Excellent test. It still seems odd to me how so many cars can't achieve the EPA estimates (my wifes' 2010 Accent), yet the Mirage consistently exceeds their estimates. Methinks they need to stop estimating and do real world testing!
Originally Posted by
El Kapitan
the sad fact is that nobody (around here) wants MTs. nobody wants to sit in rush hour with a clutch. i'm considering doing it though because i really like MTs.
Not counting a weird situation where I had 2 different cars before I even drove, while I was a teenager in the 90s, I've had exactly 2 cars. A 99 Saturn SL2 automatic I bought brand new, and the Mirage ES manual I just replaced it with. Until last summer, that is, when I bought an 84 Ranger with a manual transmission, so I could teach myself to drive a stick shift. I knew I'd be replacing the Saturn, and I knew I wanted a manual, both for fun, cost, and fuel efficiency.
My commute is all city streets, about 6 miles, with 12 stoplights I almost always get red (grrr), and a little bit of stop and go, where it sometimes takes several cycles of the traffic light to get through (again, grrr). Even though I'm a novice manual transmission driver, the clutch is so light on the Mirage, you barely feel it. This weekend, I took the truck to the hardware store a couple times, and then got right in the Mirage to drive somewhere else. I thought I was going to put a hole in the floor with my left foot!
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View my fuel log 2015 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 44.1 mpg (US) ... 18.7 km/L ... 5.3 L/100 km ... 52.9 mpg (Imp)