^That's pretty disappointing for a car that size.

But $15k isn't bad either.

 

The Mazda2 is kinda unique. It's pretty much as stripped down as you could get of a car in 2011-2015; it resembles a CRX way more than the CR-Z ever would.

It's 2306lbs, the handling is significantly better than you'd think, it has side curtain airbags and a primitive traction control/ABS, the 1.5L L-series motor is pretty dumb and simple (and slow). It doesn't like going 80mph, but it will, and it'll happy hum along all day at 60mph. There's nothing fancy going on with it; it's just straight up parts bin for everything on the car and there's no wizardry going on for the fuel efficiency; it's a 2300lb car with a 100hp 1.5L motor mated up to a surprisingly good 5-speed. It's extremely difficult to get under 30mpg in the car, and it's not hard to beat the 29/35/32 EPA rating.

Mazda got infinitely more clever with the ND (and rest of the Skyactiv line) when you consider stuff like the 2.866 final drive and the 1:1 6th gear. The cam phasing is significantly more robust than their earlier efforts.

 

Seems like with a small Skyactiv and some aero tweaks would easily get it north of 50mpg??

Then it would make sense.

 

They haven't bought the skyactiv 2 to the US yet, hopefully it is a little better at everything. The 2011-2016 version was really fun to drive hard in a city and tolerable to drive on the highway.

 

I would have loved for a Skyactiv or a diesel in the Mazda2. Unfortunately those never showed up in the US Mazda2.

 

The Scion iA is rated for 33 city, 42 highway.

Looks like they put it on 16x5.5 wheels (vs 15x6 on the Mazda2) and it still has drums in the rear. The manual is 2385lbs.

e: compression is 12:1, so I'm curious if Toyota just dropped in their motor and are just having Mazda build the chassis at their Mexico plant.
e2: quick wikipedia check of toyota motors makes it look like the Scion iA is using an NR motor
e3: it might be using a SkyActiv 1.5L, but I don't see any with 12:1 (so confused)

 

Not really. Besides the miata shape that micro car shape is the worst for aero. The 6 gets better highway mileage because it has a trunk.

 

rarely do I agree with Leafy.
but he's absolutely right.

 

our lexus ct200h is a great example: literally same car as a prius, chassis, engine, etc, but 400lb heavier because lexus, and good looking therefore way less aerodynamic, because lexus.

on average gets 5-10mpg worse than a prius

 

It's a skyactiv 1.5. It's literally a Mazda2 with a horribly ugly scion face. And not available in a hatchback .

 

I want this mazda2 'in black plz...



Or wait for a 2017 ND

 

I know WHY it doesn't you troglodytes. I'm just saying I couldn't bring myself to buy something so tiny that gets such poor mpg.

Maybe if I lived in Europe and needed a tiny car, but not in 'Murica!

 

finally this thread has gone to the discussion it truly deserves.

 

What's the MT ND count up to?

Emilio has one
ThePass has access to one
Moti has bad touched a few
I bought one

 

So . . . 4? Or is that actually 2.5?

 

We have two here, owned of course by Brian Goodwin. Sean (Lincoln Logs on here) and myself both work here, so count 2 cars for the three of us.

I wish I had my own but at least I get to play with them

 

Drop almost 8lbs with OEM calipers

 

FM has two... So I'll have access to those starting next month.

 

I'm done. I would have never thought this would be the silver bullet.

 

Too bad that Mazda don't race this engine so the true potential could be seen (e.g. improvement over all-in MRZ/Duratec).