hairyfrog

The reason that I am in this state is the negative feedback from US owners.

I agree with you, mpg figures are a guide. BUT some US guys are getting HALF what mazda claimed.

I'll admit it, one of the reasons I ordered the car is that it will be rare on the road to start with, and I am willing to take some risk stumping up my cash upfront. I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

If mpg turns out to be low 20's mpg combined as oposed to mazda claim of 25, I could live with that. If it turns out to be much less, then
a) mazda have lied and that will p*ss me off
b) Running costs will mean I can't enjoy the car so what's the point

It's not about seeing it in the flesh. It's about common sense.
Lets just say we DO get the mpg issue and we get e.g. 17mpg combined.

a) Running the car will be v expensive so I won't be able to drive it
b) residuals will be hit so selling will be bad news
i.e. once I've bought it, i'm stuffed.

I just want mazda to live up to their sales literature. With any other product this would be a given, why not with a car ?

Murphy

Again, woudn't claim to speak for everyone here in the forum, especially since I am a relatively new member but..

There shouldn't be an issue with the fuel consumption but there seems to be in the US and Canada. Take a look at the main discussion forum and some of the MPG threads there - some people seem to be experiencing MPG far below the figures issued by Mazda in North America. - i.e. they are NOT AS REAL as those claimed for any other vehicle.
Hopefully, it wont be an issue here in the UK with our different ECU programming. We'll have to wait and see.

As for your "latest toy" and "looking to be one up" comments - well, I'll leave it to one of the members who "signed up so far ahead" and stumped up £1000 8 and 9 months ago and who have been well and truely messed about by Mazda UK with misinformation, no information and down right lies since, to put you straight on "desire and passion for what the 8 is" :p

Viva le Rotary indeed! - have you ordered one? :D

Stu C

I'll second that. 20mpg or better will do, and i don't think that is unreasonable to expect. As far as I can tell, our ECU'swill not be played about last minute like the US/Canada ones, resulting in MPG chaos. Australian rx8s are similar in power, so a good measure and they seem to be getting low to mid 20's if you read enough posts.

Stu C

energie

tell you the truth i would be more than happy if i got 20mpg.

im getting 14~15, and that's driving very conservatively. there is a problem.

ChrisW

Because the deposit was refundable, and we still got to drive the car before we committed to buy. What have we got to lose? And if we like it we get it quicker than if we had waited.

It seems the guys in the US/Canada have been hit by a double whammy - both the fuel economy AND power are less than they expected. That makes it harder to justify the fuel consumption on the grounds that "it's a high performance sports car, what do you expect?"

We still don't know whether our cars will be the same as the US cars in this respect.

RobDickinson

Whats worse is that the powers down because of the extra fuel consumption. Need to save that cat for 120,000miles

We , in Europe dont need that right now, even with Euro4 it only needs to last 63k miles. With tuning it shuld get past the spec 250bhp, but will probaby toast that cat before emmisions test.

hairyfrog

Could someone explain to me why using extra fuel saves the cat ? Surely pumping more fuel through than is needed makes it burn dirtier ?

Thanks.

Titanium Grey

Exacltly, a dirtier burn means a cooler burn, it's the levels of heat that destroy the cat.

RobDickinson

I dont understand it myself, but it appears to be all about airflow through the cat. At high rpm/airflow with a lean burn the cat gets to hot, more fuel = cooler cat = lives longer.

By some bizzare oddity this also means that in the mid range they need to have the fuel to lean (for max power). Leaner than the low RPM range.

May go some way to explaining the fuel problems, people who 'baby' it are using low RPM, and people who thrash it are using high RPM. Neither is good for fuel.

Midrange should be best for fuel with the US engine map.

Who knows what our map will be like?

Doctorr

My most recent (Canadian car) experience, just coming up on 4000miles, and I have consistently got 22-23 mpg (imperial). Mostly highway at 70 mph, but plenty of fast starts. (Getting roughly 400 kilometers per 50 litre fill.)

My last tank I tried to keep the revs between 4k & 6k, to take advantage of the 'lean secondaries', but it meant driving in 5th rather than top, and the net result was 20 mpg.....

But it sure was fun!
.
.
.
doc

c170673

Doctorr,

Is that your own oil well, a requisate part of RX8 ownership?

Chris

mr_digital_uk

I think he's showing us the oil well that needs to be sold in order that he can afford the accessories hehehe

RobDickinson

If you look closely you can see a pipe going directly from the well to the fuel cap...

Wonder how long the pipe is, at least 1/4 mile I bet

AnilS

Whilst speaking to my dealer this afternoon, and imploring him to update himself on wahts going on in the forum, he informed me that Mazda have revised their MPG figures for the 8. Wait for it, in the upward direction.

Yup, you heard right. We are to expect small % increses in all figures, although I did'nt get the figures, they are to be broadcast by Mazda shortly.

Don't hold your breath though.

AnilS.

787B

if this cars fuel consumption is so critical for people, with some posters claimimg Mazda has misrepresented the cars fuel consumption, i really think you shouldnt wait for a test drive. Just cancel and go get what it is that will satisfy your cravings. Once you drive the car, you wont want to change it:-)

At worst, your driving style will be the biggest contributer to your vehicles REAL world figures. Mazda has nothing to gain by overhyping the MPG, and it is my understanding that they are performed to a strict regime of conditions to enable them to have some relevance for teh average punter.

Now, its another matter entirely how close we all get to matching them. Again, in my opinon the claimed MPG figures are seldomn achieved in the real world, and can be out by between 5 and 45%.

Having owned 4 Rotary Mazdas, i can only say that thre is nothing else that comes close, and in my experiance the minimal differance in like for like fuel consumption with a piston engine is more than made up with the smiles per miles i get when i am driving my Rx.


Happy Rotoring!

MarkW

AnilS,

They increased the figures a small amount in September. Its on an earlier page on this thread.

http://www.rx-8forum.com/showthread....5&pagenumber=4

I would think that this is the increase he as talking about, unless they are going to increase them twice which is hard to believe.

Cheers
Mark

westie

what was the final result?

IKnowNot'ing

FE figures from official test cycles mean very little. I never managed to reproduce them, even with diesel cars.
To follow the emission/FE drive cycle, car manufacturers use 'robots' or very well trained operators. There is no way you're going to see these numbers in real life. Especially with a sporty car as you tend to drive it well outside the drive cycle's speeds and loads.

Nevertheless, real life FE of the RX8 is a bit disappointing compared to performance. I've owned other more powerful cars (Ausi S2, Boxster) returning much much better FE at steady motorway pace. It seems this engine is very unefficient at low engine loads. Is it the shape of the combustion chamber.

The only fix (illegal!) would be to make it run slightly lean at part throttle. It should be possible to do so while retaining close loop operation as the ECM uses a linear UEGO sensor for AFR feedback. I've always wanted to do this on my previous car, because running stoich is highly unefficient, excepted for the catalyst of course!

787B

in a word; NO. Whilst economy is not the Rx 8s strongest feature, its fuel economy, when driven "like for like" WITH cars of similar performance, is in my experiance, within 5-10% of similar performing piston engines, and the total driving experiance makes it a total NO Brainer, a sthe 8s rotary is sublime.

No disrespect, but if your ability to buy gas is so marginal that the difference between 18, and 22MPG constitutes not being able/wanting to run a 8, i would, again, respectfully, susggest buying a car that runs 40MPG+.

SurreyPuma

I have 2 cars now, a 323 diesel which is very economical, and my Mazda speed RX8! I only drive rx8 at weekends, if u want something cheap then buy a diesel, otherwise quit complaining, my car is great goes like a rocket and handles very well, it s not a everyday car!!!!

SurreyPuma

This forum is the worst possible thing to happen, i really thought about getting rid of my 8, because of comments made by people, its your choice, no one elses!