Quote Originally Posted by 905mirage View Post
Everyone above pretty much hit the nail on the head. As a commuter car its is fantastic. My wife commutes almost the same as you. She went from $240/month in gas (previous car) to under $100/month in the mirage! Off the line the 3cyl is a little rough and you won't win any stop light battles, that's for sure! But it does get there no problem and once up to speed the engine smooths out nicely and maintains speed with no issues. A lot of the Youtube experts say it struggles to keep up or pass traffic but we haven't found that to be the case at all!

A left over 2019 will save you lots of money over a new one. We picked up a left over 2019 ES with the CVT and they come nicely equipped. Good luck on your car shopping. Keep us posted with what you decide on!
I'd like to make a minor correction here: My 2017 ES CVT easily pulls away from other cars at stoplights, but you need to either mash the pedal to 80%+ throttle, or put it in "Ds" (sport?) and give about 50% throttle. The trade-off is it revs to 4-5k rpm, so your gas mileage will take a considerable hit if you do it at every stop, and you have to put it back in "D" or you'll be cruising around at 4k RPM all the time (the car also slows down much faster with your foot off the pedal in "Ds"). I usually only do it when I'm front of the line with someone behind me.

That said, I make around 42mpg (indicated) on my ~18 mile trip to work, 60/40 hwy/city. Probably closer to 46mpg on the interstate going 70-75mph for at least half that trip. Take the back roads at night, and still get around 42, but the speed limit is 55 and lights are farther apart than say Houston.