Better ground clearance than a CRV?

[Canoehead]

I drive gravel roads, dirt roads, and in winter where there can be ice ruts in my city. I have found a small fwd car to be perfectly adequate over 99% of the time, so have no interest in "crossover" SUV's (which isn't to say I don't find old land rovers and jeeps with snorkels to be cool!).

Considering both the Mirage, and the new Honda Fit, I discovered that the ground clearance of the new Fit is only about 5" empty, and 4" loaded (127mm/102mm I believe). Compared with the Mirage 6.3", that is much lower.

The interesting part is that http://www.edmunds.com/honda/cr-v/20...res-specs.html the 2014 Honda CRV has exactly the same ground clearance as the Mirage! Moreover, if the angles are considered (wheelbase, width) the Mirage would effectively have more ground clearance (just like an atv or mountain bike doesn't need much clearance because the wheels are closer to each other).

My only question about this is whether the dimensions listed are measured in some sort of standardized way, or whether the manufacturers each just produce their own numbers based on their own specific criteria. Does anyone know if ground clearance numbers are reliable?

[91cavgt]

I drive gravel roads, dirt roads, and in winter where there can be ice ruts in my city. I have found a small fwd car to be perfectly adequate over 99% of the time, so have no interest in "crossover" SUV's (which isn't to say I don't find old land rovers and jeeps with snorkels to be cool!).

Considering both the Mirage, and the new Honda Fit, I discovered that the ground clearance of the new Fit is only about 5" empty, and 4" loaded (127mm/102mm I believe). Compared with the Mirage 6.3", that is much lower.

The interesting part is that http://www.edmunds.com/honda/cr-v/20...res-specs.html the 2014 Honda CRV has exactly the same ground clearance as the Mirage! Moreover, if the angles are considered (wheelbase, width) the Mirage would effectively have more ground clearance (just like an atv or mountain bike doesn't need much clearance because the wheels are closer to each other).

My only question about this is whether the dimensions listed are measured in some sort of standardized way, or whether the manufacturers each just produce their own numbers based on their own specific criteria. Does anyone know if ground clearance numbers are reliable?

For the most part, each manufacture provides detailed dimensions, capacities, and measurements on new vehicles and that is where people get the info from.


I too am concerned about ground clearance, but for the most part I don't have to worry about snow or ice buildup. When snow or ice builds up here, everything shuts down because we are not prepared to deal with any winter weather (we have no plows, only have a couple sanding trucks which are just dump trucks) and VERY few people even have snow chains here.

When my tires need to be replaced, I will be going with a taller tire, like a 175/70/14 to give a little more ground clearance. I might even do some spring spacers or air shocks to help a little more.

[adrew]

I feel like the Mirage is about 2 inches lower than my Yaris. The Yaris is stiff and never bottoms out or scrapes - my wife previously had a Yaris as well (she was used to its stiff suspension) and already scraped the bottom of Mirage bumper leaving a sloped driveway (not that bad, and not noticeable unless you crawl underneath).

With the Yaris you can just bomb around without a care; in the Mirage you have to be careful of scraping stuff. Just IMO. The Mirage is in no way comparable to a CR-V. I am 5' 10" and 145 lbs and can just barely crawl under the car, with my chest pressing into the frame rails.

[Canoehead]

I feel like the Mirage is about 2 inches lower than my Yaris. The Yaris is stiff and never bottoms out or scrapes - my wife previously had a Yaris as well (she was used to its stiff suspension) and already scraped the bottom of Mirage bumper leaving a sloped driveway (not that bad, and not noticeable unless you crawl underneath).

With the Yaris you can just bomb around without a care; in the Mirage you have to be careful of scraping stuff. Just IMO. The Mirage is in no way comparable to a CR-V. I am 5' 10" and 145 lbs and can just barely crawl under the car, with my chest pressing into the frame rails.

Point taken - stiffer suspension would ride higher in real world than soft suspension. Hadn't really thought of that.

As for crawling under your car - are you saying it would be much easier to crawl under a CR-V? Is the issue that most of the CR-V is higher but some bit juts down to 6.3", or is the 6.3" number just wrong?

I never bottom out on my Focus, but can't really crawl under that either.

[91cavgt]

If you have car A. that has 6" of ground clearance with a stiff suspension, then you have car B. with 6" of ground clearance but soft suspension, it will always be easier to bottom out and drag on stuff with car B.

[Bogeyman]

Bottoming out isn't a problem since I usually travel light, but that low-hanging rear tailpipe somehow negates the otherwise generous ground clearance on our Mirage G4 sedan. I've managed to hit that pipe with a sickening scrunch twice, when I'd tackle a particularly steep grade (or an abruptly low kerb from the roadway).