What's your average mpg (km/100l)?

Hey everyone,

I just got back from driving my car, and I'm averaging 25.4 mpg with mixed freeway, city, and stop and go traffic with the Mazdaspeed 3 2.3L Turbo. Best I've ever seen for average on my car is 27.8 mpg, after driving for about 1 hour on the freeway at 55 mph!

What do you guys and gals average with your cars?

That's not bad, really, because I'm sure no one who owns a Speed3 is going to drive it like a grannywagon and expect 40 MPG.

My 3i Touring is almost to 2000 miles and is averaging a shade over 31 MPG city/highway. Oddly, the harder I drive it the better my mileage seems to get. The engine must be more efficient above 3500 RPM.

I agree w/Greg.  The harder I seem to drive my 2.3L (within reason of course,) the better the mileage. Weather, and air density seem to have an affect on that though too.
I average 26-28mpg w/o the A/C (more on long trips... 32-33,) and 24-26 w/the A/C and whenever traffic allows, shifting at +4~5K!! 

My 4dr 2.3 gets about 22mpg. I drive fast, and it's the winter, so i have the heat on, and the colder air gives you better performance but sucks up more gas. The car feels more torquey, which i love. I live in pretty much a country setting with roads that are 55mph with few traffic lights. I do commute to school about 15 miles away, and there is a lot more traffic in that area, so i'd say a mix of highway and city. I tend to have a heavy foot and i go about 70-90mph on a few of the roads to school (I know where cops hide.) They're two lanes, so i have room to do it. When i get on the interstates, then I'm between 80-100mph, so it's better for me not to drive on the highway. I know this sounds bad, but i can't help it. The car handles and drives amazingly at these speeds. Sometimes I look at the speedometer and see how fast I'm going and don't realize it. In the summer I get about 25mpg, same driving habits.

With less than wonderful winter gas out there, and my engine going through warm-up-from-cold cycles, my mileage has slipped the last few months, down to the 27-29 range (mix of city/hwy, not a whole lot of stop and go).  Outside of winter, I do 1-3 mpg better, without A/C usage.   

quote:

ORIGINAL: virgin1


I agree w/Greg. The harder I seem to drive my 2.3L (within reason of course,) the better the mileage. Weather, and air density seem to have an affect on that though too.
I average 26-28mpg w/o the A/C (more on long trips... 32-33,) and 24-26 w/the A/C and whenever traffic allows, shifting at +4~5K!!

I'll have to pay a little more attention to the temp/humidity from now on to see how it affects my car. Though I don't think it's changed much over the last month; the car actually turned in its best tank (just under 32) when we had our coldest weather. But still within the break-in period, so that counts as anecdotal evidence. The car really does seem to have a "sweet spot" where higher revs don't hurt the MPG, until you get above 70 MPH and air drag starts to bring it down again.

because of all the highway driving im doing rightn ow its looking like 4.7L per 100 KM. then i hit kitchener and the 401 and it ends up going to hell from the traffic lol

quote:

ORIGINAL: jaimie08mazda3

because of all the highway driving im doing rightn ow its looking like 4.7L per 100 KM. then i hit kitchener and the 401 and it ends up going to hell from the traffic lol

 
I'm not a metric expert, so these calcs could be wrong ... 4.7L is 1.24 US Gallons ... 100 KM is 62 miles ... 62 miles divided by 1.24 US Gallons is 50 miles per gallon.  Your getting 50 miles per US Gallon?  Are you driving downhill with a tail wind?

quote:

ORIGINAL: UrbanmanUSA

quote:

ORIGINAL: jaimie08mazda3

because of all the highway driving im doing rightn ow its looking like 4.7L per 100 KM. then i hit kitchener and the 401 and it ends up going to hell from the traffic lol

I'm not a metric expert, so these calcs could be wrong ... 4.7L is 1.24 US Gallons ... 100 KM is 62 miles ... 62 miles divided by 1.24 US Gallons is 50 miles per gallon. Your getting 50 miles per US Gallon? Are you driving downhill with a tail wind?

Lol, no one ever said Jaimie would win the Nobel Prize for mathematics....

 
I DID the conversion/calculation and Uber is right!!  50.05mpg. 

Jaimie, Jaimie, Jaimie.  That's impossible. You're doing something wrong w/you calculations.  You ain't driving a Prius y'know... and they only get around 45(?) iirc.

"Are you driving downhill with a tail wind?"

Yeah, Ube, he must be!!  BOTH ways!!  Or, he's got the slickest 3 sedan I've ever heard of.  How many coats a' wax you got on there, Boy??      
 
 

In my 2.0 itouring I've been averaging about 27 mpg.  The mileage seems to be getting better as I break the car in more.

quote:

ORIGINAL: GregDunn

That's not bad, really, because I'm sure no one who owns a Speed3 is going to drive it like a grannywagon and expect 40 MPG.

My 3i Touring is almost to 2000 miles and is averaging a shade over 31 MPG city/highway. Oddly, the harder I drive it the better my mileage seems to get. The engine must be more efficient above 3500 RPM.

 

quote:

ORIGINAL: virgin1  (from another thread)

quote:

ORIGINAL: UrbanmanUSA
Even now, I pretty much never rev it past 4000 rpm (to me, the 2.0 "feels" a little strained beyond 4000), I rarely gun it, 99% of the time my RPMs are between 2000 and 3000. 

Uber, You may feel it's straining because of the shorter stroke/greater piston speed and velocity. The 327ci I used to have felt the same way in the upper rpm band.  It was a weird feeling compared to other longer stroked engine I was familiar with, but it doesn't really hurt it.  You just have less torque available up there.

 
Maybe my thinking is dated.  Couple things.  One, I read somewhere, I believe it was a recommendation from Porsche for their cars (I realize that my M3 is not quite a Porsche ...), that their engines are not be run above 2/3 of redline for a sustained period.  Two, my former Toyota, near the end when it was over 10 years old and well into the six figures of mileage on the ODO, burned much more oil when revved beyond 3500.  True, the engine (and electrical system, and suspension ...) was arthritic and nearing its Old Yeller moment, but still I took it as an indication of the stresses that revving up a four cylinder engine put on the parts/seals.
 
So, I am a skeptic re: MPG being better above 3500, and believing that its completely harmless to regularly rev it beyond 2/3 redline (I realize Porsche says 'sustained' but still, if sustained is bad, spikes can't be nothing).  I did a little test earlier today, travelling at a constant speed of roughly 63 mph (half way between 60 and 65), using the trip computer, and the MPG was noticeably better in 4th gear versus 3rd gear (bear in mind I have a 4 speed auto, so 4th is my top gear).
 
 

i got a 07 3i touring auto and i drive mostly all city, getting btwn 18-21 mpg.  

27.9 by my calculator on the last tank, mixed city and highway with it being 30/70 on the mix.
But if I use Jaimies calculator I am getting about 75 MPG LOL

quote:

ORIGINAL: UrbanmanUSA

So, I am a skeptic re: MPG being better above 3500, and believing that its completely harmless to regularly rev it beyond 2/3 redline (I realize Porsche says 'sustained' but still, if sustained is bad, spikes can't be nothing).  I did a little test earlier today, travelling at a constant speed of roughly 63 mph (half way between 60 and 65), using the trip computer, and the MPG was noticeably better in 4th gear versus 3rd gear (bear in mind I have a 4 speed auto, so 4th is my top gear).

 
Well, (and still a bit off topic here) I don't completely understand it either.  These modern cars are a different breed than what I grew up with.
I will say that for some time now R&T (via the BMW engineers) has been touting the positive affects on fuel mileage using 3/4 throttle to get to the next gear ASAP.  In my 3, that seems to work well, to the tune of 1-3mpg better than being granny.
 
I'm sure you know this, but higher rpm means greater piston speed/velocity, therefore theoretically more wear.  On s short stroke engine this is even more pronounced since the piston travels a shorter distance and has to reach full velocity in that shorter travel faster only to have to stop and reverse itself then do it all over again.
 
All I can say about that is (yeah, my old Civic again) I beat the shit out of a 1500cc CVCC Honda engine that developed, or had a cracked ring in #4 early on (before I owned the car myself,) for over ~110k, ~190k total, and it never used any more oil than when it had 50k on the clock.
 
 

quote:

ORIGINAL: Siber Express

27.9 by my calculator on the last tank, mixed city and highway with it being 30/70 on the mix.
But if I use Jaimies calculator I am getting about 75 MPG LOL

 

Yeah?  Where did you get it Ken.  I NEED one of those too.       
 

I wonder if this is what he is using Virgin

I might have moved the wrong row again LOL

 
HAHAHAHAHA!!!!  ^ ^ ^ Fun-nney!!!
 
 
 

quote:

ORIGINAL: virgin1

 I will say that for some time now R&T (via the BMW engineers) has been touting the positive affects on fuel mileage using 3/4 throttle to get to the next gear ASAP.  In my 3, that seems to work well, to the tune of 1-3mpg better than being granny.

I'm sure you know this, but higher rpm means greater piston speed/velocity, therefore theoretically more wear.  On s short stroke engine this is even more pronounced since the piston travels a shorter distance and has to reach full velocity in that shorter travel faster only to have to stop and reverse itself then do it all over again.

 
If you could clarify, that would be appreciated.  Expand on what "using 3/4 throttle to get to the next gear" means.  Is that referring to pushing the gas pedal a certain distance to the floor, or specific RPM targets before upshifting, or .... ?
 

quote:

ORIGINAL: UrbanmanUSA

quote:

ORIGINAL: virgin1

I will say that for some time now R&T (via the BMW engineers) has been touting the positive affects on fuel mileage using 3/4 throttle to get to the next gear ASAP. In my 3, that seems to work well, to the tune of 1-3mpg better than being granny.

I'm sure you know this, but higher rpm means greater piston speed/velocity, therefore theoretically more wear. On s short stroke engine this is even more pronounced since the piston travels a shorter distance and has to reach full velocity in that shorter travel faster only to have to stop and reverse itself then do it all over again.

If you could clarify, that would be appreciated. Expand on what "using 3/4 throttle to get to the next gear" means. Is that referring to pushing the gas pedal a certain distance to the floor, or specific RPM targets before upshifting, or .... ?

Urban: from the way he wrote, I believe Richard meant pressure on the gas pedal.

I'm trying to help out anyway I can here....I don't really know much about the mechanical processes on a car. xD I'm curious if I could get any better mileage by driving the way Richard is talking about....but most likely not - I have an American car, so my power is in the lower to middle band..

Yes, you asre correct, VB.  Pedal pressure.
They have referred to the process mentioned by the BMW engineers several times in the Tech Correspondence column, iirc. Essentially you accelerate hard (2/3-3/4 throttle) until you reach a point where you can shift to a higher gear.  If accelerating up hill, that rpm level would be much higher than if you were driving down hill, etc, but get into the next gear ASAP.  Clearly I don't always follow that line of thinking myself as I do like to rev this car into the higher band, and in traffic sometimes I feel I have to just to get away from the stupids, as I like to call them.
It should also work for an automatic, though you may have to "force the shift" by lifting briefly, or lift-throttle, also sometimes called drop-throttle which is rather confusing.
 

quote:

ORIGINAL: virgin1


Yes, you asre correct, VB.  Pedal pressure.
They have referred to the process mentioned by the BMW engineers several times in the Tech Correspondence column, iirc. Essentially you accelerate hard (2/3-3/4 throttle) until you reach a point where you can shift to a higher gear.  If accelerating up hill, that rpm level would be much higher than if you were driving down hill, etc, but get into the next gear ASAP.  Clearly I don't always follow that line of thinking myself as I do like to rev this car into the higher band, and in traffic sometimes I feel I have to just to get away from the stupids, as I like to call them.
It should also work for an automatic, though you may have to "force the shift" by lifting briefly, or lift-throttle, also sometimes called drop-throttle which is rather confusing.

 
Gracias for the insight.  Remember the M3 has the very 21st century automatic w/sport shift.  Forcing the shift is accomplished with a flick of the wrist!

quote:

ORIGINAL: virgin1


Yes, you asre correct, VB. Pedal pressure.
They have referred to the process mentioned by the BMW engineers several times in the Tech Correspondence column, iirc. Essentially you accelerate hard (2/3-3/4 throttle) until you reach a point where you can shift to a higher gear. If accelerating up hill, that rpm level would be much higher than if you were driving down hill, etc, but get into the next gear ASAP. Clearly I don't always follow that line of thinking myself as I do like to rev this car into the higher band, and in traffic sometimes I feel I have to just to get away from the stupids, as I like to call them.
It should also work for an automatic, though you may have to "force the shift" by lifting briefly, or lift-throttle, also sometimes called drop-throttle which is rather confusing.

I'd been experimenting with pedal pressure to see if I could force a shift, but I never knew it really did anything.

I was speaking about fully automatic mode, which I think is VB's only option.  You (Uber) have the option to chose because of Mazdas tip-tronic manual shift mode.
Most autos will hold the gear (up to a point) depending on how much power you are calling for.  Hard on the accelerater (usually)=  higher rpm's between shifts.  Lighter on the pedal= lower shift points. So if you're accelerating hard, but don't want to wind her out completely, and you want the tranny to shift at a given point, lift off for a short time until the tranny shifts up.
See what  mean?  That's how all the autos I've ever driven worked.

I thought all Mazda 3 autos had tiptronic.  Doesn't VB drive a Mazda3?   If he's not driving a Mazda3, why is he here?