a prayer for the Sport mode

[Chibana]

Tempt me not into Sport mode,
For it taketh away the fuel efficiency.
Most rapidly does the number drop
When my hand strays to the button.

Lord, help me to not give in
To the temptation of the Soul Red devil,
Urging me to spin the tires and shift with alacrity
While the throttle snaps open so rapidly.

 

[TerryFrench]

Fully agree. Fuel efficiency goes through the window when the fun starts.

 

[Poco Askew]

...must...not...push...

 

[ceric]

A speeding soul red? Perfect candidate for a speeding ticket. Watch out!

 

[Chibana]

A speeding soul red? Perfect candidate for a speeding ticket. Watch out!

I'm more worried about that in my RX-8!

I like to accelerate hard in my 3, but the RX-8 is the one that might get me in real trouble some day.

 

[LennyR]

I'm more worried about that in my RX-8!

I like to accelerate hard in my 3, but the RX-8 is the one that might get me in real trouble some day.

I don't have a Mazda 3 yet, but the car that can get me in trouble real fast is my very red Mazdaspeed Miata, which is tricked out to about 225 hp, with gobs of torque. No tickets yet (knock on wood...), but I have seriously scared myself a couple of times by injudicious application of power coming out of a corner.

 

[Chris_Top_Her]

 

[georose]

My one criticism of sport mode is that I must manually upshift to the next gear after reaching a steady speed. For normal driving it is of little use. It is great when enjoying the twisty curves especially when going up or downhill.

 

[Chibana]

I've been driving exclusively in Sport-Manual mode for all driving except highway cruising and loving it. Makes for a much more enjoyable and engaging drive, and I've seen no significant drop in my fuel efficiency numbers in my spreadsheet.

 

[concept]

I don't have a Mazda 3 yet, but the car that can get me in trouble real fast is my very red Mazdaspeed Miata, which is tricked out to about 225 hp, with gobs of torque. No tickets yet (knock on wood...), but I have seriously scared myself a couple of times by injudicious application of power coming out of a corner.

For a 1 week period of time when my Corvette's EBCM was being repaired, I almost spun down a very steep embankment. Without a functioning Electronic Body Control Module (ABS, stability control, and traction control), 400 lbs-ft of torque will get you in trouble, very quickly.
Now that the Corvette has been sold, I'm thinking about an electric supercharger for the MX5. However, I may have to treat it with kid gloves, as the MX5 has no stability control.

 

[concept]

I've been driving exclusively in Sport-Manual mode for all driving except highway cruising and loving it. Makes for a much more enjoyable and engaging drive, and I've seen no significant drop in my fuel efficiency numbers in my spreadsheet.

Wait, what? You just mentioned in your prayer regarding using sport mode:

For it taketh away the fuel efficiency.

Does it or does it not reduce fuel efficiency?(dunno)

 

[Chibana]

Yeah, when I was using normal D mode around town, if I changed to Sport mode, it was to have fun. Now I just use Sport-Manual mode to get it to be more like the real manual transmission cars that I've always loved and owned. You can still drive reasonably and fuel-efficiently in Sport-Manual mode, but the throttle response is still a heck of a lot better. I'll have to calculate averages in the spreadsheet to see if there has been a small drop that just isn't obvious just looking at the numbers.

EDIT: I just performed the calculation using the spreadsheet functions on the raw data; i.e., I calculated averages based on odometer miles and total gallons put into the tank, not by averaging the calculated fuel efficiency of each row. I was surprised to find this:

Average up to when I started using Sport-Manual mode all the time: 32.4mpg
Average after that: 33.9mpg

I'm guessing that the increase is due to engine and transmission break-in, but it's still interesting that my fuel efficiency did not drop using Sport-Manual mode for all non-expressway driving. Actually, it just occurred to me that the "Sport-Mode" average also includes the 6,035 mile trip my son and I took out west to various national parks, which would probably have driven the average up (although some days I got dismal gas mileage due to the mountainous driving).

Second EDIT: The average for just the trip was 34.0mpg. The average of Sport-Manual fuel efficiency before leaving on the trip was 32.3mpg. So perhaps I dropped 0.1mpg using Sport-Manual mode.

FYI: I drive a lot of miles, so I have a large number of fill-ups for pretty reliable numbers.

 

[concept]

I think the mileage would depend upon the engine speed at which you shift, whether it be in manual or auto mode. Once I get a Magnaflow exhaust system, I will probably use the manual mode, more often

But yes, you are getting great mileage, as I'm sure I am. Congrats.