Mazda 2 euro specs released

That's on the lower side of similar sized diesels over here.

But you might want to search Mazda diesel problems on Google. I have a friend who has had no end of trouble with her diesel Mazda. Some diesel models are fine but some can be a nightmare. Mazda diesels generally fall into the latter category.

2014 Mazda6 Diesel - Serious Problems - Mazda 6 Forums : Mazda 6 Forum / Mazda Atenza Forum

 

Surprisingly yes one or two are better, with a larger Peugeot getting 91 mpg on the Euro cycle. But 83 is good but not exceptional, more common place.

Remember that it's based on the Euro cycle using the larger UK gallons. Our 6 speed manual transmissions are also tuned for economy and probably have 0-60 mph speeds that would be unacceptable to US drivers.

This Peugeot diesel is the size of a Mazda 3 and gets upto 91 mpg UK;

New Peugeot 308 | 5-Door Hatchback | European Car of the Year 2014

The VW Polo which is the same size as the Mazda 2 gets 83 mpg too;

polo-gp : Volkswagen UK

I could go on. Skoda, Ford, Renault, Citroen all offer small cars in this segment that get the same economy. Toyota and Fiat don't as they don't offer diesel engines in their small cars in the UK, though do on mainland Europe where diesel costs are cheaper.

The Mazda 2 diesel is ok but nothing exceptional. Sorry.

 

There was hope of the US getting a diesel from Mazda with 6, unlike the others. Not being able to pass EPA certs was probably a blessing in disguise. A problematic 2.2 diesel would have been a setback for all diesels here.

 

Mazda diesels were meant to be revolutionary here but turned out to be turd, and expensive turd at that. What worked in their laboratory obviously doesn't work in real life.

On a positive though, second hand gen3 Prius prices in the UK have gone up and by a significant margin. 4 year old examples are for sale at double what was being asked for them only 2 years ago. I was offered £4,500 for mine 2 years ago and now they're selling for over £8,000, and good examples of a 2010 model year are going for £15,000+. Crazy when I bought mine for not much more than that. You can't buy a gen3 for less than £7,500 and that's for an abused ex taxi with at least 150k miles on it. I think all these diesel problems have bitten too many people to the point that they want hybrids instead, and prepared to pay for them.

Good

 

I think they may not have done enough testing in relation to DPF regeneration. It sounds like, from the high oil level problems, that they took the route of squirting fuel for regeneration through a cylinder on an exhaust stroke. It is the less costly method, and works fine on other diesels. The problem arose for Mazda because their Skyactiv diesel uses a much lower compression ratio than the typical diesel. This could have lead to more fuel being left in the cylinder that eventually worked its way into the crank case.

If so, the fix is to install a fuel injector in the exhaust for the DPF. This costs more, but has the benefit of allowing higher biodiesel blends.

 

Makes a mockery of extended oil change intervals if owners are having to change oil every 1,500 or 2,000 miles though.

All these people who remember the simple reliable (but high emissioned) diesel engines from days gone by will get a culture shock with a modern one. Some are ok (bmw for example), but others do seem to have lots of problems as Mazda have found out. Bet they wish they hadn't bothered as it's only the European market that likes diesel, and then not all countries.

 

The 308 is rated at 91 mpg as shown on the top right hand corner of the link I gave you.

The 1.2 & 1.3 litre engines are quite normal in that size of vehicle. You'll probably find our displacements quite alarming. The following vehicle is powered by a 1.4 litre petrol engine;

 

Very interesting.
So, are you going to take advantage of the hybrid hysteria and get yourself a diesel ?

 

No, I'm going to keep it a bit longer. I would love to get a Leaf but they're going up in value too. Impossible to get anything decent under £10K.

But yeah, the increase of Prius value is the talking point of the UK hybrid forums.

 

The 2.2 hasn't met EPA without after treatment.

I don't know Japan's test requirements, but I do know that the Euro6 has separate emission limits for diesels and petrols. The main differences is that the diesels are allowed a higher NOx limit, and the petrols a higher CO one. On the other hand, diesels in the US are required to meet the EPA limits for gasolines. So they breeze through the CO limit, but have a tighter NOx limit to deal with.

Unless this 1.5 meets Euro6 petrol, it will probably have a tough time meeting EPA without additional treatment.

 

Is that the petrol or diesel Euro6. NOx is the difficult emission to control on a diesel. It is created by lean fuel conditions in the cylinder. Running lean is one of diesel's secrets to higher fuel economy. Except at WOT, a diesel is running lean all the time. Some they produce a lot more NOx than a comparable gasoline engine. So even if Euro6 is close to EPA on paper, the difference is a big hurdle for the engine and emission systems.

I think I heard that Mazda could have passed the requirements, but meeting requirements at unacceptable compromises to performance and efficiency is a distinction that doesn't have much meaning if the engine option ends up not offered. Much of the technology used to reduce emissions in diesels reduce fuel economy or performance. The same is true with gasoline engines. We just have had decades more of R&D into gasoline emission controls. SCR has the least negative effect while meeting EPA. It just requires the addition of an urea solution. The Jetta didn't use SCR(it may now), and the Passat did. It was the same engine, yet the Passat got nearly the same EPA rating as the Jetta despite being heavier.

Honda considered diesels when SCR and other emission controls were still new. SCR was considered a negative back then. So Honda tried to go without it, and learned what Mazda is now learning. The compromises needed to meet regulations made the diesel uncompetitive with the gasoline. SCR has now been out in the field for several years, and it is used on a majority of new diesel cars and trucks. The non-SCR methods have likely seen gains, but LEV III will be going into effect soon. Some diesel models are already being certified to it. In order to get the performance they want, Mazda will likely have to use SCR or scrap their North American diesel plans.

I have been saying that people are penny wise but pound foolish when it comes to fuel prices for awhile now. Premium gas and diesel cost more gallon, but the cost per mile is close, possibly better, than a equivalent regular gas car. But people only see the the price on the station sign, and don't think beyond that. Which means any car, that isn't a sport car, with a premium requirement suffers in sales. It was brought up as a negative for the smart fortwo, and still is for the Volt. The 1.4L turbo in the Sonic and Cruze was designed for higher octane fuel, and it can take advantage premium octane, but GM labels it regular for sales purposes. The knock sensors are just left to do their job.

I wonder if it was really necessary to reduce the compression ratio, or if they could have done what GM did with that 1.4L?

 

I remember this argument in the late 80's when unleaded was being introduced here. The leaded grades were 92/95/97 (called 2star, 3star and 4star). They were considering unleaded being the same as 92 (2 star equivalent) to match the grades in Japan and the US, but decided on 95 for the reasons you gave. Super Unleaded 97/98 is the equivalent of the old leaded 4 star 97 and is used by performance cars and older, previously leaded petrol cars.

 

The EPA isn't changing until tier III. Be sure you are comparing like units; EPA is in g/mile while EU is in g/km.

I agree we should switch to higher octane, but, as you said, you have to make regular cost more, or the public will never switch. They'll see regular as cheaper even if they end up paying more per mile.

I don't know if the 30 to 40 cent increase for premium is fair or not, but Premium does cost more than regular. The common octane boosters now are things like xylene and tolulene, which are valuable products on their own. But perhaps making the base octane of regular higher wouldn't result in such a price difference, once the refineries got up to the new spec.

It occurred to me that Mazda may simply be reporting the effect compression ratio of the Skyactiv engine on regular, and no changes were actually made. Don't have one to test premium with though.