Sport Automatic

[Jim Frye]

I am about to go order a 2003 P5 with an automatic. Don't panic, it's for my wife and she's not into a 5 speed manual anymore. I recently had a mid-year refreshed P5 auto as a rental on a business trip (asked for the downgrade from the Taurus SE) and had a ball flinging the little red wagon around the hills of White Plains, NY. Has anyone had the new automatic transaxle for very long? I found the downshifting was really, really slow. You had to aticipate the shift and flick the shifter a second or two before you actually wanted the shift. Jim

 

[dficken]

I have a 2002.5 with the sport shift. I never had to wait a second or 2 for the downshift. I would say max, a 1/2 second but i would lean towards a 1/4 sec. I do admit theres a tiny bit of lag but you get used to it pretty quickly. I had more problems with getting on it and upshifting from 1st to 2nd. Sometimes i don;t think i slap it hard enough and it doesn't seem to go into second. We I see this I try it again and pay more attention to my actions. Of course then, everything works fine. So I am not sure if its me or not. I will have to do more research. I got about 16oo miles on my car now and I recently changed the oil. So I can get on it good now. Either way, its the "Best" Automatic I have owned. Plus you don't "have" to slide it into manual mode. I agree the stick is better off the line... but rush hour with the sport auto is nice.

No I just gotta figure out why I am getting a constant 22 mpg with a combo of city and hwy driving. I am not a ruff driver either.

 

[jcnuke]

I have had the system for a month. after about 1k miles, i love it.
the system is relatively quick and easy to use. After talking to a few owners, it seems the gas mileage is less than the regular auto and the stick. This makes sense, since this is only a 4 spd and the stick gives you a gear with a ratio of < 1 to help fuel economy.

 

[ZoomZoomH]

it seems the gas mileage is less than the regular auto and the stick. This makes sense, since this is only a 4 spd and the stick gives you a gear with a ratio of < 1 to help fuel economy.

actually the 4th (overdrive) gear on the automatic is a lot taller than the 5th in manual (0.725 vs 0.755 I think...)

here are the gear ratios for the manual and auto, as shown from MazdaUSA:

Manual:

1st 3.307
2nd 1.842
3rd 1.310
4th 0.97
5th 0.755

Automatic (sportshift and regular auto)

1st 2.816
2nd 1.497
3rd 1.000
4th 0.725

basically the real power/gas mileage killer is not the gearing, it has been, and will always be, that DAMN TORQUE CONVERTER!!! :mad:

 

[dficken]

So for anyone else with the sport AT, what has your gas milage been? I have been getting a consistant 22-23 miles per gallon. This is city/highway driving and not driving it hard. I have heard that people get crappy milage during the breakin period but i didn't think it would be that bad. Plus I know thw auto has a bit to do with it... but again, i didn't think it would be that bad.

Anyway, If I can get some other numbers from Sport AT owners, it would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Dale.

 

[ZoomZoomH]

FWIW, I have the standard AT, and got really crappy MPG (22-23mpg) in mixed driving for the first 3000 miles or so. I wasn't until after 3000 that my mileage finally begin to resemble EPA estimates of 24 city/29 hwy.....

 

[dficken]

Thanks for the info!