First impressions: Mirage LS CVT (New Zealand)

[Madison320]

The car's steering really didn't bother me at all. But I only drove in the city. (However neither of my 2 'highway' cars have strong self-centering, and I'm used to them.)

What is self centered steering?

[Madison320]

Hm. I've never thought of it as a safety feature. I always considered it more of a "feel" and fuel-saving feature. Once the car is moving, you don't need nearly as much effort to steer, so it made sense to dial down the assist to give more driving feedback. Also, turning off or reducing assist when it's not strictly needed saves a bit of fuel.

One of the first things I would do with a Mirage is disable the power assist... see how much effort is required for manual steering. I pulled the fuse for electric power assist in my Insight, and my Firefly/Metro has factory manual steering.

Interesting idea. One thing that helps me with steering is a steering wheel cover. That little extra grip helps a lot. I bought one a couple days ago but it was too big so I just bought the kind that you use a vinyl "string" to wrap around the cover. I like that kind better anyway.

Also I saw a company that sells leather covers called Wheelskins. I may end up getting one of those.

[MetroMPG]

What is self centered steering?

Self-centering is the tendency of the steering to return to dead-straight-ahead after turning the wheel a lot or a little.

Depending on the geometry of the front suspension, some cars have a very strong self-centering tendency, while others need input from the driver. The Mirage is more like the second case -- you could dial in a couple of degrees of steering on a sweeping highway curve, and when you release pressure on the wheel the car will hold that arc instead of going immediately back to center. More driver input required.

[bearhugman]

Just had the first service done.
A few things I wanted looked at.
The aircond not that cold. Apparently it is within spec.
Steering. The dealer suggested an alignment.
And lastly quite a lot of hesitation on acceration. Apparently this is normal!

$300 bucks.

Did get an alignment done. And it has made a substantial improvement in the steering and handling. Yeah!

And as for the hesitation, have driven two other mirages and they were the same. So I guess I just have to accept that. Though I have run a tank of 98 octane, and that made quite a difference to acceleration and decreased the rough acceleration. So may have to pay for premium fuel from now on!

[grsupercity]

I run premium in my car, it cost more but I really believe it last longer