What did you do to your Mirage today?

[Mark]

. The Mirage should have been able to do this and it did for 72K miles. My 323 had 310K miles on it will no cylinder wear and the Protege had 146K on it with no wear. Same oil and the same oil change intervals. I am very disappointed.

I don't blame you for being very disappointed. I'm disappointed, & it's not my car!

I remember the Mazda 323, but never knew anyone who owned one. Did you drive your 82 hp 323 the same as your G4?

[Mechanic]

Dspace,
. . . . You have to remember that I am a retired Master Auto Tech and a professional driver. I now have over 2.4 million miles under my belt. The Mirage doesn't have enough torque to go flat out in 5th gear. It is quicker in 4th gear. I made the run to 110 MPH when I had about 50K miles on it. The engine is rated at 85 HP by Mitsubishi but I believe that it is making closer to 110 HP.
. . . . Remember our speed limits are much higher here in the states and most states have more miles in paved roads than all of roads in Canada combined. I have now completed all 48 states in the lower 48. I only have AK left to drive. I completed NH and VT on this last drive. I also went to Key West. The most Southern Point in the lower 48. I have now completed Interstates 2, 4, 8, 10, 20, 40, 44, 90, 94, 25, 29, 35, 55, 57, 59 65, 69, and 95. I am trying to drive every interstate in the country before my cancer kills me. I drive at 5 mph above the posted speed limit on the open road. I obey the speed limit in the towns and cities.
GOD Bless and Thanks,
rich!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Years!!

[Mechanic]

Mark,
. . . . Yes, exactly the same. I have never changed my driving habits. For the first 500 miles I keep the RPMs below 4K. After that I slowly build towards the redline. After 5K miles I go to the redline on a regular basis. Up to 5K miles I vary the RPMs but after that I drive the car the way I intend on driving it for the rest of the life of the car. I did open up the engine on the 323 at 170K miles but it was because I broke the radiator petcock off and I burnt the exhaust valves. The original hone marks were still visible in the cylinders at 170K miles. When I sold the car at 310K miles it was not using any oil between changes and it was still getting 30 MPG.
. . . . The cylinder scuffing doesn't make any sense to me because the Mirage hadn't used any oil even though there was 5K miles on the oil change. Not a drop.
GOD Bless and Thanks,
rich!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

[dspace9]

I'm sorry rich. Key West is pretty cool, I visited there when I was a kid. Econoline van with a bonair trailer.

[Mechanic]

Mark,
. . . . I forgot to mention that I was getting 100K miles on the rotary engines in my RX-3 and I was making 500 hp in a 1.3/2.6L engine at 11.5K RPM. Lots of power in a very small engine at very high RPM. I ran those engines on Castrol GTX until the Syntech/Edge became available. I never had bearing failures in those engines. It was always side seal failures.
GOD Bless and Thanks,
rich!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

[Mechanic]

Dspace,
. . . . It was one of the things on my bucket list to do. I now have a picture with the Atlantic Ocean behind me and another with the Gulf behind me. Very cool indeed. Sounds like you had fun.
GOD Bless and Thanks,
rich!
Merry Christmas and Happ New Year!!

[Mark]

Dspace,
. . . . You have to remember that I am a retired Master Auto Tech and a professional driver. I now have over 2.4 million miles under my belt. The Mirage doesn't have enough torque to go flat out in 5th gear. It is quicker in 4th gear. I made the run to 110 MPH when I had about 50K miles on it. The engine is rated at 85 HP by Mitsubishi but I believe that it is making closer to 110 HP.
. . . . Remember our speed limits are much higher here in the states and most states have more miles in paved roads than all of roads in Canada combined. I have now completed all 48 states in the lower 48. I only have AK left to drive. I completed NH and VT on this last drive. I also went to Key West. The most Southern Point in the lower 48. I have now completed Interstates 2, 4, 8, 10, 20, 40, 44, 90, 94, 25, 29, 35, 55, 57, 59 65, 69, and 95. I am trying to drive every interstate in the country before my cancer kills me. I drive at 5 mph above the posted speed limit on the open road. I obey the speed limit in the towns and cities.
GOD Bless and Thanks,
rich!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Years!!

2014-15 Mirages are 74 hp.
2017+ Mirages are rated @ 78 hp in North America. website states - "78 hp @ 6,000 rpm"
2021 Mirage is "78 PS, 76 hp @ 6,000 rpm" quoted from Mitsubishi's website specs.

2021 manual transmission ratios look the same as previous years.

I've own two vehicles with less hp than a Mirage. I don't feel the Mirage is blessed with any more power than what Mitsubishi is stating.

Like I said before, I have never heard of anyone driving a Mirage as hard as you. You may have proven the Mirage can't handle that sort of driving for extended periods of time, but mechanical things also break. Thankfully, the warranty covers it. WB also offers an unlimited mileage/lifetime powertrain warranty on their vehicles. I wonder how that plays out for some people?

A Mirage may not be built as well as your former Mazda vehicles? I am not convinced today's vehicles are built that great, but I have higher expectations for the Mirage. Hopefully, you can rack up 500,000 miles on the new engine & put our minds at ease!

As far as roads go, I don't think it matters what country you are driving in. A Canadian can rack up miles just as easily as an American.

[MirageRally]

But Mark, Dirk's Mirage is built tough as he can't go 65 and has the need for speed! lol.... And so is Loren's track monster... So they are built tough (when driven normally).... but nothing beats the reliability of cars of old... I'd say a Mirage is much better than many new cars with all this extra safety tech.

[Eggman]

I have now completed all 48 states in the lower 48. I only have AK left to drive. I completed NH and VT on this last drive. I also went to Key West. The most Southern Point in the lower 48. I have now completed Interstates 2, 4, 8, 10, 20, 40, 44, 90, 94, 25, 29, 35, 55, 57, 59 65, 69, and 95. I am trying to drive every interstate in the country before my cancer kills me. I drive at 5 mph above the posted speed limit on the open road. I obey the speed limit in the towns and cities.

Have you ever considered doing delivery? There's been swaps and for sale items on the forum that needed transport.

[dspace9]

Dspace,
. . . . It was one of the things on my bucket list to do. I now have a picture with the Atlantic Ocean behind me and another with the Gulf behind me. Very cool indeed. Sounds like you had fun.
GOD Bless and Thanks,
rich!
Merry Christmas and Happ New Year!!

Key West is great, however I think finding a live scorpion at the Disney campground in Orlando was the highlight!

Also loved catching geckos all over the place. My sisters and I were thrilled. A change from Canada.