Hi. We just got an 03 P5 5 speed. On the last fill we put in 48 litres and went about 560 km. After doing the metric to imperial conversions that worked out to 32.5 mpg. This tank included a fair amount of stop and go. The previous tank had been completely freeway driving at around 120 kmh (70-75 mph) and it worked out to 35.5 mpg. Remember, this is imperial. US would be slightly higher.

 

damn....now i know something is wrong with my gas mileage. i only got about 25-26 mpg on a road trip that was almost all highway going about 70-75. of course i have an auto trans on an 03 p5, but the difference shouldn't be that much. my car only has about 15,500 miles on it. tires were checked & i had the oil changed a week before the trip. wtf!

 

Depends on other factors too - temperature, humidity, elevation, etc...

 

most of the driving i do is in chicago....flat everything! on my last road trip, i went to milwaukee and greenbay. not exactly mountainous or even hilly. the temp was in the 40's and 50's most of the time. but i didn't really see much improvement in gas mileage, at least not anything close to being better than what i've gotten before. almost all highway miles (approx. 90%) and i only got 25.5 mpg.

 

I usually check gaz consomption every time I tank. and here are my results : avg consomption on highway 500-525km for ~50L, so that makes around 10k/L not sure what it gives in g. and don't feel like converting it. That is driving between 120-140km/h (80-90 mph) I find its good. rpm is at 4000 at 140km/h, 3000 at 100km/h

Around town however, its awfull I can go down to 400km per 50L
thats only 8 km/L. Of course my driving isn't what you could call calm, but I still find it consume a lot.

 

Last tank went 366 miles and took 11.9 gallons. That included a trip up the 5 to L.A.> you're either going 85 or 10. The rest was around town.

 

I've noticed that my new 2003 Protege5 (automatic) is also only getting about 19mpg in the city. I've tried bumping the tire pressure up to about 35-36 psi (it was a little low from the dealer at 28-30 psi) and I've taken advice from these forums and switched to dash/floor rather than window/floor. We'll see if those steps make any difference. I love the car, but so far I'm stunned by the poor city mileage. I bought this car thinking I'd get much better mileage. My trade-in (a 95 Ford Contour) used to get roughly 30mpg in the city, often 40mpg on the highway. I thought the Protege5 would at least be in the same ballpark.

The_Jaf, if you're still kicking around these forums, have you seen any improvement with the "warmer" weather here in the Peg?

 

The light doesn't come on, but the AC IS running.
its VERY common for all cars. And I'm pretty certain that when it's just floot it doesn't activate. only defrost of def/floor mode. THe reasoning for thisisthat AC will help defrost a window in no time. If you've ever got foggedup window on an older car, try it, it makes a HUGE difference... This used to be a "trick" to defrost faster so ost manufacturers just added it as a no-brainer thing. For the most part, it doesgood... also note, that it's only really doingso when the fan is on...

 

FWIW, I guess I'm pitting pretty averaging atleast 25, and generally closer to 30mpg. I guess I shift alot. but I rarely let RPM's get above 3g, often even lower... I also have a Yakima Rack which should make things worse for me....

ALso mod-wise, Lowering a car WILL increase economy. you're essentially presenting less frontal area by as much as it's dropped. as the turbulance under you car hardly counts as air freely passing.

 

i use to have a problem with that but i check my sparks plugs, they were had black rings around them( bosch platunim fours) . So i Change them and bought some fuel injector cleaner made by Lucas, and changed my air intake. I got better miles to the gallon. After i made these i average over 300 miles per tank.

 

I was getting bad gas mileage some time ago as well and tried a few things. First, I tried a K&N drop in filter(also an attempt to increase power). I found that this added little or no noticable power and actually decreased my MPG! Haven't figured that one out yet...Then my Dad suggested that I run a few tanks of 89 mid-grade gas. Wow. My MPG is up around 30 and holding steady and there was noticable increases in both power and throttle response. I liked it alot! Mind you that I drive hard(80-90 on the highway daily to school, jack rabbit starts all the time). *Shrugs* I'm an eighteen year old kid with his own car, I guess it's to be expected. My car is a 99 LX clutch, so the engine is smaller and the 5 speed offers better gas mileage.

 

I have an 02 MP5 and It's good on the gas if I keep my lead foot off it. I only have 19000km on. I made it 850km on a 1 1/4 tank of gas. and that was when I had under 1000km on the car. With me it depends on how I am driving!

 

I get shitty mileage too. I tracked all my tanks until about 25000 miles and I averaged 24mpg. My typical city mpg is around 20, and highway is about 25-26. It was worse in winter.

I wonder if we can complain to Mazda, what would they say? I've read a lot of these "bad mileage" posts..

 

I also noticed poor mileage from day one. I thought it was my heavy right foot. Also, having driven on the highway with the sunroof open, there is a lot of wind noise! Could the stock roof rack reduce mileage even further?
Would one of those wind deflectors help mileage? Or just the noise factor?
That's what I figured until reading this thread.
When I get my 7500 mile tuneup I will take some of your suggestions to the "service advisor" and let you know if I can squeeze more than 290 miles from a tank of gas.

My P5:
2003, Silver with every single factory option. stock with auto trans.
6700 miles
87 octane Mobil
Currently $2.29 a gallon!

 

On my sticker (automatic) it only listed 28mpg for the highway rating. The best I done is 27, but I've never used up a tank going 55mph. If I were to attempt that, I'm sure it'd exceed the 28mpg rating. Gearing has a lot to do with it.

C My P5 Go - Yes, all that noise is related to drag. By decreasing the drag, fuel economy will improve. However, it will probably be minimal, so don't get your hopes up too high.