My vehicle: 2019 CX-5 Grand Touring AWD 187-hp 2.5 L engine.

Since the pandemic began, have been driving very little. Several times a week, short trips of 5-15 minutes, suburban roads, 45 mph or less. Mileage has averaged 18-19 mpg.

This mileage seems very low even considering the short trips. Or is it? Anybody else experiencing similar mileage given similar driving patterns?

 

On short trips like that, the vehicle doesn't even fully warm up. You won't get good mileage.

 

True, usually plenty of stop and go driving - you get zero mpg when idling, poor mileage when accelerating away from the stop or slow, and every time you hit the brakes it reduces your mpg. Long trips on the freeway usually get the best mileage as long as you drive close to the speed limit and don’t drive in big cities at rush hour when there is often more stop and go than on many surface streets.

 

Seems typical. Biggest killer, I'd say, is the constant need to accelerate from a stop.

It'll depends, of course, on how hard you're getting on the gas, and on the percentage of time (compared to total driving time) that you're spending accelerating from stop signs/lights. The shorter trips don't help the overall fuel economy, given much greater frequency of stops/acceleration.

You could try a much more sedate launch from stops. Trying that for an entire tankful of gas, I'd bet you could add another 2-3mpg from that alone, perhaps more.

One thing I've tried is: use of the +/- manual shift mode, for several hundred miles, and allowing RPM's to get up above 3500-4000 before shifting. Not deliberately hard accelerating, but simply keeping the RPM's in the "sweet" spot for easy acceleration. Gets to speed much faster, doesn't seem to hit the fuel economy as hard as "regular" zippy city driving otherwise does, at least for me. Of course, it's not automatic, and it's one more thing you need to manage, but it can impact fuel economy depending on how you drive.

I've got a 2016.5 CX-5 GT AWD 2.5L, 184hp @ 5700, 185tq @ 3250. If doing city-heavy driving for an entire tank of gas, I can expect something in the range of ~20-21mpg. Haven't seen less, but if I'm driving briskly, I'm sure it'd be easy to get sub-20mpg. If doing a ~50:50 blend, I seem to typically get 24-25mpg, often lower if I'm driving spiritedly. On strictly highway, it's at or slightly above ~30mpg.

Again, if dealing with lots of hills, if using the "sport" mode, and most certainly if driving with a "lead foot" and driving spiritedly, I can knock off 10-20% of the fuel efficiency right off the top. Haven't spent an entire tankful driving with a heavy foot, yet, but it wouldn't surprise me if fuel-efficiency for a tank went as low as 15mpg, doing nothing but "sport" mode and "lead-footing" it. Fun to drive, but awful for fuel economy during the accelerating.

 

Thanks for your responses. Although I don't like the low mileage, at least it looks like it's within the ballpark of "normal" for my type of driving. By the way, there are modest hills in our area and there are at least 5 and as many as 10 stoplights on my regular short trip routes. Do not have a "lead foot", but also do not start off very slowly from a light. Will try a few things to improve mileage. At least, given the significant reduction in miles I've been driving the past year, the gas bill is still much lower than before. Also, I'm slightly spoiled since we had a Prius as our second car before going down to a single vehicle.

Thanks again.

PS: This is our very first Mazda . . . and we like it!

 

You might want to take longer drives periodically, just to get the engine oil up to operating temperature which will reduce moisture in the crankcase and help boil out some of the crud otherwise being generated by those short trips.

 

schmieg . . .

Good suggestion. Will make it part of my routine.

 

^^This^^ Years ago most engines controlled oil temperature around 180*F, but most modern engines run the oil temp above 100*C (212* F) to boil off any condensed water in the oil. This is one reason for the extended oil change intervals with modern engines, the reduction of oil-damaging chemicals. Short trips don’t give the oil time to heat up enough - oil temp usually trails water temp by quite a while.

 

Frequent short trips lower mpg, that is expected. Both our cars are used for short trips since the pandemic and both cars show lower mpg. Nothing to worry about.