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We traded my former Focus SVT for a Mazda3 5-door. Duratec 23 and automatic. Anybody have any results short-shifting using that fake manual mode vs. a light foot and letting the tranny do its thing?

oooh! Nice trade, except for the auto. Try and shift it as early / low as possible. It's probably got a limit on how low it'll allow. Can you report this to the group?

I haven't noticed a big difference with the manual shift. You can 'train' the ecu to shift like you want. What year did you end up with? 4 speed or 5 speed auto?

Well, it's my Mom's car, so I don't get to fill up and measure, nor have I even been able to calibrate the ScanGauge I have in it. I do drive it now and then, so at least when I drive I'd like to be able to do better. I've tried it both ways and haven't noticed a huge difference in the ScanGauge's MPG, but when I let the tranny do its thing it shifts at 2000-2200rpm where in manual mode I can short it to shift around 1600-1800 or so.

It's an '06, 5-speed auto. I'd rather have gotten stick, too, but my Ma can't drive a manual. That's the reason we traded the Focus off, it had a 6-speed.

I have an 05, so it's a 2.3 with the 4 spd auto. It's not very efficient... I'll tell you that much.
I do really like the rest of the car though, just scorn that particular transmission.

As for sport shifting vs. letting the car do its thing and driving conservatively... I've found that just letting the tranny shift on it's own is a bit more efficient than using the crappy sport shifter. That wanna-be manual auto shifter is kind of a joke.

I have an 05 Mazda6 with manual tranny but I am driving my wife's Pacifica with the shiftable autotrany.

Yes the Pacifica is a big gas hog but here is what I have learned using SG2 and shifting this automatic when I want to shift.

The Pacifica delays shifting up until you reach about 2300 rpm from 1st to second. It does the same for 2nd to 3rd. It does not shift up into 4th gear until you reach about 40 mph. In the automatic mode the best I MPG can get on my combined type commute is 16 mpg. This is about 30 twenty mile trips back and forth to work.

The auto mode it is set up to race from stop light to stoplight giving you bad mpg. I can feather the throttle but it will not shift up and stay up in higher gears. If I do a P&G in automatic the darn thing will shift down from 4th to 3rd and spoil my glide. If I try to pulse up the thing will down shift and spoil my pulse. (It takes very little throttle to make it drop out of 4th gear OD and into 3rd gear. ( 27 mpg to 16 mpg for example)

When shifting the auto manually I can move to second gear very quickly, almost instantly. I can up shift into 3rd around 20 mph. If I feather the throttle, reduce the engine LOD I can shift up into 4th around 25 mph. My best mpg when manualy shifting has been 23 mpg over the same 20 mile trips.

Using the SG2 I have found that I can lug the engine if I shift up too soon. I can watch the SG2 instant mpg drop and LOD go up. If I down shift I can increase mpg until LOD on engine is lower. I then shift up.

My point is you need to play around and see what the Mazda tranny does. I have found a benifit to shifting the Pacifica manualy. But I have also learned that you must be carefull not to lug the engine.

I have a mazda 3 with the 2.3 and think having auto shift is great for acceleration , you really seem to have to shift fast to do what the car does automatically.
But when coasting in Drive the car will shift down , In manual shift you can stay in a higher gear and get better coasting average.
Guess you have to try both on your normal trip and see what averages out better.

Yea, I have a 2008.5 (April and later) 2.3 s Sedan with the 5Speed auto. When accelerating, I recommend letting the tranny do the work, but while coasting between 30 and 40, the auto tends to keep shifting between 4 and 5 around 35mph. When it downshifts, you can definately feel it at 35mph, like someone dropped the anchor on your car.

So shift up at 30, bring back to auto or shift down when accelerating (this is important to not overtorque), and remember to switch back to auto at a stop (I've revved high in 1st a few times when I first got the car, because I forgot I was still in manual mode).

I highly recommend this when coasting on suburban roads with pre-highway speeds. If hills are steep, stay in auto going up them.

The shifter, which is just an exagerated electronic gear switch, allows for easy change between manual and fully automatic while the car is in any gear. It baby's you too, like if you slow down past 20, it will start downshifting to prevent stall if you leave it in manual.

Anyone else shifting to neutral when coming up to lights or elsewhere with the 3? I do at low speeds for a longer glide. If you shift back to drive right before stopping it seems to ease back into gear with a smooth transition. At higher speeds a little rev matching helps.

Also, has anyone else swiched to mobil one or other synthetic transmission fluid? I switched at 30k miles and noticed smoother shifts from 1st to 2nd, but no noticable increase in FE.

I've tried switching to N in highway speeds, but when brought back to drive, it goes into 4th instead of 5th gear, so I stopped doing that. I haven't tried lower speeds. Let me know how that goes if you try it.

I think you'll probably get smoother shifts just by regularly changing the fluid, period.

Anybody know if this car has DFCO? It almost seems to...

Anyhow, a few observations:
It's very well done for what it is. I can easily put together a 28mpg tank on my commutes, a number which required considerable concentration in my old Focus. It's relatively heavy at around 2900lbs running a large engine for an economy car, and backed up by a slushbox, so I think it's quite respectable. My parents usually get around 26, again respectable for the lack of care they put into mileage. It gets slaughtered on the highway though, turning in only around 31 no matter what I try.

I have also found that I get better mileage when I coast with the trans in gear, hence why I suspected DFCO.

The trans WILL go to 4th from neutral, that's just how it is, unless you're at a lower speed. Assuming you're in 5th gear already, it will do the same if you switch from sport mode to D WITHOUT being on the gas. Otherwise it will remain in 5th.

DFCO is above about 1100 rpm on the mazda 3 with the 5 speed auto. You can use the instantaneous mileage reading on the onboard mileage computer to see when you enter and exit dfco. A reading of 99.9 usually means you're not burning any fuel. If you slow down on the highway you should be able to get better mileage. A speed of about 64, or just under 2500 rpm seems to be a good compromise speed for mileage versus traffic flow. Again, use the onboard instant mileage or a scangauge to get the ideal speed.

Lately I've been using the 'manual/sport' mode more often. This will actually let you enter 5th gear at around 25 mph. It will actually glide easier in this mode than D at around 20-40 mph.

OK that makes sense. I have the ScanGauge hooked up in the Mazda since I no longer have a car of my own to use it on, and got readouts of over 200mpg when in gear and coasting. I've never had DFCO before, so I wasn't sure if I should trust the SGII to pick it up.

As to highway, I've tried pretty much every speed from 55 to 65, with little difference...we don't really do enough pure highway driving though for me to do much experimentation though.