John McGaw wrote:
> I suspect that no reasonable person would consider a new MX-5 to be an
> economy car or give the fuel economy a huge role in the decision to buy
> one but I thought that this might be of interest. Immediately after
> getting my "break in" miles put in on my '06 Sport with handling option
> done I drove up to Pennsylvania to visit my mother over Easter. The
> mileage between here and there is virtually all interstate -- just short
> of 500 FWIW.
>
> I knew what sort of economy my '91 Miata had consistently achieved on
> the same trip and expected the new one to get just a bit worse or, with
> luck, to achieve the same. Here is what happened on four fillups that
> were on the interstate mostly at 70-75 under cruise control: 32.0, 33.9,
> 35.1, and 32.7 MPG. I was truly shocked by those results but calculation
> of the overall consumption since delivery, including 1,800 miles of
> city, suburban, and interstate driving shows that it has been getting
> 30.7 MPG. I realize that the four interstate legs might be skewed by the
> imprecision of how consistently I was able to fill the tank each time
> but the overall figure should be relatively accurate.
>
> BTW: the interstate miles were done with 30psi in the Michelin tires
> rather than the recommended 29psi but I don't know how much that might
> have affected the economy.
I've been getting anywhere from 24 to 28 mpg with my 2006 MX-5. I get
the 24 if almost all driving is stop/go and 28 if about 1/3 of the
driving is cruising on the interstate.