BLOG: Tom's Mazda 3 Sport - Seems to be loosening up now

Well, ticked over 7k this morning. Not too bad for 3 months driving!

I've been keeping a seriously close eye on oil levels (once a week at least), and its been steady at 9/10 on the dipstick since I took delivery. Checked Saturday morning and it seems to have gone to just above the minimum very quickly. A quick scout round for any leaks and found none, so thought I'd better look at getting a top up.

Halfords unfortunately don't stock anything suitable. Its a strict ACEA C1 or JASO DL approval, so off to Mazda for the Dexellia own branded stuff. Unfortunately my nearest dealer is 25 miles away, but I do pass about 10 miles from one on my way home. I rang Pilling in Milton Keynes, and they confirmed it was in stock. Got to there at 5:50 to find they'd shut early (supposed to be 6:00). I popped into sales, had a whinge and was met with a very smarmy salesman who frankly I wanted to punch in the face. I left in a huff and went back this morning, and parted with a not-too-unreasonable £9.60 for 1l. I had a moan about last night, and the nice guy in parts gave me a nice velcro Castrol oil bag, chuffed.

I have to say, this week its felt noticeably quicker, and economy is showing a shade over 50mpg on the trip. So hopefully with 7k on the clocks, its finally decided to loosen up a tad.

Will report back on mpg after another couple of tankfulls.

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