The As Yet Un-named Mazda 3

Given theres 4 years between the best & last figure (to the day as it happens) I'm very happy with that. She's clearly still in very good health, especially considering the "best" figure was attained on a slow run to Scotland in 2015 and is only the average of 180 miles. Today's figure includes some round the doors and getting stuck in traffic over 370 miles and a lot of time at 70ish on the motorway not so would actually probably have been in the later rather than mid 40s in the same circumstances. Also I have the AC on at all times as part of the climate control.



Normally does 600 miles a month.. has done 370 since Monday, other than the attendant beard of flies shes still going fine. Even the AC is still cold despite not having any additional maintenance to it (it does get a check every 2 years as part of the service schedule).

To be fair you've been getting pretty similar numbers to me in a 1.1 which probably weighs quite a bit less than a 3. Saying that I do about 70-80% of my driving in slow moving traffic.

Traffic has me down in high 30s, low 40s in summer or at worst 36s in winter.

I think you might be surprised by the weight while it's not sub 1 tonne like the Smart quoted weight is 1180kg-1355kg. Which to put it in perspective is anything up to 400kg less than an equivalent Vauxhall Astra of the same age. So fully laden I still weigh less than an empty Vauxhall, but still have a 5 star ncap and all the toys. Mazda was one of the first manufacturers to pursue weight saving in new models and this generation of 3 was said to be 15% lighter than the one it replaced.

Mot passed, no work required and nothing to attend to.

Got the slighlty smelly Aircon serviced to celebrate otherwise on we go.

Van Mode activate!!



Old Chair to British Heart Foundation...had to literally hammer this through the back door of the house.


Also took a tub chair to the mother in law..

To make way for:


Original plan wasn't to load both, I spoke to assistant explained that I didn't think both would fit but they only had one of the ones I wanted left. They said "we'll keep it to one side for an hour so you can make two trips" so I decided to buy both. Bought them and previous assistant had disappeared in the time it to took to walk to the warehouse and back and the one that was there was no help at all.

At this point I discovered there is a benefit to this being about 20cm longer than the class average (it's nearly 4.5m long most are 4.3ish). Pushed the passenger seat right forward loaded the biggest box so it was sitting on the armrest between the front seats and wedged against the B pillar on the other which gave enough space to load the other one in behind.

Very lucky I didn't have any passengers though. Had been looking at getting a Mazda 6 to replace this but saloon only so nope! Also I was thinking if I had a new car would I be happily hammering stuff into it?

So that marks 41k in my ownership...nothing to report still works great. Drivers seat looks a bit battered cos bucket seats do not wear well on the bolsters other than that all fine.

Good to hear the Mazda is still serving you well with no problems.

The Mondeo is still going and ticked over to 44k miles now and will be 4 years old come December. I have no intention of getting rid any time soon as it’s a good car and no issues with it.

The Audi A3 cabriolet has gone and replaced by something a bit different.. a 61 Plate Citroen C3 Picasso 1.6hdi 110 Exclusive.

Broke it..



It's droplink number 4 of 4 other 3 have already been done will be about a 50-60 quid fix at local independent.

Our Second Citroen has been fine, C3 110 pure tech does the job while being a bit different if not hugely competitive in the driving department.

Back on the road for 45 quid, 15 quid part the rest is vat and labour.