Darin's test drive review notes: 2017 Mitsubishi Mirage G4 sedan 1.2L CVT

[niky]

Structural rigidity still matters. With a tiny car like that stretched out into a long sedan, you have to add back some rigidity that might have gone missing in those extra few inches.

[MetroMPG]

niky: I think you're on to something there.

My only "HOLY CRAP THAT'S TERRIBLE!" moment with this car happened when driving over a stretch of broken pavement at ~80 km/h. (Nothing terrible, mind you. A main secondary highway used by thousands of cars a day.)

It set up a wicked vibration in the car's chassis/body (felt more like the body to me) -- some kind of brief harmonic phenomenon that I've never experienced in any other car. I thought my kidneys were going to come out my nose. For a moment, it literally made it difficult to talk.

If removing those braces meant more of that, I'd leave 'em in.

it would still work for many common things like skis with the braces in place

Yes, and you might actually be able to doctor/modify the existing folding rear arm rest to accomplish this without taking out the seat back.

[MetroMPG]

MPG showdown #2! Highway loop!

Last time it was a short 100% city loop. This time, a short highway (mostly) loop.

- 23 km / 14 mi. total round trip.
- cold start
- cruise control set at 65 mph / 105 kph on the freeway, 55 mph / 90 kph secondary highway

Route mix:

- 15% city
- 50% freeway (100 km/h = 62 mph limit)
- 35% secondary highway (80 km/h = 50 mph limit)


Results:



Civic hybrid: 38.5 mpg US = 6.1 L/100 km
Mirage sedan: 43.9 mpg US = 5.7 L/100 km

Again, this is completely unscientific.

Yet again, the Mirage is beating its EPA ratings, and the Civic hybrid is falling short of its.

I'm of the opinion that Mitsu played it conservative with the numbers it submitted to the EPA & NRCAN for the Mirage -- both the hatchback's and the sedan's. It's downright easy to beat the official numbers.

Flipside: Honda was taken to court in the U.S. by disgruntled Civic hybrid owners who were having trouble getting close to its rated numbers.

(This is the definition of irony, considering Mitsu has destroyed billions of dollars of value in the company after it was caught cheating on Japan market fuel economy ratings for years.)

[Daox]

That is quite interesting considering the similarities between the two cars:

Mirage and Civic have similar engine size (1.2 vs 1.3)
Mirage and Civic have CVT transmissions
Mirage and Civic have similar CDA figures (5.93 vx 5.60)

The only big difference is weight where the Civic comes in at 2875 lbs and the Mirage comes in at 2194.

Yet, that is a pretty sizable difference in mileage.

[Fat Charlie]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

If removing those braces meant more of that, I'd leave 'em in.

Yes, and you might actually be able to doctor/modify the existing folding rear arm rest to accomplish this without taking out the seat back.

Even some welded bar assembly. Not a roll cage type thing, but something to unlock some real cargo capacity would be great.

[MetroMPG]

I think the Civic's relatively poor performance in both the comparisons might come down to the fact that neither loop started with a hot engine. The city route was "warm start", highway was "cold start".

I suspect the Civic's city numbers are pretty horrible [relatively speaking! ] until autostop is operating.

I was following the Civic, prepared to "manually auto stop" the Mirage's engine if I saw the Civic's stop. But on our way through the city to the freeway, and it never did stop (I could always see the tail pipe vibrating).

[samwichse]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

I think the Civic's relatively poor performance in both the comparisons might come down to the fact that neither loop started with a hot engine. The city route was "warm start", highway was "cold start".

I suspect the Civic's city numbers are pretty horrible [relatively speaking! ] until autostop is operating.

I was following the Civic, prepared to "manually auto stop" the Mirage's engine if I saw the Civic's stop. But on our way through the city to the freeway, and it never did stop (I could always see the tail pipe vibrating).

My guess on the Civic is that the hybrid battery is totally shot, but the "updated" BCM/ECM code hides it so the car will still run and not just code out.

It's probably throwing a hidden background charge into the battery almost constantly and rescaling the dash gauge to look like it's assisting as normal but only really giving you 8 amps or so.

[Hersbird]

Or maybe there is no advantage to a hybrid on a steady state 65 mph highway run.

[MetroMPG]

Civic has a new hybrid battery. It's working fine (at the moment).

The car does well on longer highway runs. 45+ mpg US isn't uncommon in warm weather at moderate speeds like these.

[sdtundra]

There is an Uber driver that lives in me neighborhood that has one of these. He was going to get a Prius C but said it wouldn't have been worth it for him