Half way though my 4100 mile (6600 km) Mirage road trip/vacation ...

Man, what a rough 3 day drive that was. The Mirage did great through the 1st two tanks of gas ( see my fuel log ). Then I got into the Ozarks and the outside temp/humidity cause me to turn on the A/C. Combine that with driving 70 MPH, a bunch of steep hills and the poor cruise just couldn't compute what it was supposed to do. Dropping 4 MPH starting up a steep hill, then the cruise would realize it was lagging behind and it would hit the gas, causing the CVT to downshift and running the engine up to 4500/5000 RPMs. Then it wouldn't let off the gas until I was going 3-4MPH over the set speed. I tried working the gas pedal myself, to try and anticipate what position it needed to be in, to keep the RPM's from jumping so high. That was a learning experiences in of itself, since I was used to a gas pedal hooked to a cable. What I " used " to do ( on all of my other vehicles ), was just push the pedal a bit harder, to give more fuel from where the cruise control had the pedal. But with a computer controlled gas pedal, the pedal is limp as if you were sitting idle at a stop light, even while your driving 70MPH. So now I had to learn to really push that pedal until I felt the engine pull the little Mirage faster. This method worked, but it was also taxing, taking away from me relaxing during my drive. Mitsubishi, please figure out a software fix for this...PLEASE...Then I got into a pretty good side/head wind. Fuel economy suffered even further, but so would any other vehicle I would have drove, I suppose. My biggest worry was the little 3 cyl engine and the CVT being over worked. By the last leg of the trip into AZ, when I got to Deming, New Mexico, I decided to give the 75MPH speed limit a try ( I was tired and wanting to get there ). Again, it's hot, I had the A/C going and was encountering some steep hills. That was the worse MPG of the trip. The water temp even hit 210 for a sec ( I immediately lowered my speed until the temp went back down to 190 ). I had been watching the water temp most of the trip, and it would pretty much stay in the 188-195F range, riding at 190F most of the time.

As for ride and comfort, the Mirage did ok. This, coming from a guy who used to drive a Cadillac and big comfy Chevy Silverado's, says a lot. My biggest discomfort was my left leg leaning against the door arm rest and right leg leaning against the center console. I kept moving my legs into different positions, so I didn't have to lean them against those two points for long. A person of average weight might not have that problem, but I am a big guy at 300lbs and needed to sprawl out some.

Some of the trips stats:
2 persons and a dog ( Pomeranian )
Guessed total cargo weight including persons: 650 lbs
2038.6 miles driven in 3 days ( last day was only 6.5 hours )
Fuel used: 52.5 gal
Fuel cost: $135.40
Avg MPG for trip: 38.83

Again, see my fuel log for a blow-by-blow of my fill ups.

On the trip back, we are planning on a stop into Roswell NM, then heading up to Michigan. I am thinking of dropping my speed down to 65MPH. I am also considering lowering my speed to 60MPH during the steep hill climbs, just so I can use the cruise ( and keep the RPM's down ) and enjoy the trip more.

still pretty impressive mpg and overall fuel cost for such a long distance! enjoy Roswell!

I am impressed. As I was reading the post I figured you got way down in the low 30s or something. You almost hit 39 in bad conditions for fuel economy. I would be happy with that!

I took mine out to California through Denver and Vegas last year. The manual transmission with cruise on did great. Probably aided by the higher cruising RPM's. There was a couple mountain climbs where I had to shift into 3rd gear, and 60mph seemed to be as fast as she would go, but I did have a 260lb passenger and 200lbs+ of gear with me.

Don't worry about hitting 210F, you'll hit that just sitting at idle with the A/C off. Nothing to worry about until you're hitting 230F+.

Yes, I'm happy with the overall average of the MPG. I can't complain about 38 MPG with the conditions I was driving in.

pepperjack: She would go 70MPH up most steep inclines, just had to keep the RPM's up.

Yes ,,,, I'm impressed!!! Even with the AC on that's not Bad considering how fast you were going ! I've been threw that area and those can be some steep climbs! Did you change the life line of your Mirage? When you got there? That will keep her tickin. :):):)

No. Not changing the oil until I get back to Michigan. Its a synthetic oil from the factory, so it's good to go. I'll be close to 5K miles by the time we get back, so I'll be using the free oil change Mitsubishi sent me.

Is that your Frist oil change? Have you ck it? I'm sure it's fine.

JimInMichigan , are you using a synthetic engine oil ? If we had a MIRAGE it would get a full synthetic such Pennzoil Platinum with Pure Plus , Amsoil XL or Mobil1 Extended . We've used full synthetics for many years .

Jim, when on the highway and going uphill does the car hold it's on on speed and gears or does it struggle? When I say up hill I mean like a sea level change from one city to another. Back in the 80's I had a Ford Fiesta and was going from a city that was lower sea level wise to the next city so it was up hill I couldn't get out of third gear nor use the A/C, that trip really sucked! So just wondering how our cars handle that scenario?
Thanks if you have time,
Carl