My parents have a 2009 Honda Civic hybrid. (Doh:
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...nst-28842.html )
The Civic hybrid (CVT only) is EPA rated at:
- 40 city
- 45 hwy
- 42 combined
The Mirage sedan (CVT) is EPA rated at:
- 35 city
- 42 hwy
- 37 combined
My dad and I did a quick 'n' dirty, non-scientific comparison between the two cars:
Route details:
- sub/urban driving
- both cars warm but not hot (driven within the previous few hours)
- weather warm (~70 F / 21 C) & dry
- 2 traffic lights (red each time); 8 stop signs; no impeding traffic to speak of
- 20 minutes round trip
The test:
- Both cars were driven at the same rates of acceleration (I followed). A/C was off.
- The Mirage was not close enough to benefit from the Civic's draft
- To level the playing field with the Civic engine "auto-stop" feature, I turned off the Mirage's engine when I'd be stopped for more than ~5 seconds.
Results:
Civic hybrid: 35.7 mpg US
Mirage sedan: 39.3 mpg US
Those are uncalibrated gauges. So take it with a grain of salt! (The last Mirage I had, its gauge was ~5% optimistic. I've never checked the accuracy of this Civic's MPG gauge.) So, effectively a tie?
What's most interesting to me is the Mirage easily outperformed its EPA rating, where the Civic underperformed its. This is consistent with what Mirage owners are seeing.