Impressed with real life fuel economy

[laceygirl]

It really is a beautiful continent... :-) Unfortunately we have a dickhead running our country right now, so I'd wait till next year when the new Government will be elected....

Thank you Inuvik and Cyclopathic :-)

We pronounce Australia "Straya" Its the worst kind of slang... lol....

[cyclopathic]

It really is a beautiful continent... :-) Unfortunately we have a dickhead running our country right now, so I'd wait till next year when the new Government will be elected....

Thank you Inuvik and Cyclopathic :-)

We pronounce Australia "Straya" Its the worst kind of slang... lol....

That's ok politicians come and go but people stay the same, and everyone tell me Aussies are great.

A few years back a friend of mine went there for 3mo. When I asked him how it was he said 1) it is the best surfing he ever seen, 2) everyone was very friendly, and was not letting him pay for drinks 3) "chalries love 'merkins" b/c quote "we are such gentlemen" (whatever it means )

By any chance what would it take to get a half-decent motorbike over there? Either rent or buy and then sell w/o loosing too much. Also how hot/cold it gets in desert this time of the year? From what I understand you don't wanna be there in Jan-Feb.

[laceygirl]

Heaps of people do the country on the back of a bike... There are heaps of bike hire places, you can also buy a cheap bike here and sell it when you leave.... That's a popular option...

And now you know me, so you've already got a place to visit... :-)

[cyclopathic]

I've yet to drive a Prius C, but I have numbers to compare against one on the same "economy run" rally route.

When you drive the Mirage "like a hybrid" (meaning, doing the manual version of Auto Stop & Go, which isn't offered on the North American cars, plus lots of coasting in neutral where appropriate), they're extremely close.

Route: 200 km / 120 miles round trip of challenging, fast twisty country roads, sizeable elevation change (400 m / 1300 ft.), a short bit of freeway driving (~10%), a short bit of sub/urban driving (~10%).

On the identical route in the same conditions...

Prius C: got 4.05 L/100 km = 58.1 mpg US = 24.7 km/L = 69.8 mpg Imp.

Mirage 5-speed, base model: got 3.98 L/100 km = 59.1 mpg US = 25.1 km/L = 71 mpg Imp.

More about the rally in this thread.

That is really interesting info, thanks!

I've driven Mirage/C over the same routes in my usual way, and the difference in MPG was fluctuating between as low as 7% and as high as 24%. (This is going by the ECU calculator) Since my avg "electric" on "C" is 16% since last oil change, it looks like they are very close, and the gain is mostly due to hybrid drive.

A couple side notes:
1) C takes longer time to warm up, so on short drives in colder weather Mirage may have upper hand
2) C electric A/C has lesser impact on MPG than old school A/C on Mirage
3) Mirage looses consistently in urban/slow speed congested traffic

Lack of Auto Stop & Go may be hurting Mirage, but so do the additional 600lbs "C" has to carry. I am not sure how the tires have to do with it; Mirage has 165/65R14 Enasaves and "C" has 175/65R15 FuelMax. FuelMax isn't the best MPG tire, barely above better non-LRRs, and Enasave does not have a point of reference. "C" does have the suspension sorted out, so I can carry alot more speed through the corners.

[MetroMPG]

Thanks for the added perspective.

I picked up an '04 Prius last month. I'm looking forward to driving it (I won't be driving it regularly for another month or two). I get a kick out of the hybrid system.

[cyclopathic]

I get a kick out of the hybrid system.

the kick is actually in trying to convert all kinetic energy to electric at stops. Were on Mirage you put it in neutral and roll on hybrid you need to find ideal brake point at which you apply brakes at 50% and get to full stop w/o modulation. That is the only way you can get 100% score.

[theforerunner343]

I want to weigh in my 2 cents. Previously, I owned a 2006 Honda Insight hybrid. I've been able to sqeeze over 80mpg US out of that a few times. BUT when I'm driving it comfortably (that is, using minimal technique, a/c on, etc), I get about 60mpg US sometimes as low as 50mpg US. When I'm driving the Mirage comfortably, I'm getting about 53mpg US which is impressively close considering that it's generally faster than the Insight and zips around with much less effort. I find that with the sacrifice of a little mpg, I much prefer the Mirage over the Insight because it does what it does with much less thought and effort on my part.

[MetroMPG]

Well, that makes at least 3 Mirage fans here who owned gen 1 Insights. (Old Mechanic too.)

No coincidence!

Where the g.1 Insight really shined was at moderate cruising speeds on the highway, in lean burn mode. In my aero-modified 2000 I was able to get 100+ mpg US cruising on back roads with an 80 km/h (50 mph) limit. (That's a round trip result over several hundred km.)

[theforerunner343]

Before the Insight I owned a Honda Civic HX that also had lean burn. I only owned it for a little over 2 years but I put over 40k miles on it with an average of 42mpg and I loved it to it's grave!

[Bernadine]

If Mitsubishi added a hybrid element to the Mirage, or if someone installed an HHO kit, I'm sure we'd be seeing nearly 100 mpg.