After taking my 2004 Mazda 3 five door in today to be looked at for very poor fuel mileage I need a little help figuring out a next step.

The car has 30,000 miles on it now and I am luck to get 200 miles on a tank of gas. Calculating fuel mileage gets me an average of 14.5 - 17 miles per gallon depending on highway or city driving. My mileage was originally not this bad and I would average 280 miles on a tank and near 30mpg or slightly over for pure highway driving and 24 for city driving.

The dealer was unable to find anything and is giving me excuses about cold weather being the cause however I have had this issue even when it was summer.

My thoughts are there certainly is something wrong for a four cylinder engine in a compact car that is driven in a conservative manor to be getting that poor of gas mileage.

So what do I do from here? I am honestly at a point where the gas mileage is making the car not worth owing as a small car. With gas mileage like this I could be driving a mid-sized SUV and doing just as well.

I live in Michigan and honestly don't know what to do besides continue to bring the car in to be checked and try to exercise the 'lemon law' on them and I don't think that will work. This is so aggravating that it very well will be my first and last Mazda I ever own.

Anyone have ideas on where to turn or what to do besides just get rid of the car?

 

Elevate it to the District Service Rep. If you can show that your car is truly getting that low of mileage, then they need to dig into it further. I believe the law in MI is you put it in for the same concern (3) times without it being resolved, you would then qualify for lemon law. Is it tripping any codes? Do you have a ton of black soot at the exhaust tip? That would show it is running rich (excessive fuel in air/fuel mixture), although most cars these days are tuned to run rich, so it may not be an indicator of an issue.

FWIW....My car has been getting really poor mileage recently, but I believe it is due to the cold weather (I'm getting probably 23-25 avg, where I normally see 28-29 mpg. out of my 2.0L 5-speed.) I expect it to go up once summer comes on.

I'm forwarding a link to this thread to a guy I worked with at Mazda. I'll let you know what I find out. (Could you possible make your vehicle available? Where in Michigan are you?) PM me with the info.

 

We're a little short on details, can we assume that this car was getting good mileage at some point, and suddenly it is not?

One thing that can cause bad gas mileage is a HUGELY overfilled oil crankcase. Check your oil level. Some people have had twice as much oil put in the crankcase as should be there, because a tech accidentally put double the oil quantity inversuswhatwas recommended.

Check the air filter, it could be completely clogged. A new air filter could fix the problem.

Ditto the fuel filter. If its clogged, putting a new one in could fix the prob.

Last thingon the obvious list is maybe your are losing fuel. A leaky oil tank, or leaky fuel line, would explain awful mileage.

 

I've had my 2006 mazda 3 5-door for almost a year and have approximately 8600 miles. My gas mileage is terrible, averaging only 19 MPG around the city. When I first got the car I was able to drive approximately 300 miles on 11 gallons of gas and since then my gas mileage has steadily gotten worse. I traded a Jeep Wrangler for the mazda so I could get better gas mileage, but getting only 7 more MPG than the Jeep hasn't been worth not being able to get up my hill in the winter because of snow. I am very disappointed in the gas mileage.

 

Yes, the car got good gas mileage at one point, in the original post.

I am keeping an eye on it and will be contacting someone regarding it soon when I return to town and go from there.

drtymtnbiker, the car is a good winter car. I live in west Michigan and we get the lake effect snow like areas of New York but not as bad, ours is the really heavy wet snow that is slippery. I can hoestly say the problem is the Goodyear RS-A tires on the car. They are the worst tire I have driven on. About 300 miles ago I put on Falken Ziex 512 tires in 215/50 R17 and the traction is three times what it was before.

To anyone about to ask, the tires have only been on for a little bit and I have been tracking the fuel mileage for months so they are not the cause of the reduced mileage.

 

maybe its bad fuel. Low Air pressure in tires. Alignment. Bad spark plugs. Air intake problem. The 3 should be getting at least 26 mpg. I have 24,256 miles on my 6. I am getting 25 mpg (city) in 5 degree weather. I am not light on the throttle either. During the summer I get 30-31 mpg in the city

 

Don't let the dealer smokescreen the problem. Any small car that uses anywhere near that much gas has a problem. Take it somewhere else. Does it smoke? Is the compression bad? Is the EGR clear and working? Has it thrown any codes? It could be a combination of smaller problems that add up. The dealer's techs are either too poorly educatedor aretoo lazy to figure it out. I get almost twice your mileage in a Speed3.

 

I have a 2005 and it sucks the gas down too. I switched to mid-grade Shell gas, and quit stomping on the pedal and driving it around 80-85 on the interstate and it gets better gas mileage. But I agree... the gas mileage is not as advertised.

 

Yeah, i have a 2004 mazda 3 and the gas mileage is horrible for a four banger! I was getting nearly the same fuel economy with my 4.3L in my older S-10. I was really looking forward to once own a vehicle that was fuel friendly... so much for that!