As the proud owner of the first RX-8 in CT (preordered in January/February), I have been waiting for this car since the demise of the old RX-7 R-1 model.

And while I love driving this car, I am becoming increasingly angry and disappointed. Why? This car gets the worst gas mileage of any car I have ever driven....bar none. No matter how I drive this car, I get 12-13 mpg. City, highway, mountains, desert, it doesn't matter. It's a constant 12-13 mpg.

I have called Mazda 4 times to complain, and I swear they have a script. The young person on the other end tells me they own a Miata, consider it a sports car and drive it to and from work. They also get much less than the advertised MPG estimate. I swear, each time I call it is exactly the same story. They must give every call center rep a red Miata!

I did not buy the car for mileage, but I will not be playe for a sucker either. If the sticker says 18/23, I would be happy with 15/20 or something close to reality. But no, 12/13 mpg is my friggin middle name.

And what is Mazda's response, they ask me to write down my exact mileage for four tanks (did it) and call them back (done that) and guess what...that's the extent of fixing the issue. Sad, sad, sad!

The car is a 6-speed GT and has 5,100 miles on it. I am this close to trading this lemon in, but for what???? Taking a $3,000-$5,000 hit on a four month old car is a bit hard to swallow. Buut I will make it up in gas savings over the life of the car, I can guarantee that!

Anyone else out there that is experiencing the same frustration? misery loves company...

 

I have the same frustrated story but havnt told anyone or done anything yet, hoping increase in milage will help.

 

even on the highway you still get 12-13? mine goes into the low 20's at least then.

 

At 600 miles, I'm averaging 18.8 MPG. I don't know what the problem is, but I would also be very upset getting 12/13. The write-up this month in Consumer Reports was very flattering of this car, but pointed out the car's weakness was fuel economy. As you guys know better than me, if you don't get 17MPG or so, the car's range is just not sufficient, let alone the gas costs.

I've seen lots of complaints on this Board... but does anyone have any theories about this? Is it related to the HP issue? Are the RX-7s the same way?

 

I have a '91 Miata and have had no problem meeting or exceeding the mileage estimates; on cross-country trips getting around 400 miles per tank decent cruising speeds. The car definitely gets driven hard at times. Yeah, it's a sports car but it's also a small 4-cyl and weighs 2200 lbs. I'll be interested to see how my mileage stacks up in the 8.

 

Scottsdale,

What is your average trip length? Short trips really hurt mileage.

My mileage tends to be low (15MPG for daily driving), but my trip length is short (10 miles), and idle at stop time tends to be long. The engine is very thirsty at cold start and idle, in general. My highway mileage with trips > 20 miles was closer to 18MPG. I have 2200 miles on the odometer currently.

Of course, YMMV.

 

I got 12 mpg for first 2 thousand miles
mine got better

I now have 6700 miles and average 19mpg

 

I have owned 2 Rx-8's and the 2nd one gets better mileage than the first...although I dont think it was ever as low as 12....I think there might be a flaw in the first wave of production that has since been corrected.....good luck getting mazda to admit it......heard a rumor about an ECU upgrade that improves mileage but not sure if it's true or not

 

The worst I've ever gotten is 15 mpg. I usually get 17 - 18 on all city driving, I've hit 23 on highway before driving at 75 with many jaunts to 90 and a full out sprint to 120. I have a Vin in the 10006xx range too.

I usually drive rather aggressively, so far mileage hasn't been too bad... not bad enough for me to not enjoy the car anyways.

 

My VIN is 00502 and I've gotten 17 - 18MPG since I got it. Now have 5600 miles on the odo. From the testimonials on this forum, its the luck of the draw. The engines are supposedly 'hand made' so you'd expect a wide variance. Also from this forum, it sounds like the later 8's are a bit more consistent (better).

 

Velocity-My trip is somewhat short (18 miles each way) and you are correct, it is indeed thirsty in stop and go commuter traffic. But, last weekend, in a desperate attempt to see if I could beat the odds, I filled up and drove 150 miles starting at 5:00am and used nearly 13 gallons of 93 octane gas! I cannot figure this one out!

 

That's crazy... 11.54 MPG. I think that's a record. It also makes no sense at all.

 

Scottsdale, sorry to hear of your misery but I am not suprised. I turned mine back in to Mazda when I had the chance but the the best mileage I got was high thirteens. This car still needs a good deal of work in my opinion. I think they will get it right eventually, right now there is something causing these extremes in production results. Hope you find a fix. Good Luck:D

 

Since you have one of the first RX-8's that came stateside, did you by chance get your ECU flashed? I've read, I do not know first hand, that it has helped some people with various issues, including the fuel milage issue. I don't believe the dealer charge for the service...might help, might not do anything at all, but it shouldn't take too long the next time you take your car in for service.

Good luck man, I totally feel you in your situation. I think it's pointless for those to complain that get like 16/20 MPG, but if you are getting less than 13 regularly? There definately has got to be something up. 5 MPG is a LARGE VARIANCE.

 

I am no mechanic, but I totally agree with this. Flash the ECU. It has to be the ECU. What else could cause such wide differences in the fuel use?

 

Rx8ntexas

Is that a picture of you by your car?

 

Ok, I admit it too. I'd like to know as well. I suspect its just an "autoshow babe" who happened to be at the RX-8 display.

 

she works for me...my car...pic taken out in the parking lot at work

 

Well, it's one of those things that if it works, problem solved, if it's not it, then on to the next possible thing. Since it's a modern day car, like most, the ECU controls fuel and timing. FUEL, and timing. So hopefully because he's got one of the earlier model, it's got a more...fuel unfriendly tune that can be rememdied by a flash.

 

...what exactly does she do for you? Sorry...it sounds a lot worse than I implied.

 

sales Manager at ISP...If she came to your office selling webhosting, broadband, domains, web design....wouldn't you buy something? :D OK boys, back to the issue at hand...

 

Have you checked out some of the other threads regarding mpg?

I've participated in a few of them and the bottom line seems to be something like this:

with hiway driving and keeping within the speed limits most people are getting above 20mpg.

My personal best was 24.5 with about 85-90% hiway and using the cruise control.

Many have stated that they can almost see the gas guage go down when they are sitting at a stop with the engine idleing.

That's my 2cents.

 

Just for the sake of curiosity, try a tankful of regular 87 octane (or I guess back east it's 89) and see if that does better for you. I saw a consistent 2mpg increase in mileage when I switched from 91 octane to 87 octane and the car is running better than ever. Got just over 6k miles on a blue 8 with 6sp MT. I'm getting consistent 19's with a mix of 50/50 street/freeway driving.

 

I'd take everything she was selling, double that.

 

I drive my care like I autocross. At first I was getting 14 mpg. Then I realize I was doing the math wrong. I was dividing by 15.9 every time I calculate but I realize that I not putting 15.9 in my tank. I think the most I put in it was 15.2. I fill here up everytime at the last make and usually give me 14 gallon. Ever since, I've been averaging 16 mpg. My best was 18mpg, when I drove to San Diego to Disneyland.