Super Happy Slow Wagon

i complimented the salesperson on the classy "Woodhouse" emblem they affix to every car. i asked him if i could have an extra one so i could advertise for them on my other mazda. he happily obliged.

when i got home i chopped them up and made this...

In reply to belteshazzar:

That is machined from a billet of pure win. Well played.

1300 mile trip update....

drove 575 miles to a farm in illinois. dinked around there a couple days. drove 575 miles back.

premium fuel seems to help. the one and only gas station at this tiny town i was in had 87 and 89 octane only. i ran one tank of the 89, and struggled to maintain a 33 mpg average. it ran fine, no loss of power, but noticeable mpg penalty. all the rest of the trip was on 91 octane.

cruise control also helps. on my own, i could only average 36 mpg. with cruise that number jumped a hair over 38.

relevant constants for the entire trip; car was pulling a family of four, a weeks worth of crap in the trunk, a/c was never turned off, ambient temperature was almost never below 100 degrees. i also kept the average speed above 70 mph.

total average mpg for the entire trip was 35.9mpg. the car now has 2300 miles on it.

next i'll start playing around with the ideal cruising speed. everyone was tired of riding in the car most of the time, so i wasn't going to prolong things by seeing how it did at 65mph or whatever at this time.

In reply to belteshazzar:

All in all looks great... BTW, what did you do with the Maxima...?

put it on craigslist. got a call twenty minutes later.

sold to the first guy who looked at it. salvage title, 166k miles, he paid $4,300.

it's a great example of why i couldn't buy used this time around.

In reply to belteshazzar:

Good enough!!!

I have to admit that I didn't know what Skyactive was when I read this thread. I've heard of it, just didn't know any details. You car looks nice, but when I looked at the Mazda website, the numbers don't look all that spectacular, considering all the hype. Am I missing something? Power and fuel mileage are not any or significantly better than competing vehicles, so what's the appeal that I'm missing? How much more does it cost than the same car without it? Enlighten me.

compared to it's 2012 model year contemporaries, it's not that remarkable.

instead of saying "skyactiv", they could have said "hey look, we're improving our fuel efficiency a bunch too! don't forget us!" but that's kinda wordy.

belteshazzar wrote: compared to it's 2012 model year contemporaries, it's not that remarkable. instead of saying "skyactiv", they could have said "hey look, we're improving our fuel efficiency a bunch too! don't forget us!" but that's kinda wordy.

Exactly. Their fuel economy was lagging, now it's not. Weird that they needed such super high compression and such to do it, but hey...

Yeah, you know, they could have just, like, lightened the car a bunch, or made it more aerodynamic, or put in a smaller engine or more favorable ratios...

Zoom Zoom!

but the actual result is too comparable to the latest ford focus, which is less presumptuous about it's efficiency, and has a more traditional compression ratio (not that i'm complaining).

or the chevy cruze, or the hyundai elantra, etc.

Damn, ida been seriously interested in a Maxima like that for $4300 if i was shopping.. and it was a stick..

bravenrace wrote: Power and fuel mileage are not any or significantly better than competing vehicles, so what's the appeal that I'm missing?

MARKETING

Did you really have to ask? (although I do find it interesting that the inferior 3s costs more than the SkyActiv)

volvoclearinghouse wrote: Yeah, you know, they could have just, like, lightened the car a bunch, or made it more aerodynamic, or put in a smaller engine or more favorable ratios... Zoom Zoom!

The thing is, they're the one company that's doing all five...the 3 SkyActiv is just an update of the old platform with the SkyActiv engine, for the most part. The CX-5 is the real foreshadowing of things to come, and if you haven't read the GRM review, maybe you should. The next gen 3 is really going to be something to behold. The current one is not a bad car by any means, but if GRM's CX-5 review is the truth...boy, oh boy

technically, the current 3 skyactiv has all those features. there are aero enhancements. it is lighter than the other 3's. the engine and transmission are specific to the model. etc.

SlickDizzy wrote: (although I do find it interesting that the inferior 3s costs more than the SkyActiv)

i guess the 3s has some added content over the 3i. bigger brakes, for example(too heavy for skyactiv?). it has things like auto climate, and LED tail-lights, i dunno what else.

SlickDizzy wrote: The thing is, they're the one company that's doing all five...the 3 SkyActiv is just an update of the old platform with the SkyActiv engine, for the most part. The CX-5 is the real foreshadowing of things to come, and if you haven't read the GRM review, maybe you should. The next gen 3 is really going to be something to behold. The current one is not a bad car by any means, but if GRM's CX-5 review is the truth...boy, oh boy

If the 3 is doing all of the above, then why are the fuel economy numbers only average in the segment? It just feels like something's missing. Don't get me wrong, I'd count myself as a Mazda fan- I like their styling, like the driving dynamics of the few Mazdas I've driven, and I appreciate a car company willing to be a little different. I just always feel like they're somehow missing the boat when it comes to MPG.

Not to hate on the mazda but i semi sort of agree.

The new turbo Veloster is a lot faster, weighs a similar amount, and is rated 38mpg highway.. Dunno if it'll hit it, though.

today i decided to play around with cruising speed.

my parents live about an hour away from me. i loaded up the family and headed their way. i found that at 60 mph, it can stay in 6th gear up just about any hill. if i go any slower it needs to drop down to 5th on the steeper ones (which it does quite smoothly, you only really notice on the tach as it jumps from 1900rpm to 2300~).

i also filled up with E10 93 octane.

on the way home i set the cruise at 62 and let it ride. after an hour on the interstate i had averaged 44.6 mpg. a/c on the whole time.

Thats more like it! If you can stand to go that slow..

I have been disappointed at the 35mpg out of this neon i just got, and needless to say it doesnt have anywhere near the room, safety, content, niceness, or probably even handling of the new 3.

I was able to eek 42 out of my 04 2.0 mazda3 on a VERY flat stretch of land at 60-65 mph with 2 people in it and the ac off. I was damn happy but your number is even better with more people and more ac.

Please please please give us skyactiv-D

My TDI Jetta does 80+ on california highways at 43mpg all day and diesel torque means very little highway speed shifting

If I use fuel additive MPG goes to 45, if I go 70 instead of 80 it also goes to 45. I am sure if I went 62 I would break 50 easy, but 62 in california gets you run over by someone in a prius

belteshazzar wrote: technically, the current 3 skyactiv has all those features. there are aero enhancements. it is lighter than the other 3's. the engine and transmission are specific to the model. etc.

Not in the way the CX-5 is doing (and the new 6). We're talking about a completely new platform that's lighter from every angle (high strength steel, lighter design, aluminum, etc) that's aero optimized from the get go (including the suspension and underside) and has drivetrain to match. The 3 SkyActiv is really only about a third of the step there as opposed to the whole enchilada.

you're exaggerating. having exactly the same drivetrain is already more than a third.

changed the oil last night.

there's big plastic trays everywhere under this car to make it more aerodynamic. low and behold, there's a 6x9" rectangular access cover that comes off easy. inside, mazda orientated the drain plug in such a way that you can not remove it without first taking off the oil filter. brilliant! oil change monkeys can't get away with leaving the filter on there just because they don't have one in stock, which they won't, since they're unique to the skyactiv engine.

slightly less noteworthy but still a nice touch; the fill hole in the valvecover does not have any stupid built-in baffle like some cars have. consequently you can drop a funnel onto the hole and it stays put by itself.

I really hate those baffles that get into the way of funnels and restrict flow so you have to pour oil in slowly. Grr.

I recently downloaded Torque Pro for my cell phone, and bought an obd2 bluetooth dongle. i decided to see what i could learn about my mazda today while driving to omaha.

First, i was surprised to see coolant temps hang out around 185 degrees. I expected hotter for an engine designed for maximum efficiency.

Secondly, my Long term fuel trim averages about -8%. Not sure what to make of that.

Third, the biggest surprise, while merging into traffic my volumetric efficiency topped out at almost 125%. I knew naturally aspirated engines could pass 100, but that seemed really high. Double checked and, yup, it know this is only a 2 liter engine.