Just thought I'd throw this out there.

I've modded the heck out of the suspension of this car. That doesn't affect fuel economy much, other than I can confidently take turns faster than I should with zero drama... thus slowing down less. The big killer for me is the 195/50 "max performance summer tires" that I have on the car (Dunlop Direzza ZIII), which are decidedly non eco-friendly.

My latest mod was an ECU tweak (add-on, OBD plug-in thingy) that has advanced ignition timing, and made the throttle a lot more sensitive. But, I don't think this has affected fuel economy at all... as long as I keep my foot out of it. Oh, and I'm also running 91 or 93 octane. Have been forever just in an effort to get the ECU to learn to keep the timing more advanced. And now that I've got a "tuner" that's forcing it to be more advanced, I "need" to run that octane.

So... Typical running around town, I'll see 32 mpg on short trips. Maybe 34-36 on a longer trip... maybe even 40-42 if it's a particularly long trip and I hit the lights just right. That's in "typical" suburban/urban traffic, driving "mostly economically", but not "hypermiling".

Decided to do a brief (maybe 10 miles?) post-lunch, casual economy run this afternoon. I reset the MPG with the car warmed up and while sitting at a light. I was pretty lucky with the traffic lights, and took a very light-traffic and low-speed route that kept me between 30 and 40 most of the time. I never turned off the AC, and never cut the engine. Neutral coasted for long flat or downhill stretches. DFCO when coming to a stop. Gentle/moderate acceleration. Shifted no higher than 3k and babied the throttle in top gear, never cruising below about 1800-2000.

Net result for this trip: 46.3 mpg.

Add 1.3% for tire size difference = 46.9 mpg

I'm still disappointed that it's SO HARD to get 50 mpg in this car without getting into serious hypermiling. (EOC, extreme coast-downs, etc) I could get my manual trans Yaris (with the same tire/wheel package) to 50+ with nothing but DFCO... perhaps not "easily", but "regularly". And the Versa that I used for a DE car with it's awful CVT... it would do 47-48 EASY, and hit 50+ on occasion if I used neutral coasting.

So... yeah, if I kept the stock narrow eco tires and ran without the AC... I'd probably hit 50-52 pretty easily. And that's good. But, for what this car is supposed to be, it seems that cars like the Yaris and Versa are capable of the same trick (50 mpg) without quite as much work.

I just have to remind myself that no matter how I drive my Mirage, I'm still getting AT LEAST 30% better fuel economy than the typical cars and SUV's around me.

One thing I will say about the Mirage is that it recovers its average MPG from a cold start better than anything else. The Yaris and Versa would make a cold-start trek from my driveway to the main road (25 mph, about 3/4 mile, two stops) and see maybe 12-14 mpg. The Mirage will regularly be at 21+ in that distance. Much better management of cold-start fuel. But, it loses HARD on acceleration. To get that little 1.2 to motivate, it uses some fuel.

My love/hate relationship with the Mirage continues.

But, it's still fun to show up at an autocross and beat 1/2 to 2/3 of everyone there in a car with 74 horsepower. (and get an easy 40+ mpg on the way home with delightful air conditioning and Bluetooth audio)