Well, on the transmission question, we learned a few more interesting tidbits this week:
1)
Australia expects to sell about 30% of its Mirages with the manual 5-speed, 70% with the CVT. (The Oz Mirage
officially went on sale this week.)
while...
2)
New Zealand won't get the 5-speed at all in the Mirage. "No demand," their sales/marketing contact told me. CVT only.
Sheesh!
Are Ozzies and Kiwis really that different?
Still don't know what transmissions will be available in the US, where only around
6.5% of new cars have manual shift these days. You can understand why a company might say "why bother".