Who'd have thunk it

My dash display for Ave MPG shot up 0.3 MPG while tooling around on some back roads using the manual shift feature this weekend.

I found this odd as this was spirited driving, with me keeping the RPMs between 3k and 5k for about 60 miles worth of traveling at speeds between 35 and 55 MPH. (I think I reset the average reading within the last 500-600 miles or so too)

I usually don't use the manual shifting on my boring highway work commute as it is a pretty lazy drive and I don't have much need to wind the engine up.

I've pretty much averaged ~27-28 MPGs over the first 11k miles. Maybe the key to better fuel economy is being a bit harder on the engine?

Anywho... just thought I'd share. Can't say this would be a repeat occurrence either.

I can confirm it, as I enjoy manual shifting quite a lot. It happens to me a few times, most noticeable when going uphill, I usually let it stay in lower gear a little longer until the top of the hill.

Yes, this mirrors what I have seen also. It seems that driving style has less effect than the vehicles speed does.

Could it be that Mazda designed in some "headroom" so that they can improve the drag coefficient easily, and add MPG's?