Why are you shopping arm rests for a rental car?
The takeaway from your co-workers (co-workplace-attendees?) in the previous couple of posts: people love change!
I can't comment on the accuracy of the Mirage's digital fuel gauge, but I'm sure if you really want to know, there's a thread or 2 about it on the Mirage forum.
Also: the manual Mirage is a very different driving experience vs. the CVT. I once suggested to a PR rep at Mitsubishi that they should only loan 5-speed Mirages to auto journalists - it would reduce the amount of bashing the car gets from traditional gearhead types. He thought I was joking.