Originally Posted by
Eggman
Hey 7milesout let’s revisit this in 3-5,000 miles after break-in.
Ha! I just did revisit this mpg after break-in. I just went up there and back this past weekend. My sons just wanted to go. They had few school commitments. So we loaded the car up and went. Lots of differences in this trip though. From the cursory check of the owner's manual, it seems the difference between the G.V.W.R. and the weight of the car is about 827 pounds.
Myself and my 3 sons, we're about 880 pounds. Plus our luggage. We easily put 910 ± 20 pounds on the car. So, it was officially over-loaded. Aside from the rear suspension bottoming out, it handled it well.
My oldest son is maybe 220 pounds. We picked him up at KSU, which is about 1/3rd of the drive up there. That last 200 lbs really makes a difference on the suspension. Even without that last ~200 pounds, I think we bottomed out a bit on I-285. But after my 3rd son getting in, it bottomed on anything more than a cute little bunny bump. But not horrible bottoming. It only bottomed out badly 1 time. So, write this down in your little black book, expect bottoming near G.V.W.R.
Because I had forgotten about this post and the 72 mph certified rating speed, we ran a steady 70 mph. As I'm always trying to achieve. Long story short, the B AVG read 43.8 mpg. 43.8 x 0.93 = 40.73 mpg. I find that OUTSTANDING. Considering it was 90°F+ on both interstate runs, so we were full blasting the AC (and it did keep up, but it felt like it had very little left in AC reserve), and the car was hauling OVER its G.V.W.R. $5 per gallon diesel fuel be damned, the jacked up Powerjokes rolling on hugh off-road tires were still blowing me off the road, and probably 11 mpg or so. But that's a different thread.
Just for the safety minded, before I left, not only did I confirm the air pressures were all good, I had the tires rotated ... again. I also confirmed that the tires are good for another 942 pounds above the G.V.W.R. That's 235.5 pounds per tire. Tires are always my biggest concern when it comes to safety.
Guys - It doesn't matter what other people say, or think about the Mirage. For the money, it is one helluva good tool. The fact that it knocked out 40.7 mpg under those conditions confirms that the engine wasn't working all that hard. In the fuel economy chart (I can't remember exactly how) I used the numbers and recreated the graph. I have found those lines to be VERY accurate. According to that chart, the 5-speed hatch @ 70 mph the numbers comes out to ~42.7 mpg. I did drive a skosh around town too, and under fully loaded conditions and full AC, I think my 40.7 mpg is quite amazing.
I'll keep posting here when I do a trip and have "certified" mpg numbers.
7milesout
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View my fuel log 2020 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 42.4 mpg (US) ... 18.0 km/L ... 5.5 L/100 km ... 51.0 mpg (Imp)