The thing that's hardest to quantify when comparing driver A's mileage with driver B's is the actual driving conditions. What I call city driving involves some stop and go in heavy traffic on the freeway, a fair amount of jockeying back and forth between 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. I almost never see a stop-light since my "city-trip" is almost all freeway. What someone from another town (or someone who travels in a different part of my own town) might call city-driving could include stop after stop after stop at red-lights, along with grid-lock and traffic jams. Throw in hills and you've got another variable that doesn't become clear simply by using the term city-driving. Add to that, the varying driving styles; cruise speed, level of pushing the car, amount of "frisky" driving and I'm not surprised that mileage varies all over the map.

Someone somewhere earlier suggested getting a loaner from the dealer and driving it for a bit to see if it's the model or the driver. If you can find a dealer who will accomodate you (and I'd be surprised if you could) then that's probably a pretty good idea.

I don't think anyone is going to argue the point that, in general, the mileage on this car is lower than it would be on many other models. However, to put it in perspective; even if you only got ten miles to the gallon, if you drive an average of 15,000 miles per year and pay an average of $1.80 per gallon for your gas, your total gasoline expense would run $2700 per year. Most people are running 4 to 6 miles below "target". The cost of the increased gasoline due to a loss of 6 miles per gallon based on the above assumptions (15,000 mpy and $1.80 per gallon) would be about $1000 a year. Not chicken-feed, but not apt to bankrupt someone who can afford this car in the first place.

I don't fault anyone who's concerned about optimizing mileage, especially if your mileage is significantly lower than what's reported on average here. By all means consult the dealer and if something's wrong get it fixed. But keep in mind that there are operating variables that don't make it through to these posts in full detail. And, keep in mind that in dollars and cents, it's not really THAT big a deal.....

 

Feel free to send me any extra $1k you don't feel it's a big deal to toss out the window...

I'll even put your name on a sticker on my race car.

 

Isn't there something we can do about this mpg issue? I mean I know I'm not driving a prius, but I think we deserve to have a car that meets the posted 18-25 mpg. I feel like I'm getting worse and worse gas mileage, and I hate driving and staring at the gas needle go down so fast. The rotory is great, and I love this car, but I wish we can get the looks and the great mileage. Can we write letters to our dealers or mazda?? any suggestions on how to make mazda aware that their customers are concerned about the gas mileage issue???

 

It was Mazda that gave the EPA four pre-production engines that racked up the EPA numbers. And those numbers were what could be expected, according to Mazda, because the fancy hardbound book Mazda gave us early orderers explained the engineering reaasons why the Renesis would get much better mileage than previous rotaries. And it was Mazda that sold at least some of us production cars with engines that are NOT the same as what they gave EPA. (My dealer has checked the ECU, and says the settings are correct.) Personally, I have driven all-highway tanks with the same driving style that got EPA figures in every car I have owned since EPA started giving figures, and I am 3.5 mpg short. Blaming EPA is just plain wrong. EPA provides figures you can compare car by car, if you keep the conditions the same.
Bottom line: when Mazda says its continuing tests show that production engines are as economical as the EPA prototypes, it's lying.

 

I have resolved myself to bringing my 8 into the dealer every 2 tanks of gas just to get them to elevate the problem. Hopefuly I will **** the dealer off enough that they will finally get off their asses and solve this problem.

 

Good Luck man, what mpg are you getting? I'm planning to **** of my dealer as well. It just not as fun driving such a beautiful car when I'm worried about gas. I really feel that the cons of the rotory engine are beginning to outweigh the pros. This car is as thirsty as a hummer...

 

Just as a reminder for at least the one person from virginia. After november in the midatlantic the gas is "oxygenated" which will lower your mpg by about 1-1.5, but reduces emissions output by some amount supposedly.

If anyone is doing comparisons and is now getting lower than normal mpg, take this into account. There are some warmer areas where the gas is never oxygenated, so the story will be different there.

 

Just filled up my 2nd tank...this time I filled 87.

Date Odometer Gallons MPG
12/18/03 32
12/21/03 233 10.449 19.24
12/26/03 439 11.642 17.69

The first tankful I short shifted everything around 2500 rpm. The 2nd tankful I took her up to about 3000-4000 rpm before shifting.

 

Rx8Past, your car appears to be an automatic and you are obviously disappointed at how quickly your fuel is consumed but what are the figures you're recieving? (US mpg) And how do you drive; aggressive,high revs,short distances hi-way,city? Tell us a little more about you're experience.

 

I took my first small road trip today, 200 miles on 2 lane road mostly, 60-70 mph avg. I got 20.86 mpg. I have been getting around 16 in town but I have only 700 miles on it after this trip. Both should improve as I get better at driving and the car gets broke in.

 

no matter how i drive my car, i always get over 20 mpg. not much highway driving either, i guess i'm just lucky

 

Bumped for an update

 

I'm averaging about 190-200 miles for 12 gallons of gas. The highest mpg I got was about 19 mpg, 230 miles, 12 gallons. The lowest I have gotten is about 14mpg, 170 miles, 12 gallons. I currently have about 1600 miles on the car. I don't driver very aggressively, no high revs or anything. Most San Francisco city driving, and about 80 miles on the freeway per week. I recently read a thread about using 87 octane gas, so I tried it out, but 87 has not improved mpg at all, I've driven 130 miles and I'm already a little below halfway. However I am trying to coast more on city streets. I've heard that I will not find my true mpg till my first oil change, is that true? has anyone gotten better mileage after oil change?

 

Great stuff......I'm glad I kept my Intrepid for the cold winter

 

OK so I have been trying to hit 17+MPG since I bought my car... We went on a road trip this weekend 100% highway driving, 228 miles, 10.2 gallons 22+ MPG.

I have been hitting around 15-17 MPG in my normal commuting and was thinking EPA numbers with my car were not possible.

I feel better now, and im hoping the milage get better as I go into 3K miles.

 

O.K. I'm convinced these cars are really terrible outside of certain ranges. Some cars are getting around what they're supposed to, some close and very few exceeding the rated numbers.
If you're driving this car in a cold climate, in the city, for very short distances, occasionally applying full throttle you probably won't get 20mpg too frequently.
Some folks may have some faulty cars, but the verdict is still not in.

 

I strongly believe that having added options on your car weighs it down, thus less MGP than a bare bones car.

I also strongly HOPE Mazda with come out with a gas/electric hybrid version in 2006 w/o hurting hp or anything...

Doesn't that stupid hydrogen project they're doing reduce horsepower by like 100 when you turn it on??? Totally worthless...

 

A few weeks ago there was another thread that indicated a strong correlation between truly horrendous milage and people who routinely made many short trips. Virtually all of the people who complained about getting less than 15 MPG were using the RX-8 for extremely short commutes (under 10 miles) or were otherwise accruing their milage in many short trips. Somebody suggested that such short trips result in a car that gets shut down before it ever really gets fully warmed up, and is thus running exceptionally rich virtually all the time. Seemed to make some sense.

For me, I probably do around 80% highway 20% city or stop and go traffic, 1300 miles on the car. I've never done worse than 19 MPG. I drive fairly fast and try to redline at least once a day.

 

I am one of those people. I drive solely in the heart of the city, using the car cold for trips of up to 4 miles or so with lots of stops and starts at traffic lights, averaging 9-13 mpg. Then I take highway trips where I fill up just before getting on the highway and compute my mileage solely on the highway, averaging about 19-20 mpg. My mileage is quite consistent in these two categories.

 

Same here, I drive on avg of 6 miles and I'm getting around 12 mpg. Really horrid. On highway its around 20 as well. This can't possibly be normal. Has anyone gotten an official word from Mazda about this? Any info would be appreciated.

 

I have been reading this board for a few weeks and really love the new RX-8 but the poor fuel consumption is really an issue to me and I think I will look elsewhere for my new car. I know it's a performance car and don't expect to get the same mileage as a Civic but I would think you should do better then a Hummer. I hope Mazda is reading this board and addresses this issue but I don't think much can be done with the present engine to increase fuel mileage.

 

Okay it's off-topic but Lufa, you're from Austin, TX and you've got something that looks like a yellow license plate on the front of your 8. Given that TX has no yellow license plates, I'm curious as to what it is and why it's there. To tie back to the thread, I'm running 17 to 18 around town and just shy of 20 on road trips. It also depends on how "sedately" I drive.....

 

There definitely seems to be a problem with milage if the vast majority of your driving is short hops, but any car will suffer when used that way... the RX-8 just seems to suffer more than it should.

When used as a daily commuter through New Jersey rush hour/Hudson river crossings traffic, I invariably get somewhere between 19 and 21 MPG. This is with crappy winter gas and an engine just past 1K miles. Once summer rolls around, I expect I'll be getting around 22 or 23.

Now granted 22 MPG still is pretty poor, and it's less than Mazda advertised, but sports cars like gas and you have to pay to play. My old Audi TT with a very well broken in engine was only getting 24-25 MPG and had significantly less power. If you want sports car looks, strong performance, 4 seats, AND more than 25 MPG, your options are going to be real short.

 

The reduced fuel mileage must have something to do with the ECU reflash Mazda had to perform to make the car run richer to make the catalytic converter last to 120,000 miles. Not only did it rob us of HP, it robbed us of the advertised MPG.

I'd be interested to know how the Japanese RX-8s are performing with regards to fuel economy.

 

I've owned three cars while living and working at the same locations for 20 years, and I've maintained periodic mileage records. Excluding fillups when I took long trips, this gives me a good baseline for comparing gas mileage in virtually identical driving conditions, using the same gas stations.

Mazda RX-7 18 mpg
Dodge Stealth 20 mpg
Mazda RX-8 15 mpg

RX-8's low mileage is costing me about $30 a month extra, an irritating but financially trivial amount, IMHO.

What really bothers me is the increase in fillup frequency, which steals time from me. I hope Mazda has a good explanation and a fix coming.