands on the week ends.

No complaints at all about the car. It drives very nice and has a sporty feel to it. I expect mileage to increase 2-3 mpg once it's fully broken in.

pulgo

This is what you can expect, depending on your driving style, once the car is broken in.

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/mpg/MPG.do?action=mpgData&vehicleID=23184&browser=tru- - - e&details=on

If you are very concerned about getting optimum mileage you might want to consider this device:

http://www.scangauge.com/

It can do wonders to your driving habits and is not too expensive IMHO.

dudleyr

I second the scangauge reccomendation.

godaddy1

From other discussions & nice folks, here's the a way to unlock the trip computer built into your Mazda3 06 or 07 models--- & it's free !!! :shades:

0. Turn on radio.
1. Press and hold down CD and AM/FM buttons
2. Start your car while still pressing down on those buttons
3. The display will read, "DIS ON" which means Driver Information System On.
4. Release the CD and AM/FM buttons
5. Turn off and restart the car
6. Now press the Set button and cycle through your avg. mpg, miles until empty, current mpg!

Now you can truly know your Real MPG numbers!

sandman46

The Sandman

roadburner

Now you can truly know your Real MPG numbers!

Well, based on my calculations(miles travelled since last fill-up divided by gallons of fuel used), my true mpg is around 10% less than the average mpg reported by the DIS. BMW trip computers usually have a error of 5%-7%, but on most Bimmers you can unlock the service menu and adjust the computation factor in order to make the average mpg figure match the true mpg. I'm trying to find out if you can do something similar to the Mazda DIS.
FWIW, my true mpg is averaging around 22 mpg. Not too bad, considering I can't keep my foot out of it; I haven't lost a stoplight grand prix yet...

duff333

Good morning. It's been awhile since I posted mileage for my 2006 Mazda 3i 2.0 5 speed. With 17,000 it's been averaging 34.7 mpg. It's really gone up this past summer and have hit as high as 40.8 on a tank of much highway driving. Most tanks right now are 36+. Certainly can't complain!

Mark

jt120

After 9 fill ups (109 gallons@3492 miles) I am averaging 32 mpg on my 2007 GT 2.3 manual. The trip computor history seems to read about 1.6 mpg low.

sandman46

Tried it just before and it doesn't work. Shame, as I'd like to know what kind of real mileage the wife's getting with her quirky driving style.

The Sandman

jal183

I know that the 08' mileages are lower on the sticker. I know that I suffer because I have an automatic 5 door (bigger engine). But, I wasn't prepared for 21 mpg for the first tank (mixed driving), and 19 mpg for the second tank (city driving).

Ouch. And, I'm not at all a leadfoot... If I'd have known I had this kind of mileage to look forward to, I would have taken a closer look at the sentra . Prayin for a lift over time...

sshpr

Haven't posted for some time but just wanted to let jal183 not to expect much improvement. Appears from monitoring this forum since my purchase Dec. 06 that most everyone gets good mileage except those of us that opted for the 2.3L with auto tranny. Your mileage is inline with what I get and it hasn't changed over 7000 miles.

autonomous

Prayin for a lift over time
Your prayers are not in vain. Consumer Reports, in its September 2006 issue, lists an overall average of 25 mpg for the Mazda3 hatchback with automatic transmission .

tincup47

I have a 2007 5 door GT with the 2.3 engine with the auto trans mission that I have put almost 8,000 miles on since July. The worst mileage I have gotten on a tank of fuel is 24.7 MPG and the best has been 31.9 MPG. I have been averaging 27.5 MPG. I don't believe the auto trans is the killer to your MPG.

igozoomzoom

I was in Houston for work a few weeks ago and had an automatic '07 s 4-door as a rental for five days. I managed about 29 mpg in 500 miles of driving (including a 320-mile round trip to Austin).

That's significantly better than the 24 mpg I've averaged over 41,000 miles in my '06 s 5-door with manual transmission! At least 75% of my miles have been in horrible Atlanta traffic and the A/C is always on, so those have a significant impact. My heavy foot doesn't help either.

I recently topped the 30 mpg mark on a recent trip from Atlanta to Birmingham and back. I set the cruise at 75-80mph (depending on area) and turned off the A/C. I averaged 30.2 mpg for that trip. I guess the A/C impacts fuel economy more than I realized.

autonomous

since July ... I have been averaging 27.5 MPG

Keep on monitoring. I found that you need to go through winter to come up with a more complete picture. Typically, fuel economy dips in colder weather so you may find your numbers approach the 25 mpg average found by Consumer Reports.

tincup47

Of course it will go down in winter, especially in the Northeast with the oxygenated gas mandated by emission laws. In my experience it has made all of my other vehicles lose about 1 MPG. For an annual average that should still be around 27 MPG. If it ends up at 26 MPG I still won't be disappointed as I love driving the vehicle.

autonomous

Of course it will go down in winter, especially in the Northeast ... In my experience it has made all of my other vehicles lose about 1 MPG

I would love a reduction of just 1 MPG in winter. My experience has been over 10% (i.e. about 3+ MPG) primarily due to the need to warm-up the car. Getting stuck in the snow doesn't help either!

pulgo

Get a block heater installed and plug your car in (on a timer) 1 hour every morning.

Presto, your mileage is back to (almost) normal.

tincup47

I follow the maufacturer's recommendations and don't warm up the car. I start it, then drive easy until it reaches operating temperature. Makes the first couple of minutes chilly, but that's what jackets and gloves are for.

autonomous

Get a block heater ...

Good idea. As it turns out, since this summer my car is happily inside a garage (unheated but not uncomfortable). This may not solve the problem entirely, especially when it ends up sitting outside the workplace for 8 hours on a frosty February.

rcwitty

I get about 17-18 in City and about 26 on Highway with my 2.3 Liter Mazda3 S.
It's actually pretty poor I think considering the size of the car and how well the competition does.

autonomous

It's actually pretty poor I think considering the size of the car and how well the competition does

Agreed. Mazda has to work on this. Since the Mazda3 & Mazda6 share the same 2.3 engine I'd be interested in how the new Mazda6 (coming next year) does in the fuel economy department.

smallcar1

I rented a 3i from Zip Car in NYC. I was stuck in some traffic but did most of my driving on the highway with no traffic and got 27. My '96 Altima gets about the same mileage and has beter passing power than the i so the S would probably get worse MPG under my driving conditions.

In 11 years I would think any manufacturer's new small cars would get better mileage than any car in the class from 11 years ago did so hopefully Mazda can tweak their engines like Hyundai did with the Elantra to improve MPG.

gtovrit

Just bought a used (11,600 mi) 3 hatchback, auto trans, 205 50 17 tires. On a 500 mile trip, using 10% ethanol gas, my MPG display showed 30mpg at the end of the trip. Nearly all highway miles, mostly at 75-80 mph. Of course, as soon as I get off the highway, the mileage drops fast, down to 23-26. I also have a 2002 Hyundai Elantra (Hi Backy!) which gets nearly identical mileage with a 2.0 liter engine, but a lot less zoom. I also experience a close to 10% drop in MPG with winter blend gas.
When shopping for this car, I looked at Suzuki Reno, Nissan Versa, Kia Rio, and Mazda 3, and guess what? They all get what I consider lousy mileage, 23-29, city to hwy. I think this is pathetic for cars this size, and yet manufacturers still whine about how they will be unable to meet the upcoming increased standards. Only Honda gets appreciably better mileage, and they are way out of the price range of the others. Maybe the new Chrysler can summon up the ghosts of engineering past and find some real solutions and innovations.

PF_Flyer

It's election day! So once you've done your civic duty, why not stop in at our weekly Mazda chat to meet and greet CarSpace friends?

The Mazda Club Chat is on tonight. The chat room opens at 8:45PM ET Hope to see YOU there! Check out the schedule

nemo

i thought this thread was for Speed3 owners-In Seattle where everything always up a hill at least, my speed3 goes about 280 miles to 11.5 gallons. 3,200 lbs is not a compact car. But that's the same mileage we got in a 4 cyc accord, and 4 cyc suburu legacy. The only cars getting 30 in the city are around 2600 lbs and 100 hp. Like my 97 civic.

Considering the weight of the car and performance (huge torque), the speed3 is essentially giving free 100 hp extra. My v6 ford explorer is butt slow but still only gets 15 mpg. I think we're all doing ok in our Mazdas.

gtovrit

Nemo, it appears Edmunds lumps all Mazda 3 discussions together. At the top of this page right now, I get:
"You are here: Forums Hatchbacks Mazda3 Mazda3 Real World MPG" If you go to the main Forum page, and enter Mazda, and MazdaSpeed Mazda3, it takes you to the same topics as the regular Mazda3.
As far as weight, Car and Driver lists "Curb weight: 2889 lb" That's a sub-3,000 lb car in my book. I'm not saying the problem is Mazda's. It is the future of all car manufacturers to make cars that have adequate power, like the 3, safety and comfort, and still get a better than 30mpg average. We've got the engineers, we just need the motivation, or there will be more of the car companies dropping by the wayside.

roadburner

It is the future of all car manufacturers to make cars that have adequate power, like the 3, safety and comfort, and still get a better than 30mpg average.

As I've said before, if/when BMW brings the 335d to the US I'll be first in line. 35 mpg and low fourteens in the quarter mile. Yowza!

rulp

I don't understand how some 3s drivers are getting such poor
fuel economy. My '04 hatch is a summer car with manual shift.
I have consistently got over 30 mpg over 3.5 years and this
car COOKS! It is so quick and fun to drive - wore out tires in 18,000 mi. Even fully loaded - marble top dresser and a lot of other stuff, it made a 950 mi. trip at 80 mph @ 32 mpg. I recently installed an AEM CAI and while the sound and passing power now plaster an insane grin on my face, it has not cost me anything in fuel use as I just got an all time record of 33.2 mpg. We have cars costing twice as much as this luxury go-cart, but I'm always moving them out of the way to get to my REAL car! Maybe I just got a good one.

zoomfamily

I too am getting excellent mileage! I have an 06 Hatch- 5mt. I drive moderately hard, and live at a high altitude (Denver area). After 22500 miles, I am averaging 30.2 mpg! I do alot of in town driving, and shift between 3-5k most of the time. I did advance the timing, installed a short ram intake and replaced my trans oil with synthetic. That combination bumped the overall MPG by about 1-1.5. This is a great car and my other one (Mazda 5), is averaging 26.5 with an AT and more weight. Tire pressure is very critical on these cars- makes much more of an impact that most would believe. I run them between 36-39 psi most of the time with great handling/ ride quality...

I must have gotten a good one too!

rulp

Zoomfam - Glad to hear that you are happy with your 3s fuel economy also! I
should have posted that probably 85% of my driving is highway, but 'spirited'. The
car can be driven like a four-wheeled motorcycle. If anyone is interested in the AEM CAI for the 2.3l I would be happy to discuss my 'real world' installation and driving experience with this device. Zoom-on, Bro!

gtovrit

So tell us! How was the installation? Everything fit correctly, no leftovers or mods necessary? How long have you had it and what improvements have you noticed? This voids the warranty, doesn't it? But what I really would like to know, do you get both increased horsepower AND mpg? Thanks.

rulp

gtovrit - The instructions for the AEM CAI were pretty good, but some experience with working through aftermarket installations would help. I did this solo, but another brain and pair of hands nearby wouldn't hurt. I took the numbered instructions and marked and laid out each step of disassembly in a separate pile. It turned out that removal of the old intake system was 90% of the work. I did not think of removing the grill to help in this process, but it may be a good idea if it comes out easily. Frequent invoking of the deities was required. Once the throttle body is exposed, it must be covered with a baggie or stuffed with a clean shop cloth. Work carefully step by step and keep the work area organized. Disassembly was unpleasant work, installation was fun! There was one mounting hole in the CAI which I had to ream a bit with a rat tail file, and it was a stretch to make one wiring harness connection which had to be carefully encouraged.
Otherwise it went well. Temporary partial removal of the wheel well liner and working in that area was no fun either. I covered the new filter with a K&N dust bag.
With battery reconnected the chip reset after start-up. I took it easy for 5 miles.
The car already sounded good, now it sounds great! The torque and accelleration
anywhere from 35mph on up is way better and 3rd gear is now an addictive hoot!
High speed passing is more like a motorcycle - passing 2 to 4 vehicles at once is not a problem. Fuel economy while having all this fun is about unchanged. Since
this unit appears to be the same one offered by Mazda as an option, I don't think
they can screw with you on this, although some dealers may try. We'll see!

sshpr

Sounds great, what was the cost and what is the procedure for resetting the chip?

gtovrit

After installation, where does the air filter end up? Is it accessible, or do you have to go through a lot of disassembly to replace it?

rulp

I think I paid less than $250 for the AEM CAI after searching the net. The filter ends
up low in the front fender, in line with the wheel hub. It is not an easy maintenance item as removing the splash shield under the engine provides perhaps the easiest access. I have removed the filter for inspection from above, but it would depend on the size of your arms and how well your finger dexterity is. That is why I covered the LARGE cone filter with the KN dust cover. This stops most dust from ever getting to the filter, and doesn't trap the particles but shakes them off. I only have 6 months on the system but so far so good. Purists would complain that the dust bag causes
some restriction to air flow and it probably does, but not to any noticeable degree as
I have run it with and without. I consider it a labor saver and motor insurance.

rulp

Whenever you make any modifications to air/engine/exhaust, the battery must be
disconnected as the first step. After the modification is complete the battery is
reconnected for start- up. The MAF (?) reads the new data provided by changed airflow and the chip is reset automatically. I take it easy during the reset process
and give it maybe 5 miles of normal driving to settle in. Don't start it up and sit in the
driveway revving the motor like an idiot. I can't think of an easier and less expensive
way to get such a noticeable real world boost in sound and performance. I am considering adding the Magnaflow cat-back exhaust system, but I don't want to
drown out that sweet intake howl with heavier exhaust growl. We'll see if I can resist.

rulp

As a result of these posts, I just checked out the CAI after a Sunday run and must
stand up and accept numerous dope-slaps. I suggested that installation may be
helped by removal of the grill. NOT SO! The grill rises with the hood placing you
face to metal with the impressively large radiator. Removal of this device would
definitely make the installation much easier but I would not recommend it. On a
happier note, I inspected the CAI and KN dust bag with a flashlight and a bit of
contortion and the dust bag is still shiny black after 6 months showing no sign of
particle accumulation which I believe would have the enclosed AEM filter in nearly new condition. Sorry for the error.

acd

In early October I finally took a long interstate highway trip in my '07 M3 5M. The best mileage was a little over 37 mpg, all interstate driving between 65 and 70 mph. At 75 mph the average mileage dropped to below 35 mpg. After a year and over 16,000 miles, I still love my M3.

fitguy

Have a 2007 M3S 2.3 AT and avg 32 mpg hwy/28 mixed.
I drive it agressive around corners but not at takeoff (usually). I'm satisfied with the mileage overall; could have bought a Civic but the handling of the 3 is superior overall, and seat comfort is better. I'd much rather trade a few mpg's for more fun behind the wheel!

ahightower

My first fill up yesterday. Light came on, I wasn't sure how dire that warning really is in the new car, so I filled up right away. Turns out it took just less than 12 gallons, and the tank is 14.5, so I now know that I have at least 50-60 miles to go when the light comes on.

Anyway, I got 28.6 mpg on my first tank. Only about 360 miles on the car so far, about 50/50 city/highway. Not too shabby, I'll be interested to see if it improves with time. I know there's not much of a real break in period with modern cars, and I have been driving like a granny, so it may be typical. Will report back in a thousand or so.

roadburner

My MS3 now has 7K on the clock and it is averaging 22-23 mpg in mostly suburban driving. I get @30 mpg on the interstate if I can resist the urge to cruise at 80+. No complaints.

ahightower

I promise I won't do this forever, but I did think it was interesting enough to share, for any prospective owners out there. My second tank managed 32.3 mpg. That's up 3.7 mpg over the first tank, and while I had a fair amount of sedate 60 mph cruising, I had some unusually heavy stop and go traffic due to being unable to leave the office as early as I usually do. I was pretty impressed. Will post again after a couple thousand.

cjones6

have the 2.3l hatch 5 speed, around 53,000 miles, running good so far, last summer did nothing but city, windows down, tried drive economical and got 27-28mpg city!!,
around 360 miles per tank!

but now with winter here im getting 24mpg

phostenix

2008 M3 hatch - 5-speed

1st tank - 31.7 MPG
2nd tank - 28.2 MPG

More city driving on tank 2 & a little more "fun".