Given how cold this year’s spring has been, the Mazda 6 has been at an early disadvantage when it comes to fuel consumption.
The freezing mornings have meant I’ve been making full use of the fast-to-activate heated seats (remember: power use equals fuel use) and the first run of the day to drop my youngest at nursery has inevitably been made only after fully de-icing the car, during which time I do leave the engine running.
Sorry, but it’s just easier that way. As a result our average fuel figure is ‘only’ 48.4mpg, rather than closer to the official 64.2mpg.
However, I have seen my first tankful above 50mpg thanks to a few long and steady motorway runs, but even then I noticed that it took a good hour or so for the real-time fuel read-out to start showing higher figures.
All this (plus the excellent stop/start system) means I’m hopeful the average mpg can only improve as we put more miles on the car.
And let’s hope, that as the weather finally begins to warm up, I can concentrate more on fuel efficiency and less on my own thermal efficiency.
