Just did fill up #4 at the regular station. This time around I ran the sh_t out of the car (after warm-up of course), probably averaged 5000-6500rpm and regularly redlined it. The verdict was 17.8mpg. Anytime before when I drove hard that would be 13.8-14.8. So once again, turning the 17500 mark suggests a strong mpg change.

 

"Hey, what's the worst thing that could happen, we could 'loose' [sic] customers?" Doesn't sound like a compelling business strategy to me.

 

With just over a 1,000 miles on the car, and a 7 mile one-way commute to work, it will be a LONG time before I hit 17.5k - sigh.

 

You all suck.... 15,900mi, 15.35 (avg) mpg or so. On the highway it's a little better, at ~16.4mpg with a 50/50 highway/city mixture...

Haven't seen a change no matter how I drive, so I put the pedal down, enjoy the twisties and count my turns to work ... f##k it, I'm going to drive my car.

/End of discussion :-)

 

Wow, interesting. I just did a search to see if this issue had come up before (hooray flame prevention). My thread was going to be called something like - "wtf? I'm getting BETTER mileage than EPA??!"

Yeah, so I drove down to Austin (approximately 240 mile drive) and drove around Austin, and noticed that the fuel guage hadn't gone down that much. Not as much as I expected, anyhow. I thought, "uh-oh...I'm not sure that the fuel guage is working properly". Turns out I really DID only use a little over 9 gallons of gas. My mileage came out to be about 25.2 mpg.

I thought, well, maybe it was downhill, or I had a tailwind. Guess not! My last 300 miles included the trip back and a drive to work. This time my mpg was 25.1.

Hey, it's a pleasant surprise I just think it's weird. And apparently there are others who have noticed a sudden jump. Let's start some conspiracy theories!

 

By the way, trip there was all 66mph with a few speedups to pass. The trip back was closer to 80mph with multiple pit-stops (the coffee...she can be a fickle friend) and hard accelerations back onto the freeway. There was also a good 20 minute stretch where a bad accident had us all in stop-and-go traffic.

 

almost 31,000 miles and my mileage is the same as the day I bought the car.

16-18 mpg city. Never drove long enough on just highway (car has never been out of tampa)

 

I know that driving style can really affect gas milage and all, but I do think it's mysteriously humerous how much it can fluctuate in this car! I've always been one to keep track of milage, and even on HW, I got 21MPG. Just surprised me I guess, considering how i came from a 97 Probe 4-banger that got almost 30, and then the Cobra which would average 25MPG on the HW. However, I've searched and read all the stories about the fluctuation of gas in these cars, and it really does sound like it improves with milage. Just thought it was funny the way that there isn't any rhyme or reason to something that should be able to be a mathmatical calculation. Still love the car, just surprised that such a small engine can drink more gas then my other 4.6L DOHC!

I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that at 70MPH, yur sittin at a steady 3600 RPMS! I know that with low torque the gears had to be heightened, but for a final drive gear, I wonder if that has anything to do with the higher RPMS on HWY.

Anyone ever changed out gears? Gotten any different results?

 

Well, what is strange is that almost all of my driving IS usually highway. I'd say a good 90%. This is the first time I've broken 23 (okay, almost the first time). I also usually average about 21. Hitting the magic 24 - nay, PASSING the magic 24 into the holy grail of 25...I don't know what happened. Could somebody tell me what's going on? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!

 

My 2 cents. Mileage 19 city, 21 hughway . . knew that when I bought it . . . . next best handling car with better mileage is a Cooper S with 168 hp and as an old fart wouldn't be seen dead in it. Yeah $3.00 a galon gas hurts but do I want to drive a Civic? Uh, er NO!!!!! Rotaries have a disadvantage in the thermal utilization area because there is a greater linear surface area in it's combustion chamber . . . . maybe four plugs per cylinder could help but I doubt it. Physics is what it is . . . . enjoy the uniquness of the ride . . . I do.
As to wether the 8 survives as a product of Mazda . . . .hell I don't care . . . I bought the car BECAUSE it is somewhat rare. Kill the car Mazda! , , Instant classic.

 

okay, thanks for bringing that in, but I'm not complaining about its usual mpg. This is not a "woe is me, my mpg sucks and i wasn't expecting it" thread.

I'm just saying, after all such threads like that that I've read, and my own personal experience with my car, I'm quite pleasantly surprised that I actually got over a mpg OVER the EPA. Never expected THAT to happen. And traffic flow on my way home was at a speed such that I shouldn't have come close to 24mpg. I'm just wondering why the sudden change. That's all.

 

I've just passed 30K on my 04 6 speed and my mileage is also improving. I bought her used with 14K on it. I do lots of highway driving and have seen the mileage go up from about 21 to about 24.

A question, though...in the original message it was noted that 87 octane fuel was used. I thought this car required premium and I use 93 octane. Will it run OK on 87? That could save just about 10% on the fuel costs.

Anyone else run regular?

 

^do a search. It depends on the tuning of your car. 87 is okay for some people, but not for others, you could risk detonation or engine pinging. A tank to experiment with it wouldn't hurt.

 

I ran 91, then 89, and for the last 15,000 miles 87. Never noticed anything but some extra money in the checkbook.

 

my gas milage sucks *** in the winter.. i barely get 300km/tank .. In the summer i usually get 400km/tank..

51,000km, driven since june 04 .. the milage has never really changed for me.


MrJynx

 

Had my 8 for 6 months nowand driven it from the 20K mile mark up to the 26K mile mark... doesn't matter if I drive like I'm being chased by the cops or like I'm taking a sunday drive w/ Grandma... doesn't matter if I drive a tank empty with all city miles in traffic, or set the cruise at 60MPH on the highway for three hours straight... doesn't matter if the weather is hot or cold, or if I'm using the winter mix or summer mix of gas, or if I put in 87 or 93. I ALWAYS get exactly 14 MPG and it ALWAYS pisses me off.

 

I have had my rx8 since December 2003 and my car has 31K miles on it now. After the first tank of gas from the dealership, I had been putting nothing but chevron 93 octane gas for an entire year. I got about an average 16.5 MPG with mixed driving. I sometimes got as low as 15. There was one road trip going from Austin to Dallas in the late spring of 2004 when I got 23.99 MPG. I was soo excited to pass the 300 mile per tank mark... i was used to getting ~220...

The second year I started to run straight shell 93 v-power to see if there was any difference in gas quality. A friend told me that he got better MPG on his piston car so i thought, why not. Maybe .5 phantom MPG more...

My car didnt really change in fuel economy until i got new tires...Although that tires that i changed to are 245/40/18 which decreases the diameter of the wheel 3.25mm or 3.21%. On one tank of shell and the new tires, I tried to stay at 55 MPH and not to go above 3650 RPMs and I got a hair over 20 MPG with mixed driving...I decided it was way to painful to do that...

All in all my mileage has remained relatively the same...I need to try the lower octane soon...

 

8+ Months, 8k miles and I haven't been able to get more than 250 miles per tank...regardless of driving style...which is often fast. The gas mileage sucks, but I guess ya gotta give up something. I keep a close eye on my gas mileage (often found it is an indicator of how well/bad a car is running), so I will be looking out for a later increase.

 

Get this - I just got 18.1 mpg of CITY DRIVING!! WOW...yeah...I'm hoping this continues.

At this rate I might break my all-time record of 20.x mpg on the freeway!

~21,000 miles. Mods in sig.

 

my car is burning less oil after 15k miles.