Oops, I did it again! Bought another cheap, 3-cylinder Mirage. Mods in progress...
 

I just bought another cheap "AS-IS SPECIAL" Mirage. Like my previous one, this was traded in at a new car dealership that wanted nothing to do with it:

https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1627568512

Also like the last one, it's a 2014 top trim 5-speed. But even fancier! Factory body kit! Rain deflectors! All the chromed plastic bling you can stick on it! Talk about gilding the lily.

147,000 km = 91k miles - a bit high for the year.

It looks like it may not need any repairs to pass inspection (mandatory in Ontario). OK, the summer tires are shot, but it came with a set of winter tires on wheels with plenty of meat on them which will pass muster. Considering this will be my next winter beater, that's fine with me.


And it came slightly pre-ecomodded:

https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1592780492

1) Factory block heater

It's one of the cartridge style ones that slips into an existing hole in the engine block. 450 watts, I believe.



https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1592780574


2) Aftermarket Boat Tail Attachment Point!

I probably won't keep this car past next spring, so a tail may not appear on this exact one.

But I will be keeping the hitch and the block heater for when I eventually get my "forever Mirage".


Non-ecomods:

A) I already removed the rain deflectors.

B) Unfortunately, the previous owner replaced the factory 165 width LRR Dunlop Enasaves with non-LRR 175's. The car doesn't roll as well as my first one.


In stock ecomods awaiting installation

Of course I saved all the coroplast bits & bobs from Mirage #1...

https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1592781253


Just a matter of installation.


From Thread: I just bought Canada's cheapest 3-cylinder Mitsubishi Mirage. EcoMods now in progress...

Nice find! What're you looking for in the Forever Mirage?

Honestly, I'd prefer the base model car. Just say no to Cadillac Mirages! The base model is lighter, has fewer gadgets, wind-up front windows, no AC (in Canada).

I think the only thing I'd really miss on the upper trim is cruise control, but it's not super hard to install switches and enable the feature in the car's computer.

Only one surprise
 

Well, I've gone over the car, and I don't think it needs ANY repairs to pass inspection. That's exceedingly rare for the kinds of cars I tend to buy!

I was honestly expecting the front brakes to be trashed (rusted) after sitting for almost a year outside, un-used, at the car dealership. The outer rim of the rotor was definitely crusty, but I went at them with a file & wire wheel and they cleaned up reasonably well. Lots of meat left on the pads, and the calipers & slidey pins are all good too.

This is the worst thing wrong with the car:


https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1592933409

Driver's side floor mat is trashed! Left heel hole? I've never seen that before. (Neither has Mitsubishi, or they would have made the heavy-duty portion a bit wider!)



The cheap, thin, mouse fur carpeting is worn off the dead pedal area too.

Ewwww someone was riding the clutch on that car.

You would think so!

But the clutch is actually in great shape - it's better than Mirage #1's.

And the clutch pedal pad isn't worn. But there IS corresponding heavy wear on the dead pedal, so I think it's just a weird way they rested their left foot.


Oh.... another thought: high heels??

I've only seen one floormat ground through. The customer denied ever wearing high heels. My boss suspected horseshoes.

Big feet, small car: the previous owner was either a clown or a porn star.

I like Fumes' conclusion: I'm going with cowboy! :D

Reminded me of the days when most Argentinian subcompact cars usually had manual windows when fitted with AC, even though power windows were more sought after on cars without AC.

^ That makes sense, actually.



The Canadian base model (no AC) is even slightly more strange and/or logical: it has power REAR windows, but hand-crank front windows.

The opposite of what I usually see in Brazilian cars nowadays.

Now that I think about it, it's probably because the power windows have a lockout for the driver. I bet it's a child safety regulation.

Not a regulation, but that's a good reason I hadn't considered!

If you want all the windows open, you can. That's reason enough.

I have been out of the loop for a while! Saw this thread and I was like, whaaat? MetroMPG's starting to hoard Mirages? before I realized that you had sold the silver one.

It's just a matter of time, I'm afraid.

At least you're in a self-help group for it.

Had it been for childproofing, I guess hand-crank windows would have been explicitly banned. On a sidenote, when some cars which used to feature power windows on the 4 doors started to feature it only on the front doors, this became a matter of concern for parents who resorted to it as a child safety measure.

I have a 2014 UK base 1.2 manual Mirage, the 0.27 CD model.

It has the following features

1/ Steel wheels - 165/65-14

2/ No AC

3/ Electric Windows front and rear.

4/ Radio speakers front and rear

5/ Tinted rear windows

6/ Rear window wiper

The most basic Mirage that was ever sold in the UK for a few years was a version of the 1.0 which had no rear electric windows, no rear speakers and no rear tinted glass. I seem to recall that it had no rev counter.

I must say that I like having the tinted rear glass as it gives a certain amount of privacy.

Nowadays I don't see modern hatchbacks without rear window wiper in Brazil, the last one I remember seeing was a 1st-generation Chevrolet Onix but it was an export version for Argentina. Sedans on the other hand, to which rear wipers are most frequently found on JDM models, I remember some didn't have a rear window defroster when fitted with air conditioning and export-bound.


Besides some Toyota and Ford hybrids, I haven't seen any car or SUV newer than 2014 without a rev counter in Brazil.

That sounds very similar to the base model Canadian Mirage, which is the one I'm ultimately going to get. Except ours had power rear windows only, crank front.

First fill 63 MPG US
 

63 MPG US = 3.7 L/100 km


That's calculated at the pump (3 clicks) over 566 km / 352 miles.

Interestingly, for the first time ever, a car's factory economy gauge was slightly pessimistic (showing 3.8) vs. the calcs!

I'm quite happy with that, considering I only starting adding ecomods to the car part-way through this tank. And I did hardly any engine-off coasting. Most of that driving is highway (80 km/h = 50 mph max limit) on cruise control, tapping up & down for hills, traffic permitting.

On top of all that, it included a ~120 km trip like this:


https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1594075380

spurs
 

Solved!


https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1595266961


$20 for a set of floor mats, almost brand new!



Sadly for the seller, they wrote off their Mirage just after switching over to winter mats/tires. (They were selling 15" alloys with almost new factory tires, but not the LRR ones I want.)

65 MPG tank?
 

I filled up Mirage #2 @ 719 km / 447 miles and it came out to 64.5 MPG US = 3.68 L/100 km.

Can we call it 65? https://mirageforum.com/forum/images...es/biggrin.png

That may be the high-water mark for this year; probably the last warm weather tank that won't include at some highway driving with the kayak sticking out the hatchback, which wrecks aero. Seems to be a 5-10% MPG hit.


But I did figure out how to remove the factory drag-reducing spoiler for future trips, because it actually makes aero worse when the hatchback is half-way open vs. none at all.


https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1595267800

How big of a pain was it to remove? Any double sided tape?

You're the only guy I know who complains that a boattail reduces his mileage.

Boattail: good idea, bad execution! :D


Daox: yeah, there was some super sticky trim tape under the outermost 2 bolts. I used the old "saw through it with dental floss" trick.



There were also 4 small, flimsy clips which I broke during removal. (Not a problem - I think they're just there for assembly alignment.)

Winter awaits
 

I parked the Mirage yesterday (and started driving the MPGiata). Next time I use it again will be for winter duty sometime in late Oct or early Nov.


For how cheap these cars are now, I'm impressed.



Daox just knocked out an 83 MPG US segment over 17 miles in his. I haven't tried any hardcore P&G in mine yet.



I am seriously considering what I should do with my 2 Fireflies and 1 Metro.

Not sure how hard the downturn caused by the Chinese virus hit Canadian economy, but anyway, in times like these it would be supposed to push people from gas-guzzlers to something more affordable to run, just like the 2008 recession did for older subcompacts such as the Ford Festiva and the Suzuki Swift.

You'd also think a contagious, deadly respiratory disease would push people to wear face masks.

This is a different kind of recession, normal economic realities and motivations for recessions don't apply well here.

Don't forget gas is relatively cheap

Mirage sales are down significantly. (This yr.)

Pickup truck sales continue to dominate.

If I had to bet, I'd say there won't be a 7th gen Mirage coming to North America. We'll get a refreshed fascia (2nd refresh, 3rd "face") on the car for the 2021 model year, at which point the platform will be in its 9th year. Mitsu may stretch it to 10 years of production as they did with the Lancer.

So if the last Mirage is sold in Canada in 2021 or 2022, that means I can reasonably expect to still find decent used ones for sale in the 2030-2035 timeframe. :D

Either this, or they turn it into another SUV, attempting to replace both sedan and hatchback with a single bodystyle. Maybe this could also mean the Mirage would finally come to Brazil, as the local branch of Mitsubishi focuses only on SUVs and the L200.

Worst Mirage fill so far
 

52 MPG on my latest fill (also the longest I've gone between fills in many years):


https://ecomodder.com/forum/fe-graphs/graph10742.gif


Could it be the winter grade fuel? Is it due to winter weather conditions? Am I getting lazy in my old age and putting less effort into eco-driving? Am I using cruise control instead of driving with load? Did I use the car for some shorter trips that I might have biked otherwise?

Yes.


For comparison, here's the previous Mirage's fuel log - much better winter numbers:


https://ecomodder.com/forum/fe-graphs/graph10645.gif

Maybe you should use days per gallon.

I would not be surprised if those factors are more relevant to the decreased fuel savings than winter grade fuel.

Larger diameter tires for better gearing
 

https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1616507521

With winter gone, I'm thinking of trying these old 15" Civic wheels that I have in my junk pile. Civic tires are 185/65/15, where the Mirage stock size is 165/65/14.

I plugged the tire numbers into this tool: https://www.blocklayer.com/tire-size-calculator.aspx

And it tells me that change would reduce engine RPM (in all gears) by ~8%.

At 80 km/h (~50 mph), the engine is turning around 2250 RPM on the stock tires. Those Civic wheels & tires would drop it to ~2070 rippems!

The final drive swap I did to my Firefly dropped cruising RPM by 20% and increased steady state cruising fuel economy by about 5%.

So all else being equal (it's not), this might net around 2% better MPG's.

Assuming I remember to adjust speed because the speedometer will be off (reading lower). https://mirageforum.com/forum/images/smilies/smile.png

Pontential downsides that might cancel the gearing change:

A: They're heavier.
B: Multiple aero penalties: extra width, plus they'll raise the ride height a bit.

Heavier and wider tires impact (stock) Insights pretty significantly, but I'm interested to see what comes of this on your Mirage.