Early fuel economy adventures

[rohoGames]

One week after purchasing my Mirage I had to drive to Ohio from West Central Indiana.

I only realized I could make fuel economy logs after I had done some driving, so I only have my trip back officially logged. But here is what I recall from the MPG indicator in the cluster:

Trip to Indiana (about 300ish miles): averaged about 37-38mpg. Was very pleased with this, since a lot of the trip required going past 70 mph to not get squashed by typical American drivers. This is awesome mileage. I still had plenty of gas left after the trip.

Driving around rural NW Ohio throughout the week: around 40mpg as I was running errands for family. Rural "city" driving really brings out the best in this car! You don't have so many stops and starts that your mileage goes down, but you aren't needing to go into 70+ mph freeway speeds. You are pretty much constantly at 50-60mph. So yeah, that was great!

Driving back to Indiana: This was the first tip in my official log here. Just under 32 mpg. Obviously underwhelming for highway driving. I thought I would have plenty of gas to get straight home, but this time I had to fill up about 20 miles from home, unlike before. I would say my cargo was a factor but I had about the same cargo on the trip where I got 38mpg. It was very windy today and I was driving against the wind. I feel like that *had* to be a factor on this trip. I don't think I was pushing the Tiger any harder than on the way there.

Looking forward to actually commuting to and from work for the first time (I was off this week) so I can get a real sense of my work commute mileage.

Of course all of this is way better than my old Kia Soul (in fact, Kia had to pay me money for faulty MPG estimates when I bought the car!) and of course better than our Pacifica van (though the van can actually achieve 30s mpg when on the freeway, it just goes way down when in the city).

[Eggman]

Headwinds are tough on the fuel economy for these cars. Have you tried airing up your tires to 40psi+? That and keeping your wind resistance down helps a lot. You're gonna really like commuting in your Mirage, at least for the money saving fuel economy.

[rohoGames]

Yea, I’ll do that this weekend (air up the tires). Want to get the maximum fuel savings!

[foama]

Yea, I’ll do that this weekend (air up the tires). Want to get the maximum fuel savings!

I regularly get around 60mpg without really trying. My 1.0L (3A90 engine) gets about 7% better economy than the 1.2L. Seven % worse than 60mpg is about 56mpg, and that seems possible. Once you get into the habit of driving economically you want to keep it up!
You may like to look at:

https://ecomodder.com/forum/EM-hyper...ecodriving.php

[Mark]

I regularly get around 60mpg without really trying. My 1.0L (3A90 engine) gets about 7% better economy than the 1.2L. Seven % worse than 60mpg is about 56mpg, and that seems possible. Once you get into the habit of driving economically you want to keep it up!
You may like to look at:

https://ecomodder.com/forum/EM-hyper...ecodriving.php

Everyone's driving conditions are different. Your engine & transmission are both different, too. Plus, his car is brand new (not even broken in yet).

I'm never going to see 56 mpg on a tank of gas, & I am an old fart that drives someone conservatively. I like my 2017 ES manual, because it gets 40-50 mpg on most tanks of gas (even when I push it (70+ mph). If I had to do something special, to get that I would sell the car.

If you're going 70+ mph against strong winds, that's not where a Mirage shines. Going 50-60 mph on country back roads & highways is where the Mirage really struts its stuff in my opinion.

[Fummins]

I regularly get around 60mpg without really trying. My 1.0L (3A90 engine) gets about 7% better economy than the 1.2L.

Is that US gallons? Impressive either way. I really couldn't be bothered lately to try for great fuel economy, I'm just happy to get over 30mpg without trying.

[rohoGames]

If you're going 70+ mph against strong winds, that's not where a Mirage shines. Going 50-60 mph on country back roads & highways is where the Mirage really struts its stuff in my opinion.

Yep, my first 10 days of driving have confirmed this. I was driving around town yesterday and hitting 38ish mpg again. Fortunately most of my Mirage driving will be around town so I'm very happy about this. And the occasional interstate road trip where I might only get 32-35 mpg is still going to be better than most cars I could be driving.

[Mark]

Yep, my first 10 days of driving have confirmed this. I was driving around town yesterday and hitting 38ish mpg again. Fortunately most of my Mirage driving will be around town so I'm very happy about this. And the occasional interstate road trip where I might only get 32-35 mpg is still going to be better than most cars I could be driving.

I don't know what your temps are like in Indiana these days, but my 2017 Mirage ES manual does about 3-4 mpg better during the summer months. I think this is due to several variables (winter/summer gas, winter/summer tires, & temperatures). Cold temps zap small engines a bit during the winter months. I'm probably not starting my Mirage up and scraping the frost off the windshield in July & August either.

I also don't do a lot of stop & go city type traffic. I do, however, have hill roads to climb, & I cruise at 70+ mph at times (when visiting my parents who are 4 hours away).

Your engine is still breaking in. New tires don't roll as well as worn ones, too. I'm not sure today's factory tires are as good as the former Dunlop Enasave tires (LRR - low rolling resistance department). Your load makes a difference, too. I haul lots of stuff at times, but I seldom have many passengers.

I tend to use 165/65r14 tires pumped up about 3-4 psi below their recommended maximum psi rating.

I just share all this to point out that there are several variables in all this. I wouldn't judge your Mirage that much after one tank of gas.

[7milesout]

I just got home from a 310 mile trip (each way), from south Atlanta to southeast Mississippi to visit cousins. There was a headwind against me as I was heading west. Not much of any wind coming home yesterday. I decided before I left that I would run all roads at 5 over the speed limit. About half this trip was on the interstate and I was doing 75 mph gps confirmed (~76.5 mph speedo). Then the other half was at 70 mph gps, on 4 lane rural highways. I got 39.8 mpg on the way west. I haven't refilled from coming home yet (the whole fuel gauge is blinking as I went to lunch today), but I suspect it was less than 41 mpg.

The little 3-Tapper sounds really nice when it is pulling any grade. I wish there was a simple and easy way just to get about 50% to 100% more of that exhaust sound. I'm still studying this from time-to-time, I think it is possible to get the sound. But so far it is not simple and easy. But golly, this thing rolls real nice out on the interstate. That was really the only thing I was concerned about before buying, that it would be too wimpy on the interstate. It is NOT AT ALL. It rolls along NICE.

Anyway, I think the Mirage is one helluva good long distance car. Not as great as it is at 50 - 60 mph back country cruise mobile, but hella good at interstate speed anyway. I'm assuming that at about 70 mph and above, the MIVEC has surpassed it's activation point and therefore the valves are lifting more. So if you blow more air into the cylinders, it's got to blow more gas in to match that. The result? Better power / lower mpg. It's a trade off. I suppose that's the majority of the reason this car takes a fairly big dip in mpg after ~ 65 mph (that and the associated wind drag).

[Mark]

I just got home from a 310 mile trip (each way), from south Atlanta to southeast Mississippi to visit cousins. There was a headwind against me as I was heading west. Not much of any wind coming home yesterday. I decided before I left that I would run all roads at 5 over the speed limit. About half this trip was on the interstate and I was doing 75 mph gps confirmed (~76.5 mph speedo). Then the other half was at 70 mph gps, on 4 lane rural highways. I got 39.8 mpg on the way west. I haven't refilled from coming home yet (the whole fuel gauge is blinking as I went to lunch today), but I suspect it was less than 41 mpg.

The little 3-Tapper sounds really nice when it is pulling any grade. I wish there was a simple and easy way just to get about 50% to 100% more of that exhaust sound. I'm still studying this from time-to-time, I think it is possible to get the sound. But so far it is not simple and easy. But golly, this thing rolls real nice out on the interstate. That was really the only thing I was concerned about before buying, that it would be too wimpy on the interstate. It is NOT AT ALL. It rolls along NICE.

Anyway, I think the Mirage is one helluva good long distance car. Not as great as it is at 50 - 60 mph back country cruise mobile, but hella good at interstate speed anyway. I'm assuming that at about 70 mph and above, the MIVEC has surpassed it's activation point and therefore the valves are lifting more. So if you blow more air into the cylinders, it's got to blow more gas in to match that. The result? Better power / lower mpg. It's a trade off. I suppose that's the majority of the reason this car takes a fairly big dip in mpg after ~ 65 mph (that and the associated wind drag).

A taller 5th gear would really help, and I think it could handle it with ease, too!