what is the one (or 2) things that drives you insane about your Mirage

[Mark]

If I don't have the ac on my windows fog up a lot in the winter when the temps are milder, cracking a window isn't ideal when it's below zero on the F scale. It's even worse when I have passengers.
I remember someone had a stripper edition non-ac Mirage and complained about the same issue all the time.

My guess is most small, efficient economy cars aren't going to throw as much heat into the cabin as a larger vehicle. Excessive heat is somewhat wasted energy, until you want to use it. My best personal comparison would be my parents' full size Chevy pickup. All my dad's pickup trucks (past & current) threw heat quickly & windshields are cleared fast.

A little 3-cylinder vehicle is just not going to compete with that. My 1990 Ford Festiva (1.3L, 4-cylinder, 63 hp) threw less heat than my Mirage. I turn my heat down most of the time during the winter months. With my Festiva you wanted more heat. On really cold days, you could expect your side windows to have a frozen layer of ice on them.

I remember surviving in my 1978 Honda Civic (63 hp) during the winter months, but it never threw as much heat as my parents' larger vehicles.

The electric heaters may help the Mirage some? I don't need my A/C to clear my windshield during the winter months, but it does help on humid, rainy days. I really like the manual climate controls on my Mirage. The A/C never comes on unless you push the button for it to come on. I prefer that! Some of my other vehicles would override the A/C button and turn the A/C during certain applications. I prefer to control that myself.

I have never seen automatic climate controls that I would like (in other people's vehicles including my driving school cars) over simple manual controls. I would pay extra for manual climate controls!

[7milesout]

The A/C never comes on unless you push the button for it to come on.

That's the way it SHOULD be.

[Wallythacker]

I'm basically a lazy forgetful idiot at heart. I like the idea of setting my cabin to 76F and let the climate control do the work. Of course my 2017 is manual so using today as an example, in my 250 mile trip ranging from no snow, -15C in the Falls to huge snowbanks, roads covered with snow, -28C up north I must have adjusted the cabin settings dozens of times. I was too hot/too cold, foggy windows/snowy windows. Yah, I wished I had automatic controls.

[Space Wolf]

My guess is most small, efficient economy cars aren't going to throw as much heat into the cabin as a larger vehicle. Excessive heat is somewhat wasted energy, until you want to use it.

Exactly. 20-10 years ago we had '3L cars' here, which name was derived from the estimated fuel usage of 3L/100km, which is 78.4mpg. This were small 3 cylinder diesels, and one of their problems was that you couldn't get them heated in winter. The engine had barely enough heat production to get and keep the engine on operating temperature.

[7milesout]

I'm basically a lazy forgetful idiot at heart. I like the idea of setting my cabin to 76F and let the climate control do the work. Of course my 2017 is manual so using today as an example, in my 250 mile trip ranging from no snow, -15C in the Falls to huge snowbanks, roads covered with snow, -28C up north I must have adjusted the cabin settings dozens of times. I was too hot/too cold, foggy windows/snowy windows. Yah, I wished I had automatic controls.

Wally, if you had the automatic controls, you would still be adjusting it dozens of times.

[7milesout]

Exactly. 20-10 years ago we had '3L cars' here, which name was derived from the estimated fuel usage of 3L/100km, which is 78.4mpg. This were small 3 cylinder diesels, and one of their problems was that you couldn't get them heated in winter. The engine had barely enough heat production to get and keep the engine on operating temperature.

There are solutions to these problems. But it's not something a customer should have to resolve, OEM engineers can overcome these. I'd love to have a 3L car down here in the Thunderdome. What make and model were they?

[Space Wolf]

There are solutions to these problems. But it's not something a customer should have to resolve, OEM engineers can overcome these. I'd love to have a 3L car down here in the Thunderdome. What make and model were they?

Maybe my memory is playing tricks on me. I seemed to remember there were a handful of types, among which a Fiat Punto. But according to Wikipedia there never was a high economy Punto diesel. I couldn't find one of the others too, except the Volkswagen Lupo 3L, and the Audi A2 3L.

[Fummins]

Wow, and here I am thrilled that mine has a lifetime average of around 39mpg(US).

[cleadus_fetus]

Driving characteristics in sub zero temps. On initial driving after a cold day at work the car is down right dangerously sluggish.

I just got my new Mirage and we recently had a historic dip to -40.
the next day when the temps rose significantly I noticed the steering to be sluggish for the first little bit until I had been driving for a while.
But after a deep freeze like that the car didn't struggle to start at all. But the temp had rose to -7C

My old 2015 mirage wasn't like this. Its steering was just sluggish all the time.

[Mark]

I just got my new Mirage and we recently had a historic dip to -40.
the next day when the temps rose significantly I noticed the steering to be sluggish for the first little bit until I had been driving for a while.
But after a deep freeze like that the car didn't struggle to start at all. But the temp had rose to -7C

My old 2015 mirage wasn't like this. Its steering was just sluggish all the time.

I just realized -40C & -40F are the same temperature! I can't say my Mirage has experienced -40F, but a Mirage does have electric power steering. Maybe after starting, the battery was drained low enough to impact the EPS briefly?

Just a hypothesis on my part!