2017 fuel economy

piotrek91

Member
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2013 CX-5 6MT
I was checking to see if the 2017 CX-5 has received its EPA rating yet (it hasn't) but I noticed that the Mazda 6 has.
Looks like the HWY fuel economy of the 6GT dropped 5MPG!! compared the the 2016 model.
Most other cars only dropped 1-2MPG for 2017, but a 5MPG drop is pretty substantial. I hope for Mazda's sake that these numbers are somehow incorrect!

really curious to see how the 2017 CX-5 rates..

VsD2RSY.png

source: http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Powe...016&year2=2017&make=Mazda&model=6&srchtyp=ymm
 
I was checking to see if the 2017 CX-5 has received its EPA rating yet (it hasn't) but I noticed that the Mazda 6 has.
Looks like the HWY fuel economy of the 6GT dropped 5MPG!! compared the the 2016 model.
Most other cars only dropped 1-2MPG for 2017, but a 5MPG drop is pretty substantial. I hope for Mazda's sake that these numbers are somehow incorrect!
I've always been suspicious on CX-5's EPA highway estimates, especially on AWD. 30 mpg is a phantom EPA highway number our CX-5 can never reach, or even get close! I'd not be surprised if the EPA fuel economy numbers on 2017 CX-5 drop substantially to reflect more closely to real-world fuel economy.
 
30 mpg is a phantom EPA highway number our CX-5 can never reach, or even get close!.

Every time I drive on the highway I easily hit at least 30mpg or hover right around it, except when I start to speed up and average 75+. Than I hover more around 29. 30mpg is 100% possible in the awd cx5. And no, it doesn't take any type of magic. Just a little common sense(not flooring it, not riding peoples bumpers, easy acceleration in city traffic when there are upcoming lights).

This whole summer I have averaged between 28.5-29mpg and that includes my highway drives to work, as well as my daily city driving. I'd say about a little more than half of all my driving is non highway.
 
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I've not had any problem meeting or even exceeding, in some cases, the 2014 FWD CX5 EPA fuel mileage. Remember that some ratings were for the 2.0L engine. Ed
 
I have a FWD CX-5 and have no problem exceeding 30 mpg (sometimes even 34) on highways and long suburban drives when I don't get too many red lights. The key is to be easy on accelerator/brakes and maintain some distance with the car in front. Also, keep the speed in the 50-60 band as much as you can. If you can do those, you'll easily get 30+ in FWD.
 
Oh, look. Amazing. I think I've talked about this before...but noooooo....It couldn't have been MAZDA'S fault for over-rating my vehicle. It had to be me. Or my driving style. Or my car had a mystery problem. Or whatever.
 
Every time I drive on the highway I easily hit at least 30mpg or hover right around it, except when I start to speed up and average 75+. Than I hover more around 29. 30mpg is 100% possible in the awd cx5. And no, it doesn't take any type of magic. Just a little common sense(not flooring it, not riding peoples bumpers, easy acceleration in city traffic when there are upcoming lights).

This whole summer I have averaged between 28.5-29mpg and that includes my highway drives to work, as well as my daily city driving. I'd say about a little more than half of all my driving is non highway.

I get 27/28, but I drive normal interstate speeds. Almost no braking or accelerations. Just set cruise and drain the tank. My CX-5 has fared by FAR the worst of every vehicle I have owned regarding meeting EPA rating on the freeway. Combined, I average 22.5 per tank. It just doesn't meet EPA rating in my use like every other car or SUV I've had does. Now Mazda seems to be owning their mistakes...

Re-rate it for 22-23city and 28 highway, and I'd be inclined to agree with the ratings. We will see...
 
I have almost 2000 miles on my 2016.5 CX-5 AWD. I really wanted a FWD model to maximize fuel economy. I am on my fourth tank of fuel. I am average about 28.5 to 29.5 in "mixed" driving. I live in a rural area but it has lots of hills with average speeds of 45 to 55 mph. On the highway I am easily exceeding 30 mpg. It's been hot but one cooler day last week I drove over an hour on the highway with no A/C on and windows closed (just vent open blowing air) and I averaged over 35 mpg for the duration of the trip according to the computer.

So far I am extremely pleased with the gas mileage of this AWD vehicle. My FWD Kia sportage - when it was working was averaging around 26 to 28 mixed driving and about 30 to 32 mpg on the highway.

For some people it is hard to achieve maximum fuel economy in a vehicle. You have to find the "sweet spot" in the gas pedal and use it! My wife just can't seem to figure that out an probably never will.
 
I have almost 2000 miles on my 2016.5 CX-5 AWD. I really wanted a FWD model to maximize fuel economy. I am on my fourth tank of fuel. I am average about 28.5 to 29.5 in "mixed" driving. I live in a rural area but it has lots of hills with average speeds of 45 to 55 mph. On the highway I am easily exceeding 30 mpg. It's been hot but one cooler day last week I drove over an hour on the highway with no A/C on and windows closed (just vent open blowing air) and I averaged over 35 mpg for the duration of the trip according to the computer.

So far I am extremely pleased with the gas mileage of this AWD vehicle. My FWD Kia sportage - when it was working was averaging around 26 to 28 mixed driving and about 30 to 32 mpg on the highway.

For some people it is hard to achieve maximum fuel economy in a vehicle. You have to find the "sweet spot" in the gas pedal and use it! My wife just can't seem to figure that out an probably never will.

Maybe this vehicle is different, but I've owned plenty that did just fine for me when hitting their EPA ratings. In fact, none but this one failed.
 
The CX-3 AWD did not change but the FWD dropped by 1 highway millage to 34.

I've easily achieved 30+ on a road trip with a fully loaded CX-5 and two adults and a dog. It's not hard and it was a four lane highway with a good share of stop lights.
You just have to drive smart.
 
Maybe this vehicle is different, but I've owned plenty that did just fine for me when hitting their EPA ratings. In fact, none but this one failed.
We're all experienced and reasonable drivers and we all know how to drive the car to maximize the gas mileage. I can understand why AWD CX-5 uses significant more fuel than FWD CX-5 comparing to the difference between AWD and FWD among other car models due to different final gear ratio. But I simply don't feel people don't know how to drive is the reason we're getting poorer gas mileage and complaining about the discrepancy between EPA and real-world fuel economy! After all, we're comparing the CX-5 with other cars we've been driven, and many people feel CX-5 simply failed on EPA ratings but not on other vehicles.

I understand every car is different, and some of them have better gas mileage than others. But as the OP said, Mazda adjusted and downgraded its 2017 Mazda6 5 mpg for highway rating while others made only 1 or 2! This definitely makes me believe Mazda has been guilty of exaggerating its EPA fuel economy estimates all along!
 
I've only put 2 tanks through my 16.5 CX-5, first tank was 23 and last tank was 28.8 MPG. I was pretty happy with that! That was also about 75% highway on the last tank. But still, not bad for a AWD crossover. Just traded in my wife's 15 Ford Escape Titanium with 2.0 EcoBoost, it struggled to get 21 MPG consistently. So 28 is great with me! I also drive 75-85 MPH on my commute to work everyday, so that's pretty good mileage for those speeds.
 
We're all experienced and reasonable drivers and we all know how to drive the car to maximize the gas mileage. I can understand why AWD CX-5 uses significant more fuel than FWD CX-5 comparing to the difference between AWD and FWD among other car models due to different final gear ratio. But I simply don't feel people don't know how to drive is the reason we're getting poorer gas mileage and complaining about the discrepancy between EPA and real-world fuel economy! After all, we're comparing the CX-5 with other cars we've been driven, and many people feel CX-5 simply failed on EPA ratings but not on other vehicles.

I understand every car is different, and some of them have better gas mileage than others. But as the OP said, Mazda adjusted and downgraded its 2017 Mazda6 5 mpg for highway rating while others made only 1 or 2! This definitely makes me believe Mazda has been guilty of exaggerating its EPA fuel economy estimates all along!

Yep. The final-drive ratio is legit, I'm cool with it. I'm not mad about my mileage. I am frustrated that Mazda lied about it. Just like they lied about the RX8 and had to buy them all back (if the customer requested) because they had no balls, lol
 
I've only put 2 tanks through my 16.5 CX-5, first tank was 23 and last tank was 28.8 MPG. I was pretty happy with that! That was also about 75% highway on the last tank. But still, not bad for a AWD crossover. Just traded in my wife's 15 Ford Escape Titanium with 2.0 EcoBoost, it struggled to get 21 MPG consistently. So 28 is great with me! I also drive 75-85 MPH on my commute to work everyday, so that's pretty good mileage for those speeds.

Figure it by hand, too. I have found my vehicle under-shoots mileage. It gets me at 26.5 for road-trips, when figured by hand, I am hitting about 28.X.
 
I have a FWD CX-5 and have no problem exceeding 30 mpg (sometimes even 34) on highways and long suburban drives when I don't get too many red lights. The key is to be easy on accelerator/brakes and maintain some distance with the car in front. Also, keep the speed in the 50-60 band as much as you can. If you can do those, you'll easily get 30+ in FWD.

Here is my 2016 CX-5 FWD GT. This is slightly above average trip to work, but I routinely get 36MPG both to and from work (26 miles each way) IF I keep to the speed limit of 60 and 70. (Hope the picture isn't too large) This was August 4th.
view


Fuel Monitor pic

Edit: Whatever dang Google Photo sharing - Not. OK, so I got 38MPG on that trip. I was trying to show the Fuel Monitor... Oh well.
 
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We're about to take our 2014 on its first road trip in October, since we got it a couple weeks ago, but I'm not expecting all that great MPG. We will have a bike rack with a heavy upright bicycle hanging off the hitch receiver, and in my experience those can cause a big hit on fuel economy. We will see, though.
 
I don't understand why people claim Mazda lied or exaggerated their fuel economy.
The EPA fuel economy numbers are backed by a very specific process, there is no choice in the matter. You follow the testing process to the letter and it yields two numbers.
The 2017 process has changed, especially to make it more realistic for highway driving. You can claim cheating if you know they on purpose modified the process or tinkered with the test vehicles. This would be a hard claim to prove and currently I have no reason to think this is the case.
In fact, if the 6 dropped 5 MPG highway, it probably shows that the latter test was conducted properly and without cheating, which gives some level of confidence that there was no cheating also on previous tests.

You can also claim that Mazda built the Mazda 6 to do well only on the EPA test but not for other situations. This might or might not be true, but is it cheating or exaggerating? No. In fact, the 6 absolutely can get 40 MPG on the highway, if you follow the older EPA test. If they did that, can you be unhappy with them? Of course, but claiming they lied or exaggerated would be a false claim.

While the 5 MPG highway drop is pretty shocking, average/combined MPG has barely been impacted. I know you could get a 6 with EPA 40 MPG highway only with the i-ELoop capacitor, which is not available on the CX-5. Without the i-ELoop the drop between 16-17 is 3 highway MPG none city and 1 combined. The new combined without i-ELoop is 29 MPG. On Fuelly, hundreds of real-world drivers are getting 30.6 MPG on average, which is closer to the old EPA combined value.
This probably says that i-ELoop is not very effective.

Owning a Mazda 3 2L, which also has old EPA 40 MPG highway, I can tell you that 40 is attainable, but difficult to get on the highway.
Owning a CX-5 AWD I know getting 30 MPG is not too difficult.

However, most of us don't own a Mazda 6, so I don't understand why you are so quick to judge based on this, yet ignore the CX-3 results. Because it does not fit your theory? Let's wait and see what the new numbers would be for the CX-5.
 
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Figure it by hand, too. I have found my vehicle under-shoots mileage. It gets me at 26.5 for road-trips, when figured by hand, I am hitting about 28.X.

I put all my fill-ups into Fuelly. Tracked 84k on my 14 Mazda 6 on there.
 
I get 26.8 on a 2.0 manual in city driving with the A/C on because it has been hot AF out here in Socal
 
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