28 mpg city / 40 mpg highway.

I traded in my 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid on at 2012 Mazda 3 iTouring with Skyactiv.. and I couldn't be happier.

The Hybrid was rated at 49 city / 51 highway but there wasn't a chance in hell you were going to hit 49 in the city, and to get 51 on the highway meant paying constant attention to the gauges and coasting as much as possible (cruise control was not an option if you wanted to hit 51mpg). I've gotten over 51 in it before, but only after visiting hypermiling boards and trying every trick I felt comfortable with (including turning off the engine and coasting in neutral when approaching a stop!).

With the Skyactiv engine, I can set the cruise control to 70 and just forget about it, and still break the 40mpg highway that it said I'd get. I can squeeze more out of it if I do the hypermiling thing, but I'm thrilled to death that I don't have to do anything special to get the fuel economy that it's supposed to get.

28 in the city is extremely easy to achieve as well.

I've started to switch to manual shift (I have an automatic) when I'm accelerating and basically try to get up to the speed limit as quickly as possible, and then kick it back over into Drive. I've also tried gradual acceleration, but you get such bad mileage even accelerating slowly, that I'd rather just punch it and get it over with and then stay at a steady speed to maintain good mpg. Plus the punching it part is fun.. zoom zoom zoom.

This is my second Mazda.. I owned a Mazda Protege for 8 years before I got the Honda, and I missed that car. Now that I've been in the Mazda 3 for about a month (and 1,200 miles.. I find I'm taking drives for no reason just because it's fun to drive!) I don't see any reason to stray from Mazda again in the future.

... Especially when they build a hybrid using the Skyactiv as a base.

 

What up?
I own a manual RX8, one daughter drives a 2005 three hatchback(auto) and the other daughter just bought a 2012 Mazda 3 hatchback(auto) with the Skyactiv, so I was interested in reading your impressions.
She lives in another state so I won't be able to get my grubby hands on it until late July, then I will get my impression of it.

 

Update on the 2012 Skyactiv Mazda 3:

I had been getting around 30mpg with tons of city driving (my commute to work is like 1.5 miles with 6 stop signs.. horrible on gas mileage). And on my last fill up, I got 28.9 mpg, my lowest. I was a little frustrated, even though I was beating the 28 it said I would get, I wanted more. Then I remembered that I had never checked the air in the tires since I bought the car, and found that they were pretty low (around 30psi as I recall). I looked at the max psi written on the tire, and I filled it to a couple lower than that (I believe it said the max was 44 and I put in 42.. but check your own tire to be sure before running off to put in more air).

Anyways.. after filling the tires with more air, this last fill up went up from 28.9mpg to 34.4mpg! This is still with tons of city driving and commuting to work. What a difference a little air can make!

I'm about 3,700 miles in, and still loving this car.

 

Another update:

I'm now 7,500 miles in on my Mazda 3 Skyactiv. I've had it for a year now.. but the miles are still pretty low because I have a second vehicle that I also drive, and my work commute is like 1.5 miles.

I just went up to Six Flags Great America yesterday (about 400 miles round trip) and averaged 40.1 mpg for the trip. This includes being stuck in stand still Chicago traffic on the highway through a construction zone, and some in town driving after getting off the interstate, and sometimes speeding along at 85 mph to try to make it when the park opened.

I'm seriously impressed to be hitting this number given the type of driving I was doing.

 

Now, I don't have the Skyactyiv Mazda 3. I have a 2008 Mazda 3 hatch with the 2.3l. Sticker mileage states 22 city, 28 highway. I just got back from a trip to Reno, NV from Eugene, OR. I took the route that is the quickest to get there, which is going through mountains, with 2 lane highways. One in one direction, the other in the opposite direction. So with all this mountain driving, 4 full grown people on the car, bowling *****, clothes, whatever, I was not expecting to get 28. Quite the contrary. I got 30 MPG on my first fill up, which was going up the mountains, lots of flooring it to get passed the slower drivers and trucks, using gas with E10, all while cruising, when I did, at around 65 to 75 MPH (Speed limit jumps to 65 from 55 once you hit California.) So that was that fill up, took about a tank and a half to get there, 430 miles or so.

On my way back just today, filled up at a gas station in Reno, no E10 (same with California gas surprisingly) same conditions, 4400 feet above sea level (don't think that matters much with newer cars) hills, 2 lane highways, lots of flooring, passing slow cars and trucks, lots of stop and go on the highway from construction, about the same speeds, I managed 33 MPG! I am quite impressed with this little thing. Not to steal the thread, but I had to share my own excitement as my 3 almost matches my girlfriends 07 Chevy Aveo 5 which is supposed to get between 34 and 37 highway, which a much, much weaker engine.

BTW, this was with the AC blasting the entire time.

 

Getting over 41 MPG combined with my new 2013. Better than rated and I cruise between 75 and 80 on the highway.