Review notes: testing a 2015 Mirage CVT on loan for a week

[kerc]

Wish they offered those gray/black seats instead of the purple I have.

Couldn't you get the black-on-black design?

[Daox]

The final tally is in. I filled up the tank and just returned the car. 318.5 miles later I filled up on 6.5 gallons of gas for a total of 49 mpg. I'm impressed (not with myself, but the car).

I'll be writing up a few more things as some time goes on and I put my notes together.

[MetroMPG]

Nice going - and that's just with plain jane conservative driving, nothing fancy, right?

Too bad you didn't reset the B trip meter when you got it for another datapoint on gauge accuracy. (It's ridiculous how complicated it is to do that task - I bet most owners will never even know they have a "B" gauge available.)

[Daox]

By far my driving was mostly just to set the cruise at the speed limit and drive. I do time lights and coast in neutral up to them, and down hills. That is really about it. I did try P&G a few times, and it just didn't seem to help much. Most of my driving was also on county roads with speed limits around 35-55 mph. I didn't have it on the freeway much at all.

[debburyl]

By far my driving was mostly just to set the cruise at the speed limit and drive. I do time lights and coast in neutral up to them, and down hills. That is really about it. I did try P&G a few times, and it just didn't seem to help much. Most of my driving was also on county roads with speed limits around 35-55 mph. I didn't have it on the freeway much at all.

Daox, your treat with the 2015 mirage I'm sure you enjoyed. And thanks for the great posts. I hope the media, and the public hear your enjoyments of the mirage, and it increases it's sales. Keep us posted. It's great to be part of this forum

[Daox]

So, lets wrap this thing up. I had a great time with the Mirage. I'd definitely consider one for a future car purchase.

The ride was very comfortable. Honestly, I was expecting the body roll to be worse than it actually was. In everyday A to B driving, its not even an issue to me. If you want to autocross your Mirage, its a big deal. Personally, I'd probably throw a rear sway bar on the car and be perfectly happy since I like a bit less roll.

The looks of the car IMO are very nice. I like the exterior look of the Mirage though. Some say its dated, and maybe it is, but my taste is dated too then and it fits right in.

As for the interior, it is simple and I like that too. The new seat fabric for the 2015 model looks very nice, and fits the car well. I don't like a hugely complex dashboard. However, I do like a lot of info at my fingertips to assist with driving the car more efficiently which is my normal routine. The Mirage does fall short on this (as do most cars to be fair). To remedy that, I would highly recommend a scangauge, or ultragauge, or some OBDII device that can give you some feedback. I run a scangaugeII in all of my cars, even my Prius with fancy touchscreen MFD.

The power is quite adequate for the car. It can move out of its own way if need be. I never felt as though I really wished I had more power. Even when I had a car full of people (4 total), I wasn't disappointed with the output. It was enough. I enjoyed the thrummy sound of the engine that is a bit different from the more traditional 4 cylinder engines I normally drive. It would be very interesting to take the 1.0L out for a spin to see what the difference is between the two. I imagine it isn't a huge difference, and I'd probably opt for the the higher fuel economy of the 1.0L vs 1.2L.

The fuel economy is superb. With the CVT transmission I had, its ridiculously easy to get good mileage in this car. Unless you're really thrashing it, or sitting in stop and go (and probably even still), you're going to get good mileage. I managed 49 mpg with my driving which was mostly commuting on country roads with a speed limit of around 45 mph.

The car is a bit louder than most other cars. You can hear more road and engine noise. Its not to the point of being annoying or anything, and you very quickly get used to it and it becomes normal. If it does bother you, you can easily add sound deadening material where needed.

Thats about it. There isn't much I'd change about the Mirage. I wouldn't be surprised to find one of these in my driveway after a few years. I don't buy new cars.

[MetroMPG]

Thanks for the wrap-up.

You reminded me: I don't think I've yet posted my review summary..