2012 Mazda MAZDA3: SEMA Trip Fuel Economy
November 01, 2012
Driving to the SEMA show in Las Vegas from Los Angeles involves an interminably boring, soul-crushing slog through the desert up I-15. It's a tedious drive, but at least you can make some time.
That is, you can make time in the places where road construction hadn't cut the freeway from three lanes down to one, adding an hour to the trip. Argh. Otherwise, cruising speeds on the open sections of the trip were between 80-85.
I took our longterm 2012 Mazda 3. Here's the fuel economy result.
31.7 mpg
Naturally, this result is far cry from its 39 mpg window sticker highway rating, but not entirely unexpected given the elevated cruising speed of this particular trip (recall the average speed of the EPA highway cycle is something like 48 mph).
Jason Kavanagh, Engineering Editor
