The nature of the type of driving that my life requires of me is that 90% of it is under 30 mph and lots of stop and go, slow acceleration behind dump trucks and semi's etc. It takes me 30 min to drive 6.8 miles on my commute, which means I can literally ride a bicycle faster. Just curious how years of this type of driving might take its toll. Car only has 1,300 miles on it now. Normally aspirated. The upside is the engine and trans are not stressed AT ALL (I could probably push the car about the same). But, there is a lot of low speed shifting, prolonged low RPM idling, back and forth on the pedals while people turn off, kids cross the road, red lights, school buses, etc. I try to drive as gentle as I can, but the nature of the commute is not ideal. This is where an electric car would shine.

 

I think you hit the nail on the head.
If 6.8 miles were my daily commute, I'd get one of the following bicycle/scooter/motorcycle, or some kind of electric vehicle/public transportation.
Save your "car" for other types of driving.

 

Welcome to the forum

You would really only need to lower your oil and filter service to about 5 k miles or less. Your spark plugs will need to be changed at or below 15k miles. At some pont you should still go for a 50-100 mile trip on the highway averaging vehicle speeds of at least 55MPH steady.
Your need to watch carefully the exhaust system because unless the engine gets to complete operating temperatures there will be a build up of highly corrosive exhaust residue that would normally be burned off with normal high driving vehicle speeds.
Aside form that off the top of me head are the only cautionary things with your driving scenario.

ASE


MyDailey working commute is less then 2 miles one waytwice a day 5 days a week . But I do go on long weekend drives of between 300-totally 1100 miles several times a year.

 

I think I'm ok on temp as the engine runs for 15-20 min at a time. Hopefully that's good enough to mitigate that point.

 

nope! You are misunderstanding gauge read fluid value temperatures with no comparison of exhaust temperatures which is largely based air speed velocity which there is nothing MAZDA gives to view that aspect of engine operation. The best you could do is view the CAT temperature's via the OBDI diagnostic connector with a scan tool and the results I am sure would with your driving style be low with your driving style and would not do the best job at emissions or total EGT (exhaust gas temperatures).

ASE