The longer we have this car, the happier I am with it. We’ve traveled with 6 people a number of times, hauled quite a few big loads and taken a few trips. It’s pretty well broken-in now, so I think we’ve got a pretty good idea of it’s fuel economy. We drive pretty aggressively around town, so we’re seeing about 22mpg, which I don’t think is all that bad.
On the highway is where the car shines. On our recent trip to Indianapolis (200 miles one way) we got two good data points. On the first tank, which was 200 miles on the interstate and about 60-70 miles around town, we got 29.5mpg (measured by filling the tank, not using a mileage computer). For the return trip, I filled up right before leaving and as soon as we arrived, for a pure highway tank. This tank showed 33mpg! Not bad for a 6-seater!
While I’m at it, I might as well share my records for my previous vehicles for comparison purposes. The first number is the overall mileage and the second is the best tank reported. All models are automatic transmission except where noted.
- 2000 Dodge Dakota Club Cab 2WD 3.9L V6: 15.48/20.85
- 2001 Saturn SL1 1.9L SOHC 4cyl: 28.67/39.49
- 2003 MINI Cooper 1.6L 4cyl with 5spd manual: 27.36/31.84
- 2004 Dodge Dakota Club Cab 4WD 3.7L V6: 14.57/18.19
- 2004 Honda CR-V FWD 2.4L 4cyl: 22.70/26.92
- 2005 Dodge Dakota Quad Cab 4WD 4.7L V8 (current): 13.27/15.50
- 2006 Mazda Mazda5 2.3L 4cyl (current): 23.05/32.95
It worth noting that the current truck almost never sees any highway miles unless it’s towing the camper, and it hasn’t even had its first oil change yet. I hope that one improves! It’s also interesting that the Mazda5 had a 33mpg tank whereas the Mini never saw 32mpg… It’s also outpacing the CR-V, but I doubt anything will top the old Saturn! My sister drives that car now. And yes, for the record, I’m aware that we trade cars too often.
For several months now, there’s been a very irritating poster near the door at work. It was created by the Peoria Area Chamber of Commerce to promote pedestrian safety. Every day it takes all my restraint not to provide a scathing commentary on it with a magic marker. It reads:
There are many ways to be a hero… Yield to pedestrians.
So, if you want to be a hero, you can run into a burning building, donate a kidney, or pass up an opportunity to mow down a jaywalker. Hmm… I guess that makes me a hero 4 out of 5 days last week.
On a happier subject, we took a trip to Indianapolis last weekend. On saturday we took Evan to the zoo, which turned out to not be a very good plan. He mostly just wanted to get down and run around, which he couldn’t do. He started having a good time when we took him to the playground in the zoo. He played on the jungle gym and in the water fountains. He did somewhat enjoy looking at the animals. Everything he saw he called a duck, dog, kitty cat, or fish. Usually he wasn’t too far off. The first three he can say, but anytime he saw an animal behind glass he made the “fishie face” with his mouth.
On sunday we took him to the Children’s Museum. He had a pretty good time there. He obviously wasn’t real big on just looking at stuff, but the Playscapes area was a big hit. He got to play with a water table, with a sand box, etc. Mostly, he enjoyed just running around (not surprisingly). He spent a good portion of his time pushing around a plastic lawnmower or chasing after the kid who took it from him. I have some cute video clips I’ll try to post some time.
Indianapolis seems like a neat city. We drove around a bit, got a glimpse of qualifying at the speedway, grabbed a geocache, and found Bob and Tom’s studio. You can see photos from the trip, and new photos of Evan, on the photos page.
About a week ago our big orange cat, Tang, jumped up on our lap while we we were watching a movie. I went to pet him and jumped - he had a large lump on his right hind leg. It hadn’t been there for long, since gets lots of attention, and we would have noticed that. We took him to the vet the next day and they checked him out. Their tests showed it was just a bruise, so they scheduled him to come back in a week to make sure the swelling had gone down.
Today was his follow up. The senior vet took a look at him, did some tests, and found a tumor underneath the bruise. They gave him a sad diagnosis: cancer, fibrosarcoma to be specific. Fibrosarcoma is very rare and vets are are starting to associate it with some vaccinations given. The reason why many vaccinations are now given in the leg is that, in the case of cancer, they can amputate the leg, since surgically removing the tumor requires a very wide margin around the tumor. That’s what the vets recommended, and they didn’t share a prognosis. Unfortunately, most of what we’ve read online doesn’t look good, even with treatment. He’s lost almost two pounds since his last vet visit in November (but he’s a hefty kitty to begin with), but he got a clean bill of health in November, and he’s been acting fine. I’m expecting a call from the senior vet tomorrow morning so I can ask a few more questions.
Tang’s going on seven years old- we rescued him from the pound back in 1999. He’s been a very important part of our family for a long time, and it’s pretty sad in this household right now…
We’d appreciate some good wishes and prayers for our poor kitty. We’re trying to maintain a positive outlook and giving him all the attention he wants (and even a little steak from dinner tonight). I’ll likely be using this blog as a distraction to help get my mind off the sadness.
I don’t normally blog during working hours, but this is a special exception. Our home internet (along with that of some of my co-workers) has been down since Sunday, thanks to Insight Communications having problems with some upgrades. Unfortunately, that means our home phone is also out of commission (voice over IP).
I’d like to say we’ve been more productive around the house, but we’ve just found alternate ways to waste time…
This morning Dusty and Evan planned to run some errands and visit a couple of yard sales. At around 10am, she called me at work and said she had a flat tire. She was about 10 miles away northwest of town. Though I’m sure she could have managed herself, I left work to help.
When I got there, we moved the spoils of her shopping spree into my truck, got to the spare, and changed the tire. Unfortunately, it wasn’t just a small nail hole that caused the flat, but rather an irreparable 3 inch gash in the tread of the tire. I gave Dusty my truck so she could finish her errands and I took her car, complete with the fashionable bright yellow temporary spare. We grabbed some quick lunch and went our separate ways.
When I was just about back to work, my phone rang. Dusty was stranded again. This time out of gas. That’s my fault, really, since I had intended to put gas in the truck on the way home from work. My little unplanned rescue mission apparently left her about 4 miles of gas 
I turned around, stopped at a gas station, bought a gas can, and took her a couple of gallons. To the best of my memory, that’s the first time since high school that my vehicle has run out of gas…
There’s good news and bad news to the way things turned out. On the down side, I’m out $180 for a new tire (thanks to Mazda’s “zoom zoom!” factor). Thankfully, though, the truck ran out of gas when it did. We would have been in much bigger trouble had I run out of gas before meeting her to change the tire… It’s still a bit amusing that despite our tendency to keep new, reliable vehicles, my wife gets stranded with car trouble… twice… in one hour… in two different vehicles…
A couple of weeks ago, when starting a project, I discovered that one of my batteries for my 18V Dewalt cordless drill didn’t work. It wouldn’t make the drill even flinch and there was no voltage at all across the terminals. No problem, I’ll charge it. When I put it in the charger, the blinking light reported that the battery pack was “dead” and charger wasn’t going to attempt to charge it. Since a new battery costs $80, I figured I’d investigate.
I took the battery pack apart, hoping that one cell had gone bad and that I could replace it. I discovered that there weren’t any shorted or open cells. After reading a few discussions on usenet and on a hunch, I thought that maybe the charger was just being overly conservative in not charging the battery due to its low voltage.
Ok, first a disclaimer: don’t try this at home. If you blow anything up or catch yourself on fire, it’s your own fault. I took my fully charged good battery and my “dead” battery. I took a couple of short wires and temporarily attached the positive terminals to each other and likewise with the negative terminals. I let it sit that way for about a half a minute, closely monitoring the temperature on both batteries. After disconnecting them, I checked the “dead” battery, and it showed a couple of volts across the terminals! Woo hoo! I put the battery back on the charger- this time it worked! I’ve run through a couple of cycles now, and the battery performs just well as the “good” battery! I theorize that my hunch was true, but all I know is works now!
Mazda5 real world gas mileage
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