I've been experimenting lately trying to calculate the best fuel economy I can get, by filling up a certain amount and seeing how many km that serves me (even though that kinda fails cause I can't resist going lead foot sometimes ) I think the best I've gotten so far is like 6.5 or 7l/100km. My BA is really low mileage and in pristine condition so age and wear shouldn't have a *tremendous* effect on fuel economy. If I drive economically I only need 10 euro a week for petrol but I only do like 100km in a week anyway unless I run around alot for fun. What is the best you guys have gotten? And also any tips you've found for increasing fuel economy on a BA?

Best - 7L/100km driving like a granny
Worst - 16L/100km driving like you stole it

Hi folks,
My BA gave me only about 33mpg which in foreign money is about 8.5L/100km.
Pretty poor by modern standards, when a new Mazda3 can do 5L/100km.

Do you guys find it beneficial to drive as is recommended in the manual? I.e
1st - 0-24kmh
2nd - 25-40kmh
3rd - 41-64kmh
4th - 65-72kmh
5th- 73+kmh

I'm usually doing 60 in 5th gear but maybe driving as the manual recommends gives better economy? As to be honest the car lugs abit sometimes in 5th gear considering the low speed.

ArtistKS,
Approx 7.8- 8.2 l/100km in general, but mine's a 1.8l. It also is very low geared, approx 3500rpm at 110km/h in 5th if I remember correctly.

We don't have any recommended speeds in our handbook, my vehicle in Oz is from an era when Mazda were very economical with the information in the handbook. Too economical in my opinion and that's opposed to not economical with petrol! Still lack of fuel economy is a bit of the price you pay for a freewheeling engine.

Those speeds are roughly what I use and have been pretty standard across most petrol manuals I have driven. In general for me about:
1st change up 20-25km/h
2nd change up approx 40-45km/h
3rd change up approx 60km/h
4th change up approx 70km/h

5th at 60km/h is slightly too slow, it does seem to be lugging.

Jinglebells,
I can only get near 5l/100km with my Mazda 3 diesel (mind you don't have a new one nor small engines). Best the diesel will do is a reported 5.2l/100km (5.6l/100km at the bowser), majority at 110km/h on the freeway. Can beat that and get substantially below 5l/100km I think if I stuck to (say) 80-90km/h instead, probably low 4's and maybe even pushing towards high 3's in a 'steady state' roll along a flat road. Also have a SP23, that's approx 8-8.2l/100km mostly suburban driving.

[b]Patrick[/b]

Currently getting 14.2l/100 from my 1.3 without kicking its brains in.

[quote="brucey76"]Currently getting 14.2l/100 from my 1.3 without kicking its brains in.[/quote]

What? that's too much for a 1.8..
Do you tow a trailer with you?
This consumption is for city driving, yes?

[quote="brucey76"]Currently getting 14.2l/100 from my 1.3 without kicking its brains in.[/quote]Pretty standard for a rotary?

Oh, by the way I've been reliving a bit of my youth on YooToob...you may be interested to see some rotary action from back in the early 80s when Allan Moffat took on the 'big bangers' (V8s) here in Oz with his factory-backed RX-7. Lurking in the background in the 2nd video is another Japanese wonder, George Fury's super-quick turbo Bluebird, a precursor to the 'Godzilla' attack of the GTRs from 1990.

Establishing the RX-7 as a viable racing car in Oz
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwwVlm_Ozv0]Allan Moffat & the Mazda RX7 - interview Bathurst1981[/url]

Moffat vs Brock (from about 3:23)
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vcmlgf9CYzs]1983 ATCC Brock v Moffat Surfers paradise Rnd 6 Part 2/4[/url]

Plenty more if you want to search...

[b]Patrick[/b]

I love watching the rotary competing with much bigger cars, and yes the fuel consumption is from my rx8 192. And no, thats motorway consumption. I've also gone and bought a 231 off the back of a local car scrap van. It was mostly all there and i thought its almost a full cars worth of spares but I got bored over xmas and rebuilt it. Its still a work in progress but it starts and drives now, so to be continued when tbe weather warms up

My bad, i didn't thought about rotary engine.. pff piston head...

lol wel I'm not totally rotarded yet, I've still got my V6 xedos 9. I'm not sure of the consumption on that one now because I've just fitted the ZE into it got it MOT'd and garaged it back up until I change it to msd blaster coil ignition

Best MPG I've ever got out of my F was 36, but that was from Coventry to Portsmouth virtually all the way on motorways/dual carriage ways with minimal traffic. This was with the KLDE in it though so I was really happy with that!

36 mpg = 7.8L/100

[quote="brucey76"]lol wel I'm not totally rotarded yet, I've still got my V6 xedos 9. I'm not sure of the consumption on that one now because I've just fitted the ZE into it got it MOT'd and garaged it back up until I change it to msd blaster coil ignition[/quote]Yes but what's the fuel economy on the petrol tanker you obviously have to run to support these gas hogs ?!! Either that or you have shares in/own a petrochemical company!

[b]Patrick[/b]

Worst year was 2015 with 11,9L/100km
Best year was last year 8,1L/100km

Average last 7 years: 9,6L/100km

I wish I had shares in petrol co. believe me. I'm hoping to get around the same as lerch did with my xedos as I found the ze surprisingly good in my F. I got around the same as the wifes 1.6 civic on journey to Scotland

best ive ever had in a 1.5 was 420 miles from a full tank, motorway driving
and 360 miles from a full tank in the v6, again motorway driving

[quote="smurf182"]best ive ever had in a 1.5 was 420 miles from a full tank, motorway driving...[/quote]420 miles... I'm lucky to get 420kms and that's mostly motorway!

Mind you I'm only running down to the last 10 litres (~2.5 gals) or so.

[b]Patrick[/b]

just done another trip today, daughter is at uni in huddersfield which is 98 miles away from me in redcar(just outside of Middlesbrough, or for those down south, up north )
I put in 30 quid which gave me 25.6 litres, and after going there and back, plus 10 miles while we were out n about ive just got home and the little orange light has just come on, so id guess 10 miles till the pointer says empty. but the I can get 38miles from zero to first cough(don't ask how I know this).
ill point out though that my average speed was 65mph allowing for roadworks and final 10 miles of country roads.
quite pleased with that

I'm still getting like 9l/100km more or less and it's killing me. Works out to 1000 euro a year on petrol. I'm a student so that money is alot to me
I don't usually go above 60/70kmh and I should only be doing around 70km a week at the moment which should be covered by 10 euro.

If I fill up with 40 euro that would give me 28.3l. Which last time served me around 300km which works out to a horrid 9.3l/100km. That's without driving fast or anything. Don't understand why it's so high.

[quote="ArtistKS"]I'm still getting like 9l/100km more or less and it's killing me. Works out to 1000 euro a year on petrol. I'm a student so that money is alot to me
I don't usually go above 60/70kmh and I should only be doing around 70km a week at the moment which should be covered by 10 euro.

If I fill up with 40 euro that would give me 28.3l. Which last time served me around 300km which works out to a horrid 9.3l/100km. That's without driving fast or anything. Don't understand why it's so high.[/quote]

Hi AKS,
I had to convert it to UK figures, but 9l/100km is about 31mpg. Yes, that's a bit low for a 1.5 BA. Mine gave me about 33mpg. But on a long motorway run, steady speed about 60mph it would give about 40 to 45 mpg, that's about 7l/100km.
Short journeys with a cold engine will always use more fuel. Do you do just lots of short journeys (like up to 5 miles (8 km) then stop). If so, then your fuel consumption isn't too bad.

Based on your other posts I think your car is serviced up to date, but with anyone else having this problem I'd say change the air filter and spark plugs and clean out the intake with Carb Cleaner, but I recall you've done all that! Also check the tyre pressures aren't too low, but I know you've done that as well!

You've hit the nail on the head about short journeys. I tend to do around 7 or 10km per run. On rare occasions it might be 20km (when I do those I notice it doesn't use much more fuel it seems). And yep my BA should be up to date on servicing and tyre pressures (I check everything on a regular basis).

No need to worry about a few extra Euros on petrol when you're not paying any significant depreciation!

The other guys in my office are often boasting about getting 60 miles-per-gallon, then I remind them they are paying £3,000 a year depreciation, and I'm paying nothing, so I don't mind paying an extra £300 a year on petrol.

On recent long trips I've been getting a steady 39 mpg from Sundance. The car needs a full overhaul though, so cleaning and tweaking the engine will undoubtedly improve that.

I haven't checked urban driving because I don't do it regularly - mostly it's just motorway trips.

S

Fuelly is handy, use it for all of mine..... (pic is a link too)

[url=http://www.fuelly.com/car/mazda/323/1998/toe71/850022][img]http://badges.fuelly.com/images/sig-uk/850022.png[/img][/url]

I think I get around 8.2l/100km which is ~34.4mpg (imp.) from a 1.8l in mostly highway/freeway driving.

[b]Patrick[/b]

Best I've ever got out of my 1.5 6.6 l/100 km, and it was by driving really slow, in high gears.

Worst I've got was 22 l/100 km by driving like I was being chased by cops, with the broken o2 sensor.

Normally I get like 9-10 l/100 km by driving "normal" around city and hiway.