Originally Posted by
gregsfc
Two things I don't like about the new Mirage are: automatic climate control and 3,000 RPM at 60 mph; but as soon as I can make it work in the budget, I'll be trading the Soul for a Mirage and put up with a climate control that makes decsions for me and a fast-running engine along my commute. For reference, my truck turns 1510 rpm; and the Soul turns 2750 along my commute. I think its right that the 2019 Mirage comes standard with cruise and manual climate controls, but so far I'm not seeing a low enough price in a slightly-used Mirage to make economic sense. Thanks to this group for all you do.
RPM's run higher in overdrive with the Mirage manuals than the CVTs. I think that's why the CVT (in theory) gets superior fuel economy to the manual.
From the sounds of your tastes, I'd probably lean towards manual. The Mirage is a bit of a slow poke, but controlling your own RPMs more with the manual, means you can make more noise... and get a little bit better acceleration.
At 110 km's per hour, like 55-60 miles an hour, my Mirage in 5th gear is at around 3100 RPM. I don't think higher RPM is always a direct correlation with worse fuel economy. General rule yes. But the Mirage's 3 banger is designed to run at higher RPMs and still get 40 MPG+.
I've had my Mirage almost 7 years and I have almost always gotten 40 MPG on average, and 50 MPG in the summer. If you're going past 60 or 70 mph, the Mirage starts to drink fuel. This is what happened to me last year going through Flint to Lansing, and trying to keep up with traffic.
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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)