hi there every one,

I am new here - I am thinking about buying the 2012 mazda 3 skyactiv, I live in Kansas, my work is a hour highway drive away -some of the mazda dealers claim the car gets 1000 km per tank of gas - on my current car chevy optra (same size engine 2.0) I was filling up every 4th day & getting about 480 km per tank - can anyone explain these figures, how many kms are you getting ? , is buying the skyactiv even worth the money here the difference is about $4000 before taxes & fees - nothing definate found on internet yet only you tube, thankyou everyone for time.

 

Wow.. once I started researching this, I couldn't stop myself. The short answer is, no, I don't think you'll achieve 1000km per tank. The long answer is contained below.

2012 Mazda 3 Skyactiv:

14.5 gallon tank = 54.8885 litres

To get 1000km per tank you would need to average 18.21km per litre or a little over 43 miles per gallon.

Chevy Optra:

Not knowing what year of Optra you had, it's hard to say. The 2004 says it has a 55 litre tank, but the 2006 says it has a 45.8 litre tank. That would translate to a pretty big difference in how much you could get per tank.

If you were getting approximately 480km per tank on 55 litres, that would be 8.72kmpl (a little over 20mpg). If it was on a 45.8 litre tank, it would be 10.48kmpl (a little over 24mpg).

The average mpg to use as a benchmark are also a little different for the different years. The 2004 says 22 / 32 mpg for city/highway while the 2006 says 20 / 28 for city/highway.

If you've got two hours of highway commute per day to get to and from work, then you should be leaning towards the highway mileage, and you are currently achieving approximately 62% of the highway mpg on a 2004 Optra or approximately 86% of the highway mpg rating on a 2006 Optra.

Taking the best case scenario and saying that you achieved 86% of the potential highway fuel economy on your Chevy Optra, and applying that to the 28/40 rating on a 2012 Mazda 3 Skyactiv Automatic, you would get an average of 34.4 mpg in the Mazda on the highway or about 802km per tank.

Of course, all of this data is assuming that my Google results were giving me accurate data on mpg ratings and mpg / kmpl conversions.. and also assumes that your driving habits would not change with the new Mazda car.. and also assumes that you'll always get highway mileages which would mean that you can never get off the highway and go home. Actual averages would probably be lower to account for the time spent at stop lights, or in start and stop traffic.

All that being said, I do think 1000km per tank is possible in the 2012 Mazda 3 Skyactiv, but very few drivers are going to hit that mark. It would have to be nice flat terrain (which I would assume Kansas has) with long stretches of highway that don't get backed up in traffic so that you can maintain a steady speed for the entire trip.

I live in central Illinois, which is pretty flat with very little backed up traffic. I actually take drives sometimes to see how many miles per gallon I can achieve and try to beat my previous "scores" (yeah I know, I'm a wild and crazy guy!). The best I've averaged for any reasonable length of time in my 2012 Mazda 3 Skyactiv is 59mpg for drives of 55mph, and around 45mpg for drives of 70mph.. but those averages always come down once I get off the highway and start driving to my destination in town. Sure, I've hit over 65mpg for a few miles or so on my 55mph drives, but I can't hold it there for long enough to keep the average up over a great distance.. and each stop sign makes the average plummet. Also, these are just 20-30 minute drives, not the 2 hours you are trying to hit on your daily commute.

When I drive with cruise control on, the fuel economy fluctuates wildly. I've had cruise set at 70mph and gotten over 40mpg, but then I've also seen it fluctuate between 28, 35, 40 mpg on the same stretch of highway. Cruise control is great, but if there are any hills at all, it wastes fuel. When approaching a hill, I keep the same pressure on the peddle the whole time which causes you to slow down a bit going up the hill, but you pick your speed back up going down the hill.. but cruise control will try to speed up while going uphill, which murders your fuel economy.

Holy cow, this got long winded. Let me wrap up.

So if you kick back and set the cruise control or just drive normally, I don't think you are going to hit that number of 1000km per tank. But if you are aware of your fuel economy at all times and adjust your driving accordingly, then yes, I think it's absolutely possible.

 

I agree with a lot Dlister said... but I have a 2012 Mazda 3 (NOT the Skyactiv version) and when I lived in Dallas, I saw about 25mpg in the city. It was that low because Dallas is very bad with the stop and go, and the red lights... However, when I moved from Dallas to North Dakota, I only needed to fill up about 3 times.

I have a 14.5 gallon gas tank, and the drive was about 1200 miles. If I did my math right, that should come out to just about 30 mpg. Again... Not stellar, but not awful. I also couldn't do more than 55mph because I was following the Uhaul, and the Uhaul can't do more than about 60, 55 if it has a trailer (which it did. We had to tow boyfriends vehicle).

That said, when I drive on the highways and I can set my cruise control and I'm not stopping-and-going, I've seen 40mpg. I can't speak for the Skyactiv, but when I bought my car and my salesman told me what mpg I could expect, he also said I might see better than what Mazda advertised based on my driving habits. Now, the Mazda 3 Skyactiv boasts UP TO 40mpg, and I can see 40mpg under the right conditions on my not-Skyactiv. Following that logic, I would be willing to bet the Skyactiv version could see better than 40mpg under the right conditions.

But those are just my thoughts. I'm by no means an expert. I'm just sharing with you my personal observations. Youtube has some videos where they compare the Mazda 3 with other popular compact vehicles. In most of the videos I watched, the Mazda 3 came in either 1st or 2nd against these other cars when tested for comfort, package options, handling, appearance, and mpg. I shopped around for months before even testing a Mazda. I tested an 08 Mazda3 and knew... I was done shopping.

 

I have a 2012 Skyactive 3 and I can say that I am averaging around 30 mpg with mostly city driving and I get up too 50 highway according to my cars readings. Not sure what it comes up too in Km but my trip computer says I can get up too ~380 miles on a full tank. Quick math says that's around 600 km. I'm sure I don't get that muh though since I shift at 4k locally and like to keep my revs high on the highway unless I'm on cruise con. Issue with me is the car has no power below 2.5k rpm so I have to keep my revs high to go up hills and to keep up with traffic. I could average much higher, I just choose not too. Even while driving the way I do I still get very reasonable gas mileage though so no complaints from me. The manual trans I have is rated a bit lower than the auto and I haves lead foot so if your going for an auto box, your results will be way better than mine. Just hit cruise control. Either way lts a lovely car and a blast to drive as a stick shift
Cheers!

 

I purchased a Mazda 3 2013 GS with Skyactive engine. The gas mileage so far is EXCEEDINGLY POOR. It is using more then DOUBLE the gas advertised. I am very disappointed and knowing what I know now, I would not have bought it and pay over 1000 extra for this engine + transmission then for a normal Mazda 3. I am trying to have it tested for meeting the factory specification, but I am skeptical that it will help.

 

FALSE!! The predictor display is never showing that. Now it's showing 350 km. I bought the car with Skyactive for the gas mileage. What a scam!