Page 1 of 9 123 ... LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 87

Thread: Not getting the magical mileage that is advertised for this car.

  1. #1
    Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2019
    Location
    Pasco, washington
    Country
    United States
    Posts
    31
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked 9 Times in 5 Posts

    Not getting the magical mileage that is advertised for this car.

    So I bought this car a month or so ago. A 2015 with 67000 miles. My way to work is 9 MI 6 of witches highway. And my MPG has been all over the place. My lowest has been 31, and my highest average has been 38. Total of an averaging 34 or 35. it seems that the smallest changes in wind affect mileage and cold weather affect mileage also. These are not computer estimates these are top off at the pump calculations.

    I did install roof racks but I might take them off to see if it helps a bit. I don't think it would affect it this much.

    I'm disappointed. Today I went to pick up my daughter and the route there is 50 miles an hour almost no stops for 10 MI. And my computer averaged it out to 40 miles per gallon. Which is great, but considering it's 50 miles an hour I should be getting more than 40 MPG which is what stated for highway mileage from the EPA.

    I guess I should state that I live in a part of Washington state that doesn't have a ton of flat area and there's usually a little bit of wind sometimes a lot of wind. (Oh my God this car has terrible noise with side winds.)

    I feel like a Toyota Corolla could have gotten better mileage than this with the 4-cylinder. honestly I wouldn't have bought this car if it wasn't for the advertised amazing mileage. If it wasn't for a mileage nobody would buy this car lol.

    Where do I need to start to figure out what's going on here? Thank you


    Last edited by Codylehr23; 05-25-2019 at 05:47 AM.

  2. #2
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Country is Europe, state is Germany
    Country
    Germany
    Posts
    1,713
    Thanks
    234
    Thanked 1,158 Times in 670 Posts
    Firstly, the advertised mpg for any car is usually a bit more optimistic than everyday reality. That is a fact, but don't despair or give up, because you can easily learn to get very much improvement!
    Secondly, mpg has certainly very much to do with driving style. As an intro to the topic, you may start by looking through these pages:

    https://www.metrompg.com

    There is so much to say about driving economically, it would be too much for a single post. Just so much: Put the maximum allowed air pressure into the tyres, and drive like you were barefoot with thumbtacks on the brake pedal.

    In Europe we have Spritmonitor.de ( https://www.spritmonitor.de/en/evalu...ic_models.html ) where anybody can log their car expenses, that being fuel, workshop and everything else. According to spritmonitor.de this car is the second on the list of most economical non-hybrid, and we have very much more models of economical cars in Europe that are not sold in the Americas!

    According to Spritmonitor.de, the most economical petrol-only non-hybrid car is the Suzuki Celerio, at 4.7Litres per 100km. The second non-hybrid petrol-only car is the "Mitsubishi Spacestar from 2012 on" which is our model. It performs at 5.09 L / 100km. Note: On Spritmonitor the Mirage is listed as the Spacestar from 2012 on, because it was sold here under the old Spacestar name. Mitsubishi had overseen that the name "Mirage" is registered for Europe by another organization.

    Btw, My 1.0L MT Spacestar was advertise at "4.2L/100km" which is almost exactly what I am getting in everyday use. It took me a while to learn to get that sort of economy and I'm not driving like a snail, in fact some say I'm racing too fast. According to https://www.unitjuggler.com/convert-...km-to-mpg.html 4.2L/100km comes out to 56 mpg (US).
    Last edited by foama; 05-25-2019 at 08:16 AM.

  3. The Following User Says Thank You to foama For This Useful Post:

    Eggman (05-25-2019)

  4. #3
    Where's 6th? BecauseRaceCar's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2015
    Location
    Central Texas
    Country
    United States
    Posts
    100
    Thanks
    28
    Thanked 38 Times in 25 Posts
    As stated by foama, driving style is one of the largest factors impacting efficiency. Another is power to weight ratio and terrain. When climbing hills I have found that the quicker I get to the top of the hill the less it impacts my overall efficiency. It can be a little counter intuitive do downshift another gear and run higher rpm for a shorter amount of time. I have the manual, so I am not sure how the cvt reacts to the extra load on hills. You are right though, a more powerful engine would improve fuel economy over the under powered 3A92 in hilly areas due to not working as close to it's limit.

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2015 Mirage DE 1.2 manual: 38.6 mpg (US) ... 16.4 km/L ... 6.1 L/100 km ... 46.4 mpg (Imp)


  5. #4
    Senior Member Cobrajet's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2015
    Location
    Olympia, WA
    Country
    United States
    Posts
    3,126
    Thanks
    1,197
    Thanked 1,848 Times in 1,101 Posts
    Terrain is a factor. Tire pressure is a factor. Your driving style is a factor. Temperature is a factor. Wind is a factor. Wind drag is a factor (lose those roof racks, they are mpg KILLERS). Electrical load is a factor.

    CVTs generally don't get as good of mileage as manual cars. Are you using your AC? Turn it off.

  6. #5
    Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2019
    Location
    Pasco, washington
    Country
    United States
    Posts
    31
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked 9 Times in 5 Posts
    I'm not trying to make it sound like this is a bad car lol.

    So I rarely use my AC, I have my tires inflated to 48psi, I think that's 5psi higher then what stated on the tire. I don't drive with my foot on the pedal heavily, in fact I take it as easy as possible especially at stop signs. I coast as much as possible in neutral also.

    I feel like I'm driving much slower and cautiously then I should be, and yet I'm not averaging even close to EPA estimates.

    Yes I should take off the roof racks to see how much it improves. But then again this is kind of been an issue before I put the roof racks on.

    When it's windy I understand that mileage drops dramatically, not only do you hear the wind a lot, you can feel the car working very hard to keep up.

  7. #6
    Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2019
    Location
    Pasco, washington
    Country
    United States
    Posts
    31
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked 9 Times in 5 Posts
    Is it possible that a malfunctioning transmission could cause this? My CvT has questionable behavior at times. Occasional hard shifting, occasional minor searching. I have changed the fluid in the CVT about 6 times, due to the fluid being very dirty. I dropped the pen last night and the two magnets didn't have any large chunks but it had a minor pileup of metal sludge. and in where the cartridge filter supposed to be on the side there was no filter and there was a few metal chunks in there.

    Maybe I bought a lemon

  8. #7
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2017
    Location
    SW, WI
    Country
    United States
    Posts
    7,401
    Thanks
    594
    Thanked 2,688 Times in 2,106 Posts
    Quote Originally Posted by Codylehr23 View Post
    I'm not trying to make it sound like this is a bad car lol.

    So I rarely use my AC, I have my tires inflated to 48psi, I think that's 5psi higher then what stated on the tire. I don't drive with my foot on the pedal heavily, in fact I take it as easy as possible especially at stop signs. I coast as much as possible in neutral also.

    I feel like I'm driving much slower and cautiously then I should be, and yet I'm not averaging even close to EPA estimates.

    Yes I should take off the roof racks to see how much it improves. But then again this is kind of been an issue before I put the roof racks on.

    When it's windy I understand that mileage drops dramatically, not only do you hear the wind a lot, you can feel the car working very hard to keep up.
    The roof rack may be creating more drag than you think? If not, something else must be going on?

    I did a 4 hour drive to my parents last weekend. Half of that drive is a 4-lane state highway (65-70 mph speed limit) & the other half is country 2-lane roads (55 mph speed limit). I tend to drive up to 5 mph above the posted speed limit the majority of the time. Thus, I am doing 60-75 mph for most of this trip. The one tank of gas that was entirely this trip was 48 mpg. This is the time of year (don't really need the heat or A/C) when I get the best mpg.

    My Mirage (5 speed manual) was loaded up (hunting blinds, 3 folding chairs, 2 shotguns, lots of hunting clothes, other luggage, 3 turkey decoys, 4 pairs of boots, cooler, etc....) for this trip. It was packed pretty full, but probably not as heavy as having 4 people in the car. I keep my tires @ about 42 psi most of the time.

    No matter what the driving conditions have been or the load I am carrying, I seldom see under 40 mpg. During an extremely cold spell of 0 to -20F for consecutive days, I may see a drop to 39 mpg. That's been rare, however.

  9. #8
    Senior Member dspace9's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2016
    Location
    Canada
    Country
    Canada
    Posts
    3,022
    Thanks
    1,810
    Thanked 692 Times in 564 Posts
    Quote Originally Posted by Codylehr23 View Post
    I'm not trying to make it sound like this is a bad car lol.

    So I rarely use my AC, I have my tires inflated to 48psi, I think that's 5psi higher then what stated on the tire.
    48 psi is like 13 psi over the manuafcturer's recommended of 35 psi... so

    You sure your tire pressure isn't too high? That's what 30% higher psi than the owner's manual for the Mirage recommends, not the tiny 5 psi over you think you're at. Tires and fuel economy are definitely related things.

    Plus you must have one bumpy ride, ever driven a truck with solid rubber tires?
    Last edited by dspace9; 05-25-2019 at 04:48 PM.

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2014 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 42.2 mpg (US) ... 17.9 km/L ... 5.6 L/100 km ... 50.7 mpg (Imp)


  10. #9
    Moderator Eggman's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2015
    Location
    Cleveland, Ohio
    Country
    United States
    Posts
    10,152
    Thanks
    4,038
    Thanked 2,785 Times in 2,104 Posts
    Quote Originally Posted by Codylehr23 View Post
    Is it possible that a malfunctioning transmission could cause this? My CvT has questionable behavior at times. Occasional hard shifting, occasional minor searching. I have changed the fluid in the CVT about 6 times, due to the fluid being very dirty. I dropped the pen last night and the two magnets didn't have any large chunks but it had a minor pileup of metal sludge. and in where the cartridge filter supposed to be on the side there was no filter and there was a few metal chunks in there.

    Maybe I bought a lemon
    What are you using for CVT fluid?

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2015 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 49.6 mpg (US) ... 21.1 km/L ... 4.7 L/100 km ... 59.5 mpg (Imp)


  11. #10
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2017
    Location
    SW, WI
    Country
    United States
    Posts
    7,401
    Thanks
    594
    Thanked 2,688 Times in 2,106 Posts
    Many Mirage tires are probably going to have a maximum 44 psi stamped on them. That seems to be a common maximum. There are some that are different like the Vredestein Quatrac 5 lists a maximum 51 psi.

    Personally, I wouldn't do the recommended 32 psi, but I also wouldn't go over the recommended psi for any particular tire either. It's stamped on the tire for a reason. I like keeping tires near the maximum range, but I wouldn't recommend going over.

    Going over the recommended psi is probably not causing your low mpg problem, nor is it apparently helping.



Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •