[Hockeynut]

I have not been around to post as been pretty busy and now I see Ol Mechanic is no longer here.Never been a big poster but Ol Mechanic seemed like he would always be here.Take things for granted at times.I see this thread has fizzled since he has left.Anyway I hope he is doing well.

Well my lil Mits has close to 49,000 miles on it and still tight and quiet.There was a post somewhere in here where a question was asked about mileage at 70mph..At 70 the 3cyl is turning close to 4k rpm`s and mileage drops drastically to around 40 mpg.

I try to stay around 55-58 mph to keep it above 50mpg but sometimes not possible without getting run over.

As far as reliability this car has never given me any trouble at all until recently.The air conditioner quit blowing cold air last week and when I turn it on there is a slight noise that sounds as though a bearing has gone bad from the compressor itself.I scheduled an appt next week and while on the phone with the service dept I asked the fella have you seen this problem before.He replies we sell alot of these cars and have only seen this problem a few times.

I like the car alot but after hearing his comment I can say there is not alot of these cars on the road as one can see with my mileage in a somewhat short time on the road I have not seen alot of these cars on the road.I do not like the odds and my concern at this point is this going to be a problem every 50k miles?

That being said the warranty is good for 100k and I am not convinced this problem will go away after the ac is fixed!.So I started looking for a new vehicle and from what I have seen there is nothing naturally aspirated on the market that will beat this car.Did however see some pretty good mileage specs on the Honda Civic turbo 6spd.

Found the price of the Civic turbo to be reasonable and as I was looking through this thread for the first time in over a yr I see another member Baltothewolf in post #144 mention this vehicle so was wondering if you had bought one Baltothewolf? Or anyone else for that matter.Looks like a very quick econmical car to drive.

Hate to get rid of lil blue but I hope this ac issue is a fluke but not so sure after the fella at the service departments answer.It gets pretty hot here for a good percentage of the year and I do not want to budget an ac fix in the annual expense account.

Any input from other mirage owners about this prob is greatly appreciated and also from anyone recommending a new economical naturally aspirated vehicle.

Thanks for the site and again hope all is well with Ol Mechanic.

HN