Clessy (11-30-2020)
Just wanted to chime in. I've rocked around 300cca mini batteries in cars for years and had no issues. Like real cars with big engines. My v6 eclipse had a 330cca lithium battery for 2 years before I moved it to my 97 mirage. People greatly over estimate the power they need for their car.
300cca is a far cry from the 120cca that Loren was using. Don't these things come stock with only 435cca? Smaller batteries might work fine where you can see grass all year long but not in the northern parts of the continent. At least not in the winter.
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View my fuel log 2014 Mirage SE wussie cvt edition. 1.2 automatic: 37.7 mpg (US) ... 16.0 km/L ... 6.2 L/100 km ... 45.3 mpg (Imp)
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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)
With that said, it's like summer here at 40F lol.
Edit: apparently so is Cleveland!
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View my fuel log 2014 Mirage SE wussie cvt edition. 1.2 automatic: 37.7 mpg (US) ... 16.0 km/L ... 6.2 L/100 km ... 45.3 mpg (Imp)
My wife commented that we're getting down to 42 degrees tomorrow night. Brrr! I get cold feet at anything below 74 degrees. The AC is on right now, set to 77.
We get winter here. It just comes a day or two at a time. And it's laughably mild if you're from the frozen North. And, yes, it's always green here.
My itty bitty battery works quite well as long as I'm regularly driving the car. It doesn't like it if I leave the car resting for a week or two at a time, and especially doesn't like it if I combine that with a lot of engine-off coasting so that it never gets a proper charge.
But, used normally for daily driving in a warm climate, it works.
Modern cars are designed to work in EVERY environment. So, for example, you've got a WAY more robust cooling system in the Mirage than what you need in Canada... but, it has to cope with 120 degree summers in Arizona without a bunch of warranty claims for blowed up overheated engines. Likewise, the 400+ CCA battery that the car comes with is WAY overkill for Florida, but you need every bit of it in a place where it's cold.
Simplify and add lightness.
Here in metro Atlanta, anything less than 55°F is F-R-E-E-Z-I-N-G.
In the coldest part of the winter, we may average just below actual freezing. But on occasion we will see some decent dips below that. But not frequent enough to break out the thermal underwear. The most northern place I may ever live again will be Knoxville, TN.
I can see why Loren would run his little battery for autocross. But, I'm going to try to spend as close to $0 on my Mirage and extend crossing the threshold of hitting 100k miles out to 9 years and 364 days. Then it may be subjected to resell depending...
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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)
Change is nice. We can have a some 40c(104F) days in the summer and -40c(-40F) weeks in the winter. Stupid winter. I hate winter. It's stupid.
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View my fuel log 2014 Mirage SE wussie cvt edition. 1.2 automatic: 37.7 mpg (US) ... 16.0 km/L ... 6.2 L/100 km ... 45.3 mpg (Imp)
Yeah we're supposed to get clobbered with snow here in the next 24-48 hours. There's been Winter Storm advisories put out in local media since yesterday afternoon.
As if we haven't seen a little snow here in Cleveland. We're ready - we have a salt mine under Lake Erie that makes its way onto our roads and rots our cars. I guess it's better than sliding around on the ice.
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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)