Hey Joe,

I have yet to get up to the 24 highway when every other car I drove got just about what was estimated.

In your case, maybe the RX-8 is just really bad on fuel when it is idling. If I were you I'd try to take a trip. Get out of the city and fill the car when it is warmed up and then go for a 200 mile trip shifting at 3000 RPM, fill it and check the MPG. If you get under 20MPG under those controled conditions then you have some concrete evidence when you approach Mazda.

I get :
18MPG driving pretty agressivly
20 MPG most of the time
22 MPG on trips where I keep it under 65
I don't live in NYC, I have 2 stoplights between me and work and it is 12 miles each way.

I just couldn't help kicking poor Bessy when she was lying dead on the floor. It makes me feel powerful.

 

My $.02...

This car guzzles gas when idling. So if you sit in traffic for extended periods, expect that to really be a factor in your poor mileage.

Secondly, the car also burns a ton of fuel before the engine comes up to temperature. For obvious reasons it's especially bad in the winter. I've had anywhere from 160 mile tanks (80% city, winter, many warm-up/cool-down cycles) to 270-280 mile tanks (100% highway, warm weather).

And those who get 20+ mpg in city driving....they're the lucky few.

 

I feel your pain
I get around 15mpg and around 200 miles a tank
I have k&n intake and JIC exhaust
I stopped fighting it a long time ago

 

Joe,
Another thing to consider is that "city" driving can mean a lot of things. I assume that when people say "city" they just mean "not highway", which for most people is probably a lot different from driving in NYC
I'm sure all that idling can't be good for your gas mileage

 

I usually get 16-17 mpg in the city no matter if i drive really conservatively or gun the hell out of it. A lot of it is stop and go traffic too. Part of it might be because i only have 2300 miles and the engine still may be running somewhat rich. I dont really care that much since its kinda what u get with an 8. But damn that rotary sings up high.

 

I agree...to me city means ONLY that I don't use the highway. Actually, with some of my highway miles added in I still did not hit the higher all city numbers I got recently after going over 5K. My highway driving comes in at a 65-75mph clip.

So, in "MY" city driving I stop at about 6 times in the morning on a 8 mile drive and 5 times in the afternoon (give or take 1-3 extra stops). I'm in 6th gear going 50MPH most of the drive (give or take 5-10mph for very short stints).

My "at the light time" is probably (and I'll time it just for the heck of it) 5-10 minutes for a 18-25 minute drive.

Wow...this horse must be powder by now.

 

Ads from Denton and Arlington Texas Mazda dealers..

 

yeah, u can only get 28 mpg if you finance through Mazda Credit. I'm sure that's what the salesman is telling people.

 

Hahaha, nice find!

 

Just did my first calculations since buying my 8 seven days ago, this is all based on filling the tank to full, driving 230 miles then filling it up again.

20.9 mpg
80% motorway @ 80mph @ 6th
20% urban < 40mph @ 1st - 3rd

Also worked out that it costs 20.9p per mile or 0.36USD
so a 100mile trip would be just over 20 quid or 35USD

ouchy

 

UK fuel prices suck:
93.9p per litre is the best I can find atm, thats £4.27 a gallon or USD7.60 a gallon, what do you guys pay?

 

$2.45 gal us premo.

 

Critter...if you used more than 3 gears in 40mph driving, you might save more gas. We don't have 6 gears for nothing...at least hit 4th but I suggest 5th.

Just an FYI

Here in the US gas (93 octane) is in the high $2 range and we complain like crazy, so your gas make it not feel so bad. Yet...we will still complain, lol

Is there a reason why UK gas and US gas prices are SO different?

 

Well, one factor is that the "UK gallons" are Imperial gallons and those are about 20% bigger. That also means that those with mileage reports from the UK need to convert them to be able to compare them. So Critters 20.9mpg is actually a closer to normal 17.4mpg once you account for the larger size of his gallon.

My best mileage was just over 17mpg - that was with about a half tank used for a day trip to Monterey on cruise control and the other half a tank was used for daily commutes on the highway.

 

we pay around 67% tax on fuel, you pay, err, 27% ish ( I think )


And yes, I used
1 Imperial gallon = 4.54609188 liters
not
1 US gallon = 3.7854118 liters

cheers google

 

I see...gosh, you all need to raze some hell with your government. They are taxing the heck out of you all...maybe as a way to reduce the side effects of fuel use...maybe...hmmmm. 67% tax just sound more like RAPE than "tax".

lol

 

[QUOTE=Critters]

we pay around 67% tax on fuel, you pay, err, 27% ish ( I think )


Here are all the State and Fed taxes


http://www.gaspricewatch.com/usgastaxes.asp

 

MY MPG fear is officially over. On a 300mile trip (L.A to Vegas), I've always tried to get the very best mpg every time by keeping it under 73 the whole way, or for as long as I can take it. So last weekend I tried the opposite. I wanted to find out how bad my mileage would be if I just drive the car as fast as I would like. Maintaining speed between 80mph and 105mph, minus the short traffic jams which we slowed to a dead stop, to my surprise, I still get a little over 20mpg!! I've got 13k miles on my car now, and it's absolutely true when they say rotaries gets better with age. For the people out there with fairly new 8's, don't worry too much about your gas mileage right now, have a blast with you car, it will only get better.

 

Damn..that means I have to wait for 3 yrs! :p Before the recall, I was easily getting 18-20mpg. Now, I'm getting 16mpg!! Not to mention, the car seems to lose alot of initial umph! from stop..seems like the recall cut off it's *****...anyone else have this situation??

 

I now get 200 miles per tank (~15+ mpg) after the recall. Before it I was getting about 180 miles per tank (~14- mpg). So, better mileage after the recall - or is it just less terrible? The low end (sub ~5K RPM) response is also better. Not sure if it's more HP (perhaps leaning out the A/F ratio) or if it's just a better throttle response curve programmed into the PCM.

 

I have a Hyundia Sonata (rental) right now and I am getting about 3 miles per gallong better than my rx-8.

I think it 100% driving style and nothing else.

 

MPG huh?...
I can't really track it, but I know it sucks major *****. I do about 95% city driving and when I do get onto a highway there's always f&ckin traffic. I live in NYC and no wonder I don't see too many 8's around here... they heard about the gas guzzling rotary and stayed away from it. I usually shift at 3k-4k, city mileage WILL hurt your mileage especially when you factor in all that traffic... god damn i'm starting to hate this freakin city... took me 1.5 hours to drive ten miles to work... poor car...

I love this car... it gets lots of attention... and I try to stay away from manhattan during rush hours like the f%ckin plague. Thank goodness for mass transit, not only do I get a ride to the city for two beans, I also get to nap or play with my PSP.

I used to fill up twice a week... that's 80/week on gas, but its so much fun I don't really care, I'd burn the gas on that car till I'm broke.

 

Just under 18 mpg with over 20k -- every tank but one documented... don't know what happened to that darn receipt.

Mileage Log

 

I have 1050 miles on my '05 and haven't gotten more than 200 miles to a tank. I tried to get above two hundred, but at the 198 mile mark my needle is just about pegged and I'm too afraid to run out of gas so I go fill up.

So I'm averaging 14mpg and its just about all city driving. I rarely take the car above 5500rpm because my engine just gets up to temperature when I get to my destination....

 

My personal best is 19.4 mpg all freeway. Worst was about 12 mpg. 10k miles.