1.6 petrol motorway mpg

The_Grouch

Last year I changed my beloved 1.8 Mondeo for a 1.6 Mazda 3, and I'm feeling a little short-changed by the mpg. I do mostly A-roads and motorway driving, and I'm VERY light footed, becuase I'm very tight and rarely in a rush. So sorry if you've been stuck behind me doing 70 in the middle lane!

The Mazda 3 will do 350ish miles mixed driving, and about 400 miles if its 90% motorway. Brim-to-brim calcs give me between 35 to 40 mpg. Sounds reasonable, but my Mondeo (slightly larger tank, 60l compared to 55l) would easily do 550 miles between fill ups? Sadly I never did a brim-brim calc on it.

Anybody with similar sized petrol cars like to comment on this?

photome

The_Grouch wrote: »

Last year I changed my beloved 1.8 Mondeo for a 1.6 Mazda 3, and I'm feeling a little short-changed by the mpg. I do mostly A-roads and motorway driving, and I'm VERY light footed, becuase I'm very tight and rarely in a rush. So sorry if you've been stuck behind me doing 70 in the middle lane!

The Mazda 3 will do 350ish miles mixed driving, and about 400 miles if its 90% motorway. Brim-to-brim calcs give me between 35 to 40 mpg. Sounds reasonable, but my Mondeo (slightly larger tank, 60l compared to 55l) would easily do 550 miles between fill ups? Sadly I never did a brim-brim calc on it.

Anybody with similar sized petrol cars like to comment on this?

Drive in the correct lane next time!!;):D

AS for the MPG..No idea unless it has a wankle engine in (they are poor fuel economy engines)...do mazda still use the wankel engine?

jase1

It's a 3.... only one model of Mazda has the Wankel engine! (In any case that engine has similar performance to a V6, and only marginally poorer economy).

This is more or less the same engine put in the Volvo S40. Should be getting around 45mpg at 70mph. Someone might be able to confirm this though -- did the older Mazda 3 have the old Ford Zetec (belt-driven) 1.6, as is in my Focus? I struggle to get 40mpg out of this engine and, frankly, the engine is a bit rubbish all told

vax2002

find the torque bhp crossover point, usually around 2300 rpm and drive to that, if its 65 mph, then 65 it is, you should see a good increase in mpg.

The_Grouch

The engine is not the same as the focus, it is a chain-driven mazda engine, thats one of the reasons I went for the mazda over the focus, no cambwlt to worry about.

The gearing is also low, 3500 rpm at 70mph.

jase1

The_Grouch wrote: »

The engine is not the same as the focus, it is a chain-driven mazda engine, thats one of the reasons I went for the mazda over the focus, no cambwlt to worry about.

The gearing is also low, 3500 rpm at 70mph.

It must be the same engine as the Volvo then -- I knew the Volvo was one or the other (I think some early Mazdas had the old engine).

The_Grouch

jase1 wrote: »

It's a 3.... only one model of Mazda has the Wankel engine! (In any case that engine has similar performance to a V6, and only marginally poorer economy).

This is more or less the same engine put in the Volvo S40. Should be getting around 45mpg at 70mph. Someone might be able to confirm this though -- did the older Mazda 3 have the old Ford Zetec (belt-driven) 1.6, as is in my Focus? I struggle to get 40mpg out of this engine and, frankly, the engine is a bit rubbish all told

I've heard people say that the mk1 focus engine is not great for economy, which surprises me, as surely it is just a smaller version of the engine which produced such good mpg in my mondeo?

vickssinex

Now that I have an 80 mile daily commute, mostly on motorways, I have noticed that there is quite a gain in fuel economy if I drop the average speed from 70 down to 60. I have a Corsa automatic 1.4 and can consistently get 45 MPG plus, which is very good for an automatic.

jase1

The_Grouch wrote: »

I've heard people say that the mk1 focus engine is not great for economy, which surprises me, as surely it is just a smaller version of the engine which produced such good mpg in my mondeo?

The 1.8 Mondeo engine is the newer design AFAIK -- so related to the Mazda 1.6 rather than the Ford.

My car is the new shape, somewhat heavier than the MK1, and the old 1.6 just doesn't cut it in this car. It's the only petrol engine in the MK2 Focus range that's belt-driven, the rest are all newer, chain-cam Mazda-sourced motors that are far superior. I hate the damned thing to be honest :rotfl:

The_Grouch

jase1 wrote: »

The 1.8 Mondeo engine is the newer design AFAIK -- so related to the Mazda 1.6 rather than the Ford.

My car is the new shape, somewhat heavier than the MK1, and the old 1.6 just doesn't cut it in this car. It's the only petrol engine in the MK2 Focus range that's belt-driven, the rest are all newer, chain-cam Mazda-sourced motors that are far superior. I hate the damned thing to be honest :rotfl:

My mondeo was a 1998 with the old belt-driven zetec! Getting a bit of topic, but I understood there are/were 2 versions of the 1.6 engine for the mk2 focus, a 100bhp and a 115bhp? was either of those a newer chain-cam?

andygb

jase1 wrote: »

The 1.8 Mondeo engine is the newer design AFAIK -- so related to the Mazda 1.6 rather than the Ford.

My car is the new shape, somewhat heavier than the MK1, and the old 1.6 just doesn't cut it in this car. It's the only petrol engine in the MK2 Focus range that's belt-driven, the rest are all newer, chain-cam Mazda-sourced motors that are far superior. I hate the damned thing to be honest :rotfl:

The old Mondeo (up until 2001 and maybe later) was the 1.8 Zetec (either black or silver top), and has a cambelt, unlike the Mazda 3 1.6 petrol engine (which is no realation) which has a cam chain.
The Mondeo engine is indeed more frugal than the Mazda engine, and this is largely down to the gearing, where the Mondeo is nearly 1000 RPM lower at motorway speeds. The Mazda needs another gear or revised gearing in the 5 speed box IMO.