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My '15 Mazda3 has a cd rating of 0.26, which is good for highway miles. Also good is the high gearing of the 6-speed automatic which has the engine turning at only 1670rpms at 60mph.
Most of my driving is in relatively flat plains in Louisiana, so I don't see many hills to climb. But when I do get into some hills, the auto shifts so smoothly I really can't tell its doing so unless I'm looking at the tach. The six speed auto seems well suited for the 155hp 2.0L engine to keep it in the power band.
When the OEM tires wore out, I replaced them with some 205 65R 16 Ecopias that are a little taller than the 60-aspect tires that my car came from the factory with. This slowed the RPMs by about 3% which seems to have helped the economy a bit, although I haven't had them long enough to really tell.
The Generation 3 SkyActiv Mazda automatic has an excellent reputation for efficiency and reliability. In the Mazda forums I follow, I can only remember a couple of them reported going bad, and those failed early and were replaced under warranty. Some report that their automatics have gone 200K miles without problems. That gives me some confidence.
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