Miata Mailing List: September 1997, Message #10
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From: 	"Werner Cassel" <Cassel@post.med.uni-marburg.de>

Subject: Re: mileage was: 98 Miata- Finally!

Date: 	Mon, 1 Sep 1997 05:27:25 +0000



On 29 Aug 97 at 11:58, Keith Tanner wrote:



I'm not disputing that a higher top gear will help in fuel economy,

merely that the Probe makes an appropriate benchmark for expected fuel

economy.

........ssssnip ....

Some observations: During regular driving (some backroads, some 

Autobahn, some in-town), our Miata gets slightly better mileage than 

our 1.4 ton 6 cylinder BMW 320i Touring (station wagon), even though 

the Miata is driven far more aggressively.



On longer high speed trips (average > 100mph), the BMW gets clearly 

better mileage than the Miata. It does not have an overdrive 5th gear, 

and the gearing is not that much different from the Miata (it hits the 

rev limiter at indicated 6800 RPM at 140 mph). My guess is that Mazda 

has gone far more on the safe (rich) side of the mixture at high RPM 

and that the BMW has better aerodynamics.



FWIW, YMMV



Werner