Fuel Economy

[runner2k]

I made a mistake.

8.75L / 100km.

[Rems31]

My first tank got almost empty on Sunday (bought the car on April 28th).

2010 Mazdaspeed 3. We did 550Km with a full tank. I think we could have gone to 575km.

9.1/100km?

I made a mistake.

8.75L / 100km.

isn't that 10.4L/100kms? (575kms on 60L)

[Elusivellama]

isn't that 10.4L/100kms? (575kms on 60L)

No, when the gauge reads almost empty, it still has about 10L left in the tank, all modern car fuel gauges do this as a safety precaution. In his case it was around 12L remaining.

[runner2k]

No, when the gauge reads almost empty, it still has about 10L left in the tank, all modern car fuel gauges do this as a safety precaution. In his case it was around 12L remaining.

I thought it was about 5L. Good to know. Is this info 100% accurate?? 10L left when the gas sign is on? Does it say in the manual?

[Rems31]

No, when the gauge reads almost empty, it still has about 10L left in the tank, all modern car fuel gauges do this as a safety precaution. In his case it was around 12L remaining.

I was going by the estimate that he could have gone 575kms for the full tank since he didnt specify how much was left

[Iceman_F1]

I thought it was about 5L. Good to know. Is this info 100% accurate?? 10L left when the gas sign is on? Does it say in the manual?

I don't think it says this. It's mostly to get the people who don't keep good track of it to say "OH SH*T...NEED TO FILL UP!" and get there without letting them get stranded on the road.

I personally use a scangaugeII (http://www.scangauge.com/) to help track my mileage. I can see the LTE and DTE (Liters Till Empty & Distance Till Empty). Once the unit is calibrated well enough, you get a very accurate picture of how far you can go. Once it was calibrated, I noticed that ~10L left till it was empty, the light would come on. Really helped me when I was driving to the states last year as I could see I had ~100km left till empty but the hotel was ~20km away (and there was a gas station within 3km of the hotel) so it let me know I wasn't in a huge danger of running out before the hotel.

[runner2k]

I don't think it says this. It's mostly to get the people who don't keep good track of it to say "OH SH*T...NEED TO FILL UP!" and get there without letting them get stranded on the road.

I personally use a scangaugeII (http://www.scangauge.com/) to help track my mileage. I can see the LTE and DTE (Liters Till Empty & Distance Till Empty). Once the unit is calibrated well enough, you get a very accurate picture of how far you can go. Once it was calibrated, I noticed that ~10L left till it was empty, the light would come on. Really helped me when I was driving to the states last year as I could see I had ~100km left till empty but the hotel was ~20km away (and there was a gas station within 3km of the hotel) so it let me know I wasn't in a huge danger of running out before the hotel.

How much does it cost? $150?

[Iceman_F1]

How much does it cost? $150?

$170 US shipped from their site. I got an extra cable just in case so a bit over $200. Sometimes you can find something local. Worth it for me though as I use it every day for tracking mileage stuff as well as it can scan/clear CEL codes.

[sarujo]

FYI - Gifford Automotive in Ottawa has them for CAD $155 incl ExpressPost shipping. http://www.giffordautomotive.com/ordering.htm

$170 US shipped from their site. I got an extra cable just in case so a bit over $200. Sometimes you can find something local. Worth it for me though as I use it every day for tracking mileage stuff as well as it can scan/clear CEL codes.

[Woodnut]

I have a 2011 Mazda 3 GS, got in the spring. Was disappointed with the gas mileage at first, no better then the 2007 Mazda 3 I had. But since Mazda has cheaped out and only puts in trip computers on the top end models, I have been tracking my mileage myself.

I have been noticing that the gas light comes on pretty early. I usually put gas in just after the gas light comes on and was only putting in 42 to 45L.

So last fill up I did a test. I filled up with 52.870L

The gas light came on yesterday at 542 KMs, the last bar on the gas gauge disappeared 50KMs later. Today, I filled up at the 701.9KM mark. The gas pump popped at 52 liters and I squeezed in another 4 liters. I do mostly city driving between Burlington and Mississauga and had the A/C on of about 80% of the time. So if I did the math right that's 7.5L per 100kms. Not too bad

[rzapata]

2008.5 Mazdaspeed 3
Shell V-power 91 octane

Fuel Economy rating at 13.1L/100km (18 mpg city), 9.0L/100km (26 mpg highway), 11.8L/100km (20 mpg combined)

100% City Driving
11.3L/100km (20.82 mpg)

80% City + 20% Highway
10.6L/100km (22.19 mpg)

Regular shifting at 2500 - 3000 rpm, redline once in a while.. I say better than the average for my zoom zoom!!

[distr0]

Lately with my new job, I commute from Hamilton to Kitchener everyday back and forth ~140km/day. On my 2010 GT 2.5 with manual, I can get over 700km easily on about 45-47 litres of gas (according to fuel pump click). Inputting my information per fill up in Fuelly it has ranged between 6.3L/100km to 6.5L/100km. Pretty much all highway with the exception of city in Cambridge and of course Kitchener.

Driving style: pretty conservative 2300-2600 RPM shifts

[wildcard50]

My new job has me doing a daily commute from toronto to stratford and back everyday. I cover 167 km each way. My aftermarket trip computer says i get exactly
5.8l/100 km for my 2010 gx sport with 5spd manual.thats pretty good since i also have the extra weight because i sound deadened my car. I was thinking i could bump up the milage even more if i got those feul savingtires like goodyear feul max.

[Webs]

I posted (much) higher in the thread, so I thought I'd update.

I don't do that much driving. I just had my first four-month oil change and check up with only 3,800 km on the odometer. I've filled up twice since then.

As you can see, my fuel economy is trending better. The most recent measurement may be misleading as it includes a 2.5-hour highway trip.



The app, by the way, is Road Trip LE (free).

[arnold22]

I have a 2009 Mazda 3 GS with 27,000km and I get 7.3L/100km doing mostly city driving (at least 85%). I dropped to 7.1L/100km in the last week because of two highway trip (one and half hour) to cottages. I think it's pretty good considering it's pretty much all city driving.

[sol_searchin]

I get like maybe 18L/100 km, you guys need to stop complaining SUV's FTL

[jwei]

Where abouts in Kitchener?? Carpool together?! lol

Lately with my new job, I commute from Hamilton to Kitchener everyday back and forth ~140km/day. On my 2010 GT 2.5 with manual, I can get over 700km easily on about 45-47 litres of gas (according to fuel pump click). Inputting my information per fill up in Fuelly it has ranged between 6.3L/100km to 6.5L/100km. Pretty much all highway with the exception of city in Cambridge and of course Kitchener.

Driving style: pretty conservative 2300-2600 RPM shifts

[shagra]

i'm consistently at 11-12L/100km
something seems wrong? what could it be?
about 50/50 city/highway...

[XTOTHEL]

1. Are you sure you're calculating it correctly? ([Fuel Amount Used]/[KMs traveled]) * 100 = L/100km, note that fuel amount used is NOT how big your tank is.

I don't really care about economy and I get about 8L/100km, mostly city.

[zmz3]

1. Are you sure you're calculating it correctly? ([Fuel Amount Used]/[KMs traveled]) * 100 = L/100km, note that fuel amount used is NOT how big your tank is.

I don't really care about economy and I get about 8L/100km, mostly city.

Wow.. you must be babying the hell out of the car... You ever seen 4k rpm in the city?

[XTOTHEL]

Wow.. you must be babying the hell out of the car... You ever seen 4k rpm in the city?

3-4k rmp to start, then 2k and under to keep constant speed...

[shagra]

i'm just going by the readout in the dash

[Iceman_F1]

i'm just going by the readout in the dash

Do you reset the info after every fillup? If not, then it's not very accurate. If yes, it's a bit closer but I find it's still not the most accurate way of finding the mileage. Best method is to do it manually. On your next fillup, do the calculation of (L Filled / KM Traveled) * 100 = L/100KM.

An example of my last 2:

25.181 L / 317 KM = 0.0794 * 100 = 7.94L/100KM (80% highway keeping speed under 120KM/H)
32.271 L / 270 KM = 0.1195 * 100 = 11.95L/100KM (Track school, drive home from track school and lots of city driving)

[aZuMi]

Do you reset the info after every fillup? If not, then it's not very accurate. If yes, it's a bit closer but I find it's still not the most accurate way of finding the mileage. Best method is to do it manually. On your next fillup, do the calculation of (L Filled / KM Traveled) * 100 = L/100KM.

An example of my last 2:

25.181 L / 317 KM = 0.0794 * 100 = 7.94L/100KM (80% highway keeping speed under 120KM/H)
32.271 L / 270 KM = 0.1195 * 100 = 11.95L/100KM (Track school, drive home from track school and lots of city driving)

That's the same calculation I use...I normally average 11L/100km...

With the way I drive sometimes, it's ok.

[Iceman_F1]

That's the same calculation I use...I normally average 11L/100km...

With the way I drive sometimes, it's ok.

But that's the thing that is so hard to tell. How people drive, where they drive, the conditions they drive in, etc all affect mileage. I appreciate car companies saying what a car CAN get (in a perfect world) but hate how people complain they don't get close to those numbers because their driving style, route or whatever doesn't match.