The "Maikäfer" from Germany

[25Plus]

Hello everyone!

I was looking for a new commuter car, that should be as economical as my Daihatsu Cuore (special type of Kei-Car sold in Germany with a 1000 ccm engine instead of the japanese 660 ccm engines), very small, too (although the Space Star is 20 cm wider), more save and with good equipment. So I was looking for about two years, tested cars like the Toyota Yaris Hybrid (same drivetrain as Toyota Aqua/Prius c), Audi A1 TDI or the Volkswagen Polo BlueMotion TDI.

It took a very long time, but in the end I found out, that the Space Star would fulfill all characteristics - for nearly half the price without negotiating.

On April the 25th I got my Space Star 1.2 Klassik Kollektion+ (custom model in germany) and have been driven about 1600 km in the last two weeks, which means two complete fill-ups and fuel consumptions of 3.9 and 3.7 l/100 km. But this will get better, as I drove not completely economical. Since my commute is about 70 km long and I drive about 50 km Autobahn behind trucks on the right line, my best result for a single trip was 3.4 l/100 km today with ambient temperature of about 25°C without air conditioning.

The car computer is very accurate, as the calculated fuel consumption and the value of the car computer match exactly. But by travelling 100 km, the odometer only counts about 97,5 km, so the real fuel consumption is even a bit lower (the odometer in my Daihatsu counts 104 km by travelling 100 km - +- 4 % is allowed in ECE).

I am happy with my Space Star so far and will write a lot more in the next few days - but now it´s time to go to bed (11 pm).

Best regards,
Florian

[Daox]

Welcome to the site Florian. Congratulation on the new Space Star as well. It sounds like you're getting some pretty great fuel economy out of it already.

[debburyl]

Welcome !!!! To the forum!!! Did you have some pictures of your mirage?

[debburyl]

I see you got a kiwi green Mirage!!! Awesome color there's several on this forum! Enjoy

[25Plus]

Thank You. The Space Star is really economical, though it is not hightech but rather cheap. But the low weight, the good aerodynamics and the long gear ratios make it very efficient.

We have a really good comparison portal in Germany for fuel efficiency, called Spritmonitor, where nearly every car and motor option can be compared:

Space Star 1.0: 4,9 l/100 km
Space Star 1.2: 5,1 l/100 km
Cuore L251: 5,25 l/100 km

The Space Star 1.0 is the most efficient conventional car with gasoline engine, that can be bought in Europe right now and that´s what my test drives showed, too. And until now I can even confirm the savings of about 0,1 l/100 km compared to the Daihatsu because I converted my driving style with my Cuore about 5 years ago and reached 3,9 l/100 km since.

[25Plus]

Welcome !!!! To the forum!!! Did you have some pictures of your mirage?

Yes, I added some pictures to my garage. But I don´t know how to get inside the garage. I can only see the main picture in any garage.

I made the pictures the day I got the car with about 30 km on the odometer. The first trip was to the DIY store to buy car polishing. Then I washed my new car and polished it only 1 hour after picking it up from the car dealer.

I´m a real petrolhead, but not the kind of loving big motors and repairing the cars myself.

PS: Now I added some text to my pictures and they are shown correctly.

[MetroMPG]

Welcome, Florian!

Glad to have another Space Star owner on the forum. This is the first time I've seen this wheel style on a Mirage/Space Star ... and with Mitsubishi badging):



They look great!

You're not alone: there are a lot of petrolheads on this forum. I'm one, but I love efficient cars myself.

Did you consider getting the 1.0L version?

Darin

[25Plus]

No, because you can only get the 1.2 liter version with this trim level. And my new car should not be slower than my old one . But the Space Star with the european gearbox has much too long gear ratios in gears 1-3 and therefore a rather bad acceleration, especially compared to my Daihatsu.

[debburyl]

Florian, your mirage is Really Sharp!!! I love those wheels!!! Mitsubishi should put those on all the ES here in the U.S.. The more I see the kiwi mirage I really like it! It grows on you. I have some wheels that I bought still in the box for mine hope to have them put on here soon.

[25Plus]

I added a garage for my Daihatsu Cuore. I sent it in early retirement cause the salt on the streets in winter is very bad for the bodywork and there are some problems with the motor when it´s very warm (exhaust gas smell inside the car > 15°C) or cold (mechanical rattling at the cold start < 0°C). But performance is rather good, fuel consumtion is very low and oil consumption is about 0.1 l/1000 km. So I think the motor can be repaired - I don´t want to steel him his heart and give him another one though it might be much cheaper.

I will post some performance figures the next days when I have time to. That was one of my hobbies when I studied mechanical engineer and I wrote my diploma thesis about calculating fuel/energy consumption of parallel hybrid, electric and conventional cars a few years ago.