2012 Mazda 2 Thousand mile review.

[bustednutz]

OK, so last month the wife bought a brand new Mazda 2.
Its the Sport model in an automatic.
Well this weekend we decided to take a road trip to NYC. Approx 350 miles each way.

The AC blows very cold and doesn't take long to get that way.
The stereo is nothing special, just the standard AM/FM CD/MP3 player. Sounds very good though. And the wife loves Adele thru it. God help me if I have to hear that CD one more time........
Anywho......The motor is willing in the auto version, but it just struggles to get up to speed in a spritely manner. It is a 1.5 after all. And only about 100 horse.
At 80 MPH she purrs right along and its sweet spot is between 70-80 MPH. With the wife, myself, the 12 year old, and a trunk stuffed with luggage, I managed to pull off 30MPG at 70-80 mph, on a motor with less then 1000k on it. I'll expect a little more once its broken in.

The handling is outstanding!! On ramps, and off ramps are nothing for this car to take at higher speeds. The inner city beat up Manhattan roads were handled with ease as well.
The noise level is "moderate" at HWY speeds, but thats all a matter of opinion and what you may already be used to.
The interior is very comfortable, the materials do not squeek, rattle or rub. I only wish is had a center armrest. But thats not critical. This vehicle is driven 99% in town in stop and go traffic. So this was one of its few opportunities in our ownership of it to take on the HWY over a long distance.
We hit a massive thunderstorm that lasted about 1/2 hour. Car handled very well. Good vision out of all windows, wipers are excellent, tire grip was excellent as well. No trouble there.
Manuvering thru Manhattan traffic was very easy with this vehicle as well.
The confidence level you feel while driving it is surprisingly good.

The only thing I fault it for is the fuel gauge. Its an LCD gauge and when it gets down to one "bar" its time to fill.
It holds approx 11.3 gallons. Yet I filled it up twice at the 1 bar, and it only took approx 7.5 gallons to fill it up.
Basically I still had a little less then 4 gal left.
I'll have to keep an eye on that and see if it self adjusts itself. But as with my other 2 Mazdas, the fuel gauge always tells you lies when it is "allegedly" low on fuel.

Any questions? Just ask.
Thanks.

 

[yonyon]

Originally Posted By: bustednutz
OK, so last month the wife bought a brand new Mazda 2.
Its the Sport model in an automatic.
Well this weekend we decided to take a road trip to NYC. Approx 350 miles each way.

The AC blows very cold and doesn't take long to get that way.
The stereo is nothing special, just the standard AM/FM CD/MP3 player. Sounds very good though. And the wife loves Adele thru it. God help me if I have to hear that CD one more time........
Anywho......The motor is willing in the auto version, but it just struggles to get up to speed in a spritely manner. It is a 1.5 after all. And only about 100 horse.
At 80 MPH she purrs right along and its sweet spot is between 70-80 MPH. With the wife, myself, the 12 year old, and a trunk stuffed with luggage, I managed to pull off 30MPG at 70-80 mph, on a motor with less then 1000k on it. I'll expect a little more once its broken in.

The handling is outstanding!! On ramps, and off ramps are nothing for this car to take at higher speeds. The inner city beat up Manhattan roads were handled with ease as well.
The noise level is "moderate" at HWY speeds, but thats all a matter of opinion and what you may already be used to.
The interior is very comfortable, the materials do not squeek, rattle or rub. I only wish is had a center armrest. But thats not critical. This vehicle is driven 99% in town in stop and go traffic. So this was one of its few opportunities in our ownership of it to take on the HWY over a long distance.
We hit a massive thunderstorm that lasted about 1/2 hour. Car handled very well. Good vision out of all windows, wipers are excellent, tire grip was excellent as well. No trouble there.
Manuvering thru Manhattan traffic was very easy with this vehicle as well.
The confidence level you feel while driving it is surprisingly good.

The only thing I fault it for is the fuel gauge. Its an LCD gauge and when it gets down to one "bar" its time to fill.
It holds approx 11.3 gallons. Yet I filled it up twice at the 1 bar, and it only took approx 7.5 gallons to fill it up.
Basically I still had a little less then 4 gal left.
I'll have to keep an eye on that and see if it self adjusts itself. But as with my other 2 Mazdas, the fuel gauge always tells you lies when it is "allegedly" low on fuel.

Any questions? Just ask.
Thanks.



That's an easy fix. Trade the wife in for an older one. Once they reach a certain age they get past that "I listen to the same song over and over again" thing.

Alternative solution:
Do the same thing. Maybe Drowning Pool's Bodies or The Bangles' A Hazy Shade of Winter would work?

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: bustednutz
With the wife, myself, the 12 year old, and a trunk stuffed with luggage, I managed to pull off 30MPG at 70-80 mph, on a motor with less then 1000k on it. I'll expect a little more once its broken in.

That's somewhat disappointing, regardless if broken in or not. What are the RPMs at around 75 mph?

FYI, my old E39 will get 30 mpg at 75 mph hwy cruising, fully loaded.

Quote:

But as with my other 2 Mazdas, the fuel gauge always tells you lies when it is "allegedly" low on fuel.

That's probably true for most cars. Even when the gauge is at "empty" (be it analog or digital) you still have some buffer left.

 

[Dave Hess]

Nice review, pictures would be even better.

I've seen a bunch on the road and they look great in the dark gray paint.

 

[daves87rs]

Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette
Nice review, pictures would be even better.

I've seen a bunch on the road and they look great in the dark gray paint.



Agreed.

 

[chubbs1]

Thank you for the write up. Sounds like a good car. I will have to write a review of the 2012 Charger SXT's soon...lol

 

[jigen]

Cool little write up. These write ups in the vehicles section are my favorite. I like seeing how people like or dislike their car with further updates too.

I really like the Mazda 2's. I test drove one and found it to be a very enjoyable drive even if it wasn't packing much of a punch. This car was pretty much widely criticized for only giving "so-so" fuel economy. Good thing is everything else about it is pretty above average and handling and fun factor is supposed to be way up there. Cool car for short trip, city driving.

 

[oilmaven]

Although this car has been praised for it's fun-to-drive qualities it seems to come up "short" in a lot of ways...particularly it's fuel economy. For it's size I'd expect better than the 30 mpg highway mileage reported here (albeit at higher speeds)...most mid-size and larger vehicles with twice the engine can beat that. With their critically acclaimed SkyActiv vehicles coming online this car needs some updates...particularly in the engine department. Of course there's the price....

 

[charbaby]

What is the EPA MPG rating(cty/hwy) on the Mazda2?
Only 30 mpg on the hiwy?
My '04 Altima 2.5S does that any day of the week w/170+HP(EPA 23/29)
My daughters '06 Mazda3 w/2.0 auto get that in the city w/145+HP.(EPA 27/34) This Mazda3 has gone over 40 mpg on the hiwy @ > 65mph

I have seen different Gov't MPG rating for this Mazda3(23/31)

 

[bustednutz]

We're talking about a fully loaded car with passengers, and a full trunk of luggage. Zipping at 80 mph! And managing to get 30 mpg! I think its time get realistic with the mpg expectations at that speed.
At 65 it would have easily done close to 40 mpg.

 

[KrisZ]

30mpg is definitely not great, but OP obviously did not drive to get the best MPG.
Also, this car's primary role is city driving, which is exactly what OP is using it for and that's where small cars shine, something that people often forget and only quote their best highway MPGs when ridiculing these small economy cars.

 

[hattaresguy]

That's not really that good for a little car, my friends 14 year old diesel E class will do better than that at 80. I think last time he drove to FL With 4 people in the car loaded down he was averaging 31-33ish.

 

[Quattro Pete]

KrisZ is right that this car's main purpose is to be an around-town/city car, and from that perspective it should deliver decent MPG, beating my E39 and most other larger/heavier cars with bigger engines. Still, you would hope for better than 30 MPG hwy, alas this small engine has to work hard to maintain high speed, so it's somewhat understandable.

 

[Smokescreen]

What does it get at 55mph? That will be closer to the speed EPA tested it at rather than 80 mph.

An M3 will get better fuel economy than a Prius at 80+ mph. Top Gear had a segment on that. A large low loafing RPM V6/V8 will get better than a screaming I-4...Gearing, efficiency at a given RPM/load all are important factors.

 

[rationull]

Originally Posted By: Smokescreen

An M3 will get better fuel economy than a Prius at 80+ mph. Top Gear had a segment on that. A large low loafing RPM V6/V8 will get better than a screaming I-4...Gearing, efficiency at a given RPM/load all are important factors.


I seriously doubt that. The Top Gear segment was, IIRC, a track comparison with the Prius driven all-out and the M3 tooling along behind it probably at 2/10 of its capability. A Prius should handily beat an M3 in MPG at an 80 mph cruise.

 

[dja4260]

I just drove a Mazda 2. The touring model for 14k and 0% for 60 months. While that is a killer price I like the Yaris so much more.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Still, you would hope for better than 30 MPG hwy, alas this small engine has to work hard to maintain high speed, so it's somewhat understandable.


This is the reason for the 30 mpg at 80 mph. In fact, I'd wager that this car could get similar or even better fuel economy around town, especially if it's a manual shift model. My '07 Corolla was that way. I got mid-to-upper 30s around town with it, and guess what, exactly 38 mpg on the interstate, too, bombing up I-95 at 75 mph.

Cars with larger engines tend to have higher spreads between city and highway economy. This just makes sense: the larger engines consume more fuel idling around town, and have taller gearing so that the engine can cruise easily at low engine speeds while on the interstate. Meanwhile, a car with a small engine consumes less fuel around town, but slurps it at a relatively high rate buzzing down the road, due to the load and gearing required to give the car an acceptable acceleration rate.

Our Acura (3.5L V-6 and 4,500 pounds of heft) averages upper teens in town and low-to-mid 20s on the road. That's an improvement of 41%, city to highway. Our Honda however (2.4L I-4 and 3,500 pounds) averages mid-20s in town and upper 20s on the road. That's a smaller improvement from city to highway, only about 10%.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Originally Posted By: Smokescreen
What does it get at 55mph? That will be closer to the speed EPA tested it at rather than 80 mph.


A 55 mph cruise is loosely what the "old" EPA ratings were based upon (applied to 2007 models and prior), and this is why the EPA received many complaints about its testing protocol: it wasn't realistic for real world driving. People couldn't achieve the ratings because they WERE driving 80 mph rather than 55 mph. The "new" EPA ratings (applied to 2008 models and later) reflect much higher rates of acceleration and higher speeds, and are supposed to more closely resemble the duty cycle on modern roads and in high speed traffic.

While 80 mph is a little fast, it's closer to representing how the EPA economy number that is on the car was achieved than a 55 mph cruise would be.

 

[sciphi]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
KrisZ is right that this car's main purpose is to be an around-town/city car, and from that perspective it should deliver decent MPG, beating my E39 and most other larger/heavier cars with bigger engines. Still, you would hope for better than 30 MPG hwy, alas this small engine has to work hard to maintain high speed, so it's somewhat understandable.


It's also a small hatchback designed to maximize space while minimizing exterior footprint. That design philosophy means it'll be a small brick, or the worst possible shape for highway travel. Add in a high final drive ratio to make it "peppy", and it's a recipe for poor highway fuel economy.

And, having a larger/heavier car with a smaller engine and much taller gearing that gets 20 mpg better on roadtrips, it's more about aerodynamics and gearing than it is about engine size for highway MPG.

 

[Dave Hess]

A 6 speed Vette will break 30 MPG on the highway.

Mazda 2 needs short gearing to make up for the small engine.