Mirage CVT transmission problems and cold climate operation?

[Edlupp]

I did not order my Mirage, they had 2 base models with MT and 3 with CVT but they included the convenience package which had the cruise control, so since my wife does not know how to drive a MT i thought i would go with CVT, so i signed all that paperwork but could not get insurance on that day (was Saturday, insurance was closed), when i got home i started looking about CVT performance and found this website, then i wanted to go with MT but was too late and they did not have one with MT and convenience package.
So my Mirage came out to almost |$20000 CAD, 19000 and some!
Finance was really good at only 2.9% interest rate which is really good around this area!
The difference between CVT, MT and Automatic Tranny is that when the CVT or AT goes it will cost u a lot of money to fix where the MT is simple and cheap to fix
In the actual Mirage Manual they talk that Mitsu CVT may become overheated at some point and they actually tell you what to do when that happens, im guessing it will heat up when you ll be racing the vehicle with 4 passengers in it in Mountains!
Ill be picking up my Mirage this saturday!

[IchabodCrane]

I picked up my cvt mirage Feb 28 in Thunder Bay ON CA.
while not in the coldest part of winter it was still cold with several nights around -30°C. I would go out and start my car then come back inside to put my workboots on then off to work. One thing that amazed me with this car is how fast it makes heat. With a 3 or 4 min warmup I had useable cabin heat a couple hundred yards down the road for defrost and cabin comfort. This heat comes on even quicker if car is plugged in. (Yes, I have a block heater. Part# is in the block heater thread) Anyway... I run the car at no more than 2000 Rpm for the first couple hundred yards till temp light goes out then it's business as usual.
Trans works flawlessly.

[MetroMPG]

One thing that amazed me with this car is how fast it makes heat.

I wondered about this with the Mirage! I've experienced the same thing with a couple of older Mitsu's. They just seemed to warm up so much faster than other cars. Maybe it's something unique in their design, but I can't imagine what that might be, since it would benefit ALL automakers to design their engines to warm up as quickly as possible (for emissions/fuel economy regulations mostly, though comfort is a big bonus for owners).

[Ares]

I may have to invest in a block heater, even if I live in TX, because it takes MY mirage forever to get some heat through the air vents.

My drive to work is about 10 mins. It may take 1/3 or so of that trip to get some heat through the vents.