Perhaps I’m missing something here, but I bought our MX5 knowing it was a sports car to be driven like a sports car. I fill it up… I enjoy driving it… and when the tank is near empty I fill it back up…Simples
I’m not interested in the MPG, if that was the case I would have bought a car that returns 50MPG or more, but why!
I say just enjoy the car, life is to short to worry about it…
John
I get mid to high 30’s from my NA. That is with local driving, a lot of it up hills. and she is an auto.
Yeh, that’s no accurate, the light can come on going up hill or around a bend.
The most accurate way of working it out is as follows.
Fill the car until the pump knocks off, don’t put any more fuel in than this.
Reset the trip counter.
Run the car for a few hundred miles.
Go back to the same pump/nozzle and fill the car until the pump knocks off, don’t put any more fuel than this in.
Make a note of how much fuel you used and how many miles you did. (4.54 litres = 1 gallon).
Maybe do this a few times.
Good stuff Mal. As you are perhaps aware, I also own an '94 Auto 1840cc, which I’ve had for 11 years.
It does around 26mpg around town, maybe 32/33 Driving Ms Daisy open road…unless I’m nailing it through twisties as usual.
Then you can just about hear the fuel getting sucked out from behind my ears!
On one club run, I’m proud to say I emptied it’s tank in 180 miles from neck-filled. Had a ball doing it too. Stuck it in S with the Hold button Mal?…and you end up with a go-cart keeping itself between 4k and 7.4k rmp.
About the OP’s commute he is on ECU/sensor enrichment for around 25% of his commute, then dial in low gear stop starts to reach his dual carriageway both ways, plus an unknown quantity of 6th gear cruise. Then, in addition, there is driving style/preference. How often is torque vs revs used? It all adds up to me what his fuel consumption is really, but as said, we buy sports cars not devil fueled 70mpg wonders.
All I would say to the OP is systematically go through every Big Service check…fuel filter is often forgotten for example…and get it mechanically as close to production day. The thing about dragging brakes is common, and good advice. And then, fuel it and just accept they can be greedy wee boogers.
well a bit of an update on this, i have now upped my mpg to 34.9. When i painted my calipers i took them apart and found that both top slider pins were seized solid, it took much persuasion and cursing to get them free, then a little work with some emery paper and some nice new grease and hey presto, instant improvement. It was not entirely obvious when driving that the pins were not working as there was no judder no obvious slowing when lifting off, but at least that combined with a nice pipercross induction roar has helped a great deal! next on the list is a cat back cobalt exhaust!
Sorted then
My overall average is 32.45 MPG over 15 years
I also have a Nevada, they do have an ODBii sensor on the right hand side under the steering wheel (by the fuse box).
I get 30+ on long runs (motor way driving), 25 around the city and less than 20 when I am driving her very hard. A good service may be in order, when I change gearbox oil, diff oil, and engine oil along with performance leads, she picks up much better and also the economy improved a little.
yep first thing i did was plug it in and thankfully no codes stored!
This is what Parkers quote for the Nevada 1.8 vvti
Fuel consumption 32 mpg
Power 146 bhp
Top Speed 127 mph
0-60 mph 8.2 secs
Torque 168 Nm, 124 ft-lb
CO2 Emissions 210 g/km
Miles Per Tank 352 miles
http://www.parkers.co.uk/mazda/mx-5/convertible-1990/18i-nevada-2d/specs/