Agreed! And I'd love to do that as well.
It takes some time to do these things... and there's no Mitsu dealership in my small city. I should get around to seeing if the company will loan me one for more thorough testing.
Until then, I can offer you the speed vs. fuel economy graph of the 5-speed only... we haven't yet seen one for the CVT (but it should be better).
Source:
Speed vs. mileage/fuel economy chart - Mirage 1.2L 5-spd
This data was collected by EcoModder member niky (thanks again!). And the AC was on. And the car had the drag-increasing "sport" spoiler instead of the aero spoiler.
I think it's a fair guess the CVT will outperform the manual on the open road. That's why I took a crack at comparing their urban performance first. It was a bigger unknown.