Mazda & SkyActive Videos

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All,

Stumbled upon these videos about the SkyActive-G and X engines mainly presented by their Manager of R&D. -Found them very interesting.

G Series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3yqb22fTwE

X Series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD1mPPkuRIE

Lot's of general Mazda info: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF6ek7dWy48qI_b0a29V9qvNZ9Zyf-5ni

In 2006, I purchased a new Mazda 6, liked it a lot and have purchased a few more new ones. Really enjoying the 2018 Mazda 3 and am getting ready to do the first oil change in a few weeks.

Enjoy...

Ray
 
They are indeed great cars. The divorce from Ford has spurred their revival, hence the SkyActiv initiative. Everything is totally new.

Now with the financial backing of Toyota I hope they continue their success.
 
I have one of the first US model years, a 2012 Mazda3. Excellent fuel economy, surprisingly sporty driving, and ultra reliable as well. I'm at 94K miles without issue. One of my coworkers bought the same car and is at 160K miles with no issues, special DI engine care, or transmission problems. Maybe that's typical, what do I know? My prior car was a 1989 Accord driven from 1989 to 2012.
 
I too am a fairly new owner of a 2018 Mazda 3 2.5 hatch. I bought a 2002 Mazda protege back in high school, fell in love and have really been bored by most anything not a Mazda or rear wheel drive ever since. Mazda just does something with a car that I haven't had the feeling of from any other.
 
Originally Posted by mazdamonky
I too am a fairly new owner of a 2018 Mazda 3 2.5 hatch. I bought a 2002 Mazda protege back in high school, fell in love and have really been bored by most anything not a Mazda or rear wheel drive ever since. Mazda just does something with a car that I haven't had the feeling of from any other.

Is your new Mazda3 auto or manual transmission ?

I was considering a Grand Touring Mazda3 with manual transmission and soul red paint job.
 
I'm not new to Mazda either. My first was a new 2007 Mazda 6 Sport Touring. It's a 2.3L with a 5sp manual. My wife is the primary driver and it's got 130k miles. I do the routine maintenance and we had a tune-up done at 80k miles. The only problem it's ever had was a failed O2 sensor at/about 100k miles that caused the engine light go on/off once in a while. Cost $200 to have a local shop deal with it. Nice tight steering, tight yet comfortable ride, gets very good fuel mileage. It's holding-up mechanically just fine and style is holding strong. Still looks like a brand new car and doesn't look outdated.

Also bought a new 2009 Mazda 6, 2.5L with 6sp manual. Loved it but, after nearly 5 years, it was stolen and totaled. It had about 68k completely trouble-free miles at the time of it's demise.

Now, I have the 2018 Mazda 3 Hatchback which is now 2.5 months old and has 2200 miles. I like this car a lot. Fun to drive, comfortable, fantastic mileage. On a 250 mile road trip to the Eastern Shore, it gave me 40 MPG with the AC on both ways. On my normal commute, it's giving me 35 MPG.

... Those SkyActive-X engines seem pretty keen. I hope that works-out for them.

Ray
 
Originally Posted by Mr Nice
Originally Posted by mazdamonky
I too am a fairly new owner of a 2018 Mazda 3 2.5 hatch. I bought a 2002 Mazda protege back in high school, fell in love and have really been bored by most anything not a Mazda or rear wheel drive ever since. Mazda just does something with a car that I haven't had the feeling of from any other.

Is your new Mazda3 auto or manual transmission ?

I was considering a Grand Touring Mazda3 with manual transmission and soul red paint job.






The manual is usually on the base models. I would check.
 
Originally Posted by PimTac
Originally Posted by Mr Nice
Originally Posted by mazdamonky
I too am a fairly new owner of a 2018 Mazda 3 2.5 hatch. I bought a 2002 Mazda protege back in high school, fell in love and have really been bored by most anything not a Mazda or rear wheel drive ever since. Mazda just does something with a car that I haven't had the feeling of from any other.

Is your new Mazda3 auto or manual transmission ?

I was considering a Grand Touring Mazda3 with manual transmission and soul red paint job.






The manual is usually on the base models. I would check.

You can get a grand touring 3 with manual. You can't on the 6.thats why I had to settle on a touring. Still makes me mad to think about.
 
For this latest Mazda, I went with the Automatic. I have to say, it is really nice. It has a Sport mode and the shift-points are very pleasing and intuitive -also very smooth. This trans has a unique feature whereby it has a torque converter and a clutch. The torque converter is used mainly to start moving and for the rest of the gears, brings the drive gears up to speed before the clutch locks the engine to the drive gears. When coasting down from higher speeds, you can feel it down-shifting and the down-shifts happen exactly where I would do them if it was a manual trans. LOL: If I didn't know better, I'd swear that sometimes, it feels like it's reading your mind. It requires no servicing and the fluid is considered "lifetime" fluid. You can also manually control shifting if you want by slap-sticking the shifter. The Grand Touring has paddles.

I Test drove the manual. It was good -just like all my other Mazda manuals. I went with the Automatic because one of my remote offices is just off the DC beltway and on the days I need to go there (only a few times per month) it's 1hr, 45min (25 miles) of pure frustration.
 
I agree. It is very intuitive. The programming that Mazda has in this transmission is really something.

I like to use the tiptronic shifting on a long hill that is close to the house. It has plenty of curves. I can wind the motor up as well.
 
Originally Posted by DBMaster
I have one of the first US model years, a 2012 Mazda3. Excellent fuel economy, surprisingly sporty driving, and ultra reliable as well. I'm at 94K miles without issue. One of my coworkers bought the same car and is at 160K miles with no issues, special DI engine care, or transmission problems. Maybe that's typical, what do I know? My prior car was a 1989 Accord driven from 1989 to 2012.


^^^^Exactly^^^^

My wife has a 2012 Mazda 3 Skyactive that we bought used in 2014 with 26,000 miles on it, it now has 70,000 miles never an issue, except one.
The dashboard slightly separated above the info/clock.radio display just last year and of course the car was long out of warranty.

Well guess what? (this is REALLY impressive)
Its a known possible issue on the car and Mazda installed a new dashboard at no charge. Zip, didnt have to lay out a penny, brand new dashboard and we werent the original owner.

They now have earned a customer for life as far as I am concerned and I have to tell you, I agree 100% this is some "sporty" driving feeling car, just plain fun.
Also love the idea that this engine is the highest compression mass produced engine in the world and runs on regular gas, now that is impressive too!
 
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Do a YT search for Motoman Mazda and you will come across a bunch of very good videos.

Dave Coleman is a bit hard to follow as he talks but obviously he is a great mind and passionate about engineering.
 
Originally Posted by Mr Nice
Originally Posted by mazdamonky
I too am a fairly new owner of a 2018 Mazda 3 2.5 hatch. I bought a 2002 Mazda protege back in high school, fell in love and have really been bored by most anything not a Mazda or rear wheel drive ever since. Mazda just does something with a car that I haven't had the feeling of from any other.

Is your new Mazda3 auto or manual transmission ?

I was considering a Grand Touring Mazda3 with manual transmission and soul red paint job.



Mine is the Soul Red too and it's a wonderful color that changes shade in different lighting conditions.

The Grand Touring is available with a Manual Transmission. I test drove one and came close to buying it but, A) it was not Soul Red and B) it also came with one feature that did not appeal to me. It has the automatic lane guidance system (which can be turned-off) that changes the sensation of steering response when start to cross-over lane markings when your turn signal is not on. It's basically a way to tell you you're drifting out of lane. It comes with the adaptive cruise control which I like but, Soul Red was on the "must have" list.

The manual transmission is fine. It's tight with short throws. The pedals are not adjustable but I found them to be just fine for me.

Ray
 
Good Info. Thanks
thumbsup2.gif
 
Originally Posted by PimTac
I agree. It is very intuitive. The programming that Mazda has in this transmission is really something.

I like to use the tiptronic shifting on a long hill that is close to the house. It has plenty of curves. I can wind the motor up as well.

All reviews of auto trans in the Mazda3, Mazda6, CX-3 and CX-5 are all positive from many different YouTube reviewers.

90% of Mazda3 GT has auto trans, but you can indeed find them with manual trans. The GT that we test drove had Parchment colored interior and was a deal breaker for us..... gets dirty way too easily especially with the dogs. The Mazda3 will replace an RSX.
 
I just got 38 mpg over 400 miles in one day in my 2014 manual 2.0 hatch.
 
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On that LDW, (lane departure) you can turn it off in settings. On my CX5 I have it set so that the audio warning is off, intervention is off but the visual is on. The visual shows up in my heads up display.

I didn't care for all the bells and whistles going off every time I drifted. With all the construction in our area plus avoiding obstacles the intervention would try to correct what I was doing.

The settings are via the main nav screen.
 
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