Behold! The Millenium Falcon! (Mazda5 content)

In reply to tuna55: Do the math yourself. On board MPG computers are notoriously unreliable.

I'm not sure how accurate those things are in general. I don't have one in my 5 since the manual transmission must cause too much electrical interference for the trip computer and bluetooth to work (sarcasm, obviously), but the last couple rentals I had were way off. Yesterday's Sonic told me that my trip was netting me 36mpg, but actual miles divided by actual gallons was about 32. I had a Ford and a Kia that also had some very optimistic numbers on the display.

Junkyard_Dog wrote: In reply to tuna55: Do the math yourself. On board MPG computers are notoriously unreliable.

The wife compared a while ago... it was reasonably close.

How did she compare it? This is one of my pet peeves; somehow, every car gets 30mpg regardless of driving style, weight, time of year, etc, and everyone insists that they track it accurately.

I arrived at my mileage using Fuelly.com and 15,000 miles of religiously logging gallons purchased versus miles driven. I was able to do this because my wife couldn't drive a stick at the time so I was the only one who ever filled up. Once she learned, I missed a few fillups and so I didn't trust the numbers anymore, and stopped recording.

Anything less than 2 or 3 thousand miles of tracking is insufficient for accuracy, IMO. Also, usually track mileage on long trips, but if I'm going to be driving for 1500 miles I slow down and make efforts to conserve fuel, so those trips need to be averaged against the typical driving that I don't normally track.

steronz wrote: How did she compare it? This is one of my pet peeves; somehow, every car gets 30mpg regardless of driving style, weight, time of year, etc, and everyone insists that they track it accurately. I arrived at my mileage using Fuelly.com and 15,000 miles of religiously logging gallons purchased versus miles driven. I was able to do this because my wife couldn't drive a stick at the time so I was the only one who ever filled up. Once she learned, I missed a few fillups and so I didn't trust the numbers anymore, and stopped recording. Anything less than 2 or 3 thousand miles of tracking is insufficient for accuracy, IMO. Also, usually track mileage on long trips, but if I'm going to be driving for 1500 miles I slow down and make efforts to conserve fuel, so those trips need to be averaged against the typical driving that I don't normally track.

Oh come on. Reset on board fuel economy, fill tank, reset trip odo. Drive. Fill tank, divide, compare with on board fuel economy readout. She did it two or three times and it was within 1 or 2 mpg.

My fuel economy has improved on each tank. Two tanks ago I got 24.5 mpg and my tank last week was just under 26 mpg for a mix of driving.

I arrived at my mileage using Fuelly.com and 15,000 miles of religiously logging gallons purchased versus miles driven. I was able to do this because my wife couldn't drive a stick at the time so I was the only one who ever filled up. Once she learned, I missed a few fillups and so I didn't trust the numbers anymore, and stopped recording. Anything less than 2 or 3 thousand miles of tracking is insufficient for accuracy, IMO. Also, usually track mileage on long trips, but if I'm going to be driving for 1500 miles I slow down and make efforts to conserve fuel, so those trips need to be averaged against the typical driving that I don't normally track.

Uhh, put me in the "Oh, come on.." camp as well. What you're describing sounds like neurosis.

For me, once i've established what a car gets under typical usage, i pretty much stop checking until i take a trip or do some kind of mod. For example, my Honda Insight has a very accurate mpg tracker. I watched it for months, maybe even over a year, and checked it against my fill ups numerous times. It is within 1 mpg @50 mpg, which is a lot more resolution than what you're dealing with on a car that gets 25. About 170 miles ago i reset the trip odo after theyd been rolling over, ignored, for months and months and months. It still gets exactly what it got last time i cared to check.

Accordingly to Fuelly my fillups over that period ranged from 18.9 to 27.8 mpg. There's a ton of variance, and if you're only tracking "2 or 3 fillups" the numbers aren't going to be more than a large ballpark.

I'm not saying that everyone needs to be as anal as I was, but data is data. If you're making a setup change to your autocross car, do you do "2 or 3 runs" before deciding that it worked or not?

steronz wrote: Accordingly to Fuelly my fillups over that period ranged from 18.9 to 27.8 mpg. There's a ton of variance, and if you're only tracking "2 or 3 fillups" the numbers aren't going to be more than a large ballpark. I'm not saying that everyone needs to be as anal as I was, but data is data. If you're making a setup change to your autocross car, do you do "2 or 3 runs" before deciding that it worked or not?

You misunderstand, if I sample a few different scenarios against the on board meter, and they always compare favorably, I can be reasonably assured that they are going to correlate well and I can subsequently use the on board meter as my source. Jeez.

OK Folks, sorry for the threadjack. When I drive the Caravan I don't use a lot of A/C, but pure highway, no A/C I'm just at 30, sometimes varying by 10% in either direction. In the city, A/C on, worst tank ever kind of stuff, I'm down around 21, 22.

Back to the Mazda5 stuff.

Turned over 69,000 on mine today. Had to rearrange the barn so I could get it in, 2-10" o snow coming. Quite the spread.

Back Up singer provided by Beer Baron

Accordingly to Fuelly my fillups over that period ranged from 18.9 to 27.8 mpg. There's a ton of variance, and if you're only tracking "2 or 3 fillups" the numbers aren't going to be more than a large ballpark. I'm not saying that everyone needs to be as anal as I was, but data is data. If you're making a setup change to your autocross car, do you do "2 or 3 runs" before deciding that it worked or not?

I would have to guess that your usage regime varies more than mine. In general i agree with you that more data is better.

Anybody have trouble getting the ding dang air filters to seat correctly? I tried using an STP filter, but that made the idle hunt around and eventually stall out. I noticed the built-in rubber gasket wasn't the same, so I went and bought a OEM filter. It doesn't hunt nearly as bad, but it is still stalling on lift-throttle conditions.

Between this, the oil filter cartridge, and the most retarded headlight replacement procedure I've ever encountered I'm beginning to believe that the Mazda engineers were out to lunch when they had the seminar on serviceability.

I've been telling my wife that it might be time for me to get a Mazda5 since I don't have a good utility vehicle, plus it can carry us all and the grandparents. She responded by saying that since she totes the kids around the most and would most likely need the larger seating, it makes more sense for her to have it.

tuna55 wrote:

Junkyard_Dog wrote: In reply to tuna55: Do the math yourself. On board MPG computers are notoriously unreliable.

The wife compared a while ago... it was reasonably close.

Ditto. Also, can't seem to do better than 22mpg. I've stopped trying. And stopped checking FE. Same with the Caddy. "berkeley it. It's going to get 15-17mpg and cost a lot to fill up. Might as well have fun between fillups."

Also: I wonder if newer cars are getting better at getting the actual FE close. It'd be interesting to know if there's a flow meter lurking in there somewhere.

My FE lately has been in the 24-25 mpg range. That is mostly stop and go/commuting. If I do more highway driving, I can get closer to 26-26.5 mpg. This is with shifting at 2-2.5k and trying to keep it under 3k rpm.

I'm still averaging 28.5; almost all highway though. Also, I nearly never top 75mph so the revs stay 3k or under at cruising speed.

I'm surprised that in 13 pages, nobody has mentioned towing. As I understand it, Mazda doesn't want you towing anything with these, but in Europe they let you tow 2000 lbs. In my experience, tow ratings can be exceeded a bit as long as you have manual transmissions. But on Automatics you want to have a more robust transmission cooler. What do you guys think?

When is Skyactiv coming? I want to get my minivan loving retired parents into one of these to replace the Ford Freestar. Or else it's a CUV and I know they'll miss the space.

Towing: I would suspect that the low US towing has to do with the 6 seats offered.
If you had all 6 seats filled, you would not want to tow 2000 more lbs.
I had mine filled with 6 once. 2 husbands, 2 wives, 2 kids (7 and 12). The car really felt maxed out.

Sure, 2 people and 2000 lbs, different story but I suspect the lawyers say that if the seats are available, the tow rating has to assume they are filled.

I hope I'm wrong but I don't see skyactiv on the horizon for the 5. I test drive a MZ6 skyactiv today and think I may be moving that way this fall. I turned 75000 on mine today, have a wheel bearing making some noise so I'll replace that when I get home at the beginning of March.

Think they'll just drop it? I doubt it will be around for long with the old drive train and styling language.

Bumping this thread to the top.

CEL came on in my 5 yesterday. No apparent major issues I've noticed in driving. However...when it's cold out (under 40) and the engine is cold, the engine seems to surge right at 3000 rpm. Being a recovering Honda fanboy, the best way to describe it is like VTEC just kicked in, yo. It's been doing this for a couple months, as far as I can tell.

Has anyone else had this happen? Of course this has to happen just as I'm about to head out of town, so the wife is taking it to the dealer today for diagnosis.

I have noticed the surge before, but I've never had any CELs. I just assumed it was less-than-perfect factory engine management.

edit - come to think of it, I just replaced a wonky MAF sensor and I haven't noticed the surge since. I don't think the surging on my car is temperature related either.

06 manual if it matters.

kreb wrote: I'm surprised that in 13 pages, nobody has mentioned towing. As I understand it, Mazda doesn't want you towing anything with these, but in Europe they let you tow 2000 lbs. In my experience, tow ratings can be exceeded a bit as long as you have manual transmissions. But on Automatics you want to have a more robust transmission cooler. What do you guys think?

I've towed around the 2000lb max rated on my 3 (manual trans). It works great.

On the heavier 5, with the potential added weight of passengers or cargo, I can see why it wouldn't be recommended by Mazda.

It wouldn't surprise me one bit if a Mazda3 tow hitch the same year as a Mazda5 would bolt in without much trouble, assuming you're willing to go off label.