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Mirage rated 64 MPG highway in Canada, 44 MPG in the US? WTF?!
http://mirageforum.com/forum/attachm...1&d=1382972803
I still see a few Canadians and Americans who get confused when they see the "64 MPG" (highway) rating on the Canadian CVT Mirage, where the U.S. car is advertised with a "44 MPG" highway rating.
The explanation is pretty simple:
Super-efficient "North of the 49th" edition*
Canadians generally like and buy more small cars per capita than Americans do, so Mitsubishi rewards the Great White North by fitting the Mirage with a much more frugal high-efficiency 1.2L engine (which on a side note, actually produces 35 more horsepower than the U.S. version).
(* Only available in Igloo White.)
Oh, settle down. I'm just kidding, eh!
Here's the actual 64 MPG answer:
1) Imperial (U.K.) gallons.
Canadians report fuel economy in British gallons, which are bigger than U.S. gallons. You can drive more miles on one Imperial gallon than one US gallon.
Canadians didn't revolt against their mother countries, and so continued using the British-measured gallon. Americans, in a fit of independence, threw out the British gallon along with all that tea, and made up a new measure (the U.S. gallon) out of spite.**
It takes ~1.2 US gallons to make an Imperial gallon. So Canadian "MPG" figures always appear higher when converted directly from US figures.
Another side note: Canadians actually switched to the Metric system oh, about 30 years ago. But some people (and car makers) remain stuck in the past when talking about "MPG", and just look at all the confusion that results.
** (Historical content may or may not be factually correct.)
2) Different (outdated) Canadian fuel economy tests
As of this writing, NRCAN, the Canadian government agency responsible for ratings, is still using the old 2-cycle test method. Meanwhile, the U.S. EPA has twice updated its MPG labels and testing procedure to make US ratings much more "realistic" for typical (ie. impatient and predominantly brain dead) drivers.
That means the same car tested in Canada -- even when converted to the same gallon or other measurement -- will have a much more "optimistic" rating than the identical vehicle tested under the U.S. EPA system.
(FYI: the current Canadian ratings are similar to the pre-2008 EPA approach.)
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So now will you Americans please stop sending me private messages to find out how to get one of these super-efficient 64 MPG Canadian Mirages. Thank you.
