Speed vs. mpg/mileage/fuel economy chart - Mirage 1.2L 5-spd and CVT

Niky Tamayo is a car writer in the Philippines with a refreshing take on things automotive... oh, and he's also an all around good guy. He's a member of the EcoModder forum and he recently let me know he that was going to be reviewing a "poverty spec" bare bones Mirage 1.2L, 5-speed for a week.

I asked (pleaded?): would he please try to put together some speed vs. fuel consumption stats if he got the chance.

Well, Niky has come through for us!

http://mirageforum.com/imgs/graph-speed-mpg-mirage2.jpg
(Note: graph uses averages of the values from the table below.)

Conditions & setup

• Temperature: 30 degrees C / 86 F
• Air conditioning on
• Bridgestone Ecopia tires, 30-32 psi
• bi-directional runs 40, 60, 80 km/h; unidirectional runs 100 & 120 km/h

Results - fuel consumption at steady speeds, in top (5th) gear:

Speed	Engine RPM (approx.)	km/L	L/100 km	mpg (US)	mpg (Imp.)
40 km/h 25 mph	~1200	34.5 - 34.8	2.9	81.2 - 81.9	97.5 - 98.3
60 km/h 37 mph	~1800	28 - 32	3.1 - 3.6	65.9 - 75.3	79.1 - 90.4
80 km/h 50 mph	~2000	24.5 - 24.8	4.0 - 4.1	57.6 - 58.3	69.2 - 70.1
100 km/h 62 mph	~3000	20.4 - 21	4.8 - 4.9	48.0 - 49.4	57.6 - 59.3
120 km/h 75 mph	~3600	16 - 18	5.6 - 6.3	37.6 - 42.3	45.2 - 50.9

Caveats

1. The car had only ~2000 km (1200 miles) on the clock (economy likely won't be as good as when it's better broken in).
2. No cruise control - driver trying to hold constant speed as best as possible.
3. It had the optional upswept "sport" spoiler that likely hurts the coefficient of drag a little bit:
   http://mirageforum.com/forum/attachm...1&d=1358666124
4. The figures were taken by resetting the Mirage's factory fuel economy gauge (uncalibrated) once up to speed.
5. The refresh rate of the the gauge made it hard to get accuracy at higher speeds (running out of room on the stretch of straight & level test road before the gauge updated).
6. Because of the above point, the 100 & 120 km/h figures were taken on a different road and Niky is not as confident in the 120 km/h figure owing to road grade - so it's a best estimate.

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UPDATE, November 7 ... fuel economy vs. speed results for the CVT

The website CleanMPG has done a review of the CVT equipped Mirage in the U.S., and posted numbers for fuel economy vs. speed. Here are those numbers superimposed on our initial graph for the 5-speed.

Not surprisingly, it shows the CVT outperforming the 5-speed, with the exception of the last data point. Because of that, I'd say we need to take this comparison with a grain of salt (see explanation, below)...

http://mirageforum.com/imgs/graph-sp...ge-cvt-5mt.jpg

Grain of salt: despite what these plots indicate, I'm skeptical that the 5-speed and CVT switch places once speed exceeds ~105 km/h / 65 mph. Why? Because the vehicles were tested under very different ambient conditions and on different roads, which makes a direct comparison risky.

An ideal comparison would see a CVT and 5-speed compared back to back on the same route, in the same weather conditions. Maybe we'll still get a chance to do that.

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2017 Mirage G4 CVT

(From thread: Darin's test drive review notes: 2017 Mitsubishi Mirage G4 sedan CVT  )

Attachment 7384

Notes:

- Values are averages of bi-directional runs on a level road *
- (* except for the highest speed, which should be considered an estimate only)
- Weather: 21 C / 70 F, dry, with negligible wind
- no traffic ahead in my lane (no aero / drafting effect)
- A/C off
- Driver only on board
- Headlights on
- Tires at manufacturer's recommended pressure (35 PSI)
- Readings were taken from the car's MPG display (which was within a few % of calculations at the pump based on 2 fill-ups).

I'll put together a pretty graph in the next day or so to see what kind of slope these numbers produce.

We've seen enough speed vs. fuel economy graphs to know what kind of line looks plausible, and that should help iron out those higher speed figures that Niky had less confidence in.

Wow, very impressive numbers. That rivals my Prius' fuel economy on the highway.

It's very close to my "stock" 1998 Pontiac Firefly (Geo Metro) as well, with the Mirage getting slightly worse mileage below 80 km/h (50 mph), but better mileage above that.

But let's remember to take these numbers with an appropriately sized grain of salt, given all those caveats. Especially that uncalibrated factory fuel economy gauge - they're often a bit optimistic.

Not bad. I was worried about 5th gear at highway speeds, but it looks better in the middle range than my Mazda. I'm at 2500 RPM's at 50 mph.

The key is that even though the rpms are higher than we'd like to see, the engine load is also high because of its small displacement. That is what gives the good mileage.

Those numbers look just right. When I drove at a steady 120km/h once, my MID climbed from ~15km/L to almost 18km/L. My car has the big aero spoiler though, so it'll probably get better economy at those speeds.

Finally: updated post #1 with the pretty speed vs. fuel consumption graph.

I like the graph :cool:

i dont like the curved down spolier... yucks... mine is curved down.