2014 Mitsubishi Mirage ecodriving highway run: 75 MPG (US) / 3.1 L/100 km

[MetroMPG]

Yes, they announced it's coming. Both 5-speed and CVT.

Apparently the CVT will have the better mpg rating, but in the hands of a skilled driver that won't be the case.

[Miller88]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Yes, they announced it's coming. Both 5-speed and CVT.

Apparently the CVT will have the better mpg rating, but in the hands of a skilled driver that won't be the case.

If you're the average not-connected driver, CVTs do very well. I drove a Versa with CVT around the city and it did a great job of keeping MPGs in the high 30s ... even with stopping at stoplights and taking off hard, etc.

They are a bit awkward and poorly tuned, though.

[MetroMPG]

Agreed - for the average driver, a CVT is best. Better than a slushbox, for sure.

And Mitsu has apparently put effort into tuning this CVT for good economy. It even automatically goes to neutral when stopped (and therefore also has "hill start assist" so you don't roll backward on grades when moving your foot back to the accelerator pedal).

While I have been making comparisons of the new Mirage to the old Chevy Metro, one area where the Mirage is head and shoulders above it is the automatic transmission. The Metro's automatic was simply awful - an agricultural 3-speed with no lockup torque converter that wasted an enormous amount of fuel vs. the manual (-10 mpg, easily). People who couldn't or didn't want to drive the Metro with a stick took it on the chin in terms of fuel consumption. Happily, that's not the case with the wee Mitsu.

[PressEnter[]]

Not very informative, but it does say there will be a manual.

http://www.autoevolution.com/news/20...ork-57104.html

[Fat Charlie]

I hadn't noticed earlier that it has electric power steering. Not exactly vital to have power steering in a car that size, but to keep it during EOC is always nice.

[Miller88]

If they could make it a Geo Metro 2.0 ... that would be cool. Something cheap, but gets good mileage.

Still not entirely sure, but these bottom of the barrel cheap cars have been getting my interest lately.

If it's cheaper than the Spark and gets better mileage, it will be a hit! I do like the spark's styling a bit more, but the mileage isn't that great and it is a bit expensive for what it is (you can still get a Versa Sedan cheaper).

There's two things that would worry me. I'm afraid that Mitsu. is going to go the way of Suzuki ... and that the car is going to be unreliable.

Suzuki wasn't having great sales figures (around the same as Mitsu) and they decided that they had to pull out of the US market. If this car sells a lot of units , then they decide to pull out. ... that's not good for people that have these cars or will end up with.

Second is the reliability. Mitsu was too closely related to Chrysler for my trust. Chrysler has built garbage for the last 15 years or so ... I'm afraid of buying anything that's related to Chrysler.

[Fat Charlie]

Other than the "Raider" (ND Dakota), did Mitsubishi use any Chrysler products? Chrysler rebadged a bunch of Mitsubishi products, but...

[Miller88]

Originally Posted by Fat Charlie

Other than the "Raider" (ND Dakota), did Mitsubishi use any Chrysler products? Chrysler rebadged a bunch of Mitsubishi products, but...

They shared engines and transmissions, designs, etc over the years. Hyundai for a while used Chrysler engine and transmissions with Mitsubishi electronics!

Didn't realize that until I was working on a 2003 Santa Fe. All of the electronics (Throttle body, computer) had a mitsu logo on them somewhere. But it was the same engine and transmission as in a cloud car.

[MetroMPG]

Chrysler DNA is long gone from Mitsubishi.

As for long term reliability, of course we can't know for sure since it's a brand new car. But it has been available for almost exactly one year now in some southeast Asian markets, and earned a JD Power customer satisfaction award in Thailand:

M irage tops JD Power customer satisfaction survey in Thailand

[kalifornia]

so only hatchbacks for now?