well it's kinda bad when your garage queen gets better mileage than your daily driver, highly modded 98 camaro z28 that gets about 25-30 mpg...gotta love 6th gear.
you say the shifter is hot? i know that when i have my lights on the panel with PRND gets hot because of the lights in it heating it up.
your tranny will sometimes feel like you just been tapped from behind
just about everyone's brakes squeak, i'm sure you will notice that you will have to...
check your air cabin filter, but there is also a problem with the coolant resevour (sp?) that causes a bad odor...here is a fix for it
http://www.mazda6tech.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=34&Itemid=49