I’ll bet that a lot of the weight gain came when Mazda stiffened their chassis for the 2017 model. The noise deafening added as well. Yet the loss of fuel economy was minor compared to before. Mazda’s bigger vision is to make so called “class above” vehicles that meet their customers desires. I believe they are still on the right track.
Yes that is when the major weight gain occurred. But wonder why it's gone up again for the 2018 model (uhm)