Originally Posted by
MightyMirageMpg
MPG's fluctuate so heavily based on conditions and driver its almost insignificant to put a number out.
The automatic achieves lower RPMs but also consumes lots of power itself to operate. Making it drastically less efficient than any manual offered in a mirage. The effects would be shown in city driving, with The auto loosing to the stick.
But because the auto transmission allows such a low final drive (.54 ideal as stated by INUVIK) it allows the engine to spin drastically slower speed then the manual and therefore the engine itself consumes less fuel, (but it's still being robbed of the cvt draw)
At some point, the amount of fuel lost by excess RPM exceeds the fuel lost by the draw of the CVT. For your "average" driver that doesn't employ tricks or techniques to save fuel, the speed is probably about 65mph, where the cvt begins to get better MPG
There's a little more to be discussed but simply put I've not seen any data that referenced engine load at speed manual vs automatic, and unless you have a lot of patience and the fuel map for the car... The data is useless anyways.
Hopefully i explained that well enough its hard to explain in text