Back when the fuel logs worked, I had a different job and car. With a low-key byways commute, it was much less difficult to hypermile in the Scion iQ during that period. My current commute is all freeway driving, so my fuel economy suffers. My iQ is dead due to rear-ending another vehicle... so I did some research. When I bought the iQ, it was the most fuel-efficient non-hybrid car. Now I have the current most fuel-efficient non-hybrid car: a Mitsubishi Mirage. I went from a 1.3L 4-cylendar engine with ~ 94HP to a 1.2L 3-cylendar engine with 78HP. Luckily, the Mirage's transmission makes it better on the freeway than the iQ.
I kinda appreciate the Mirage. That’s an ironic name, since I think it is maybe the most truthful car on the market, not promising anything it can’t deliver. My Civic will probably last a loooooong time (it’s been driven it about 10k miles in two years, about the same as I drive my truck in a month), and when it dies, the Mirage will be the bottom-feeder-budget car I will hunt. Also helps that a three-cylinder has a surprisingly husky sound when pushed. Yeah, i’m sad the FE logs went bye-bye. I’m glad I had some backups.
I had some three-cylinder motorcycles and I kinda like triples. It's still ( but barely ) possible to find a new Mirage 5MT hatch , and they are pretty heavily discounted. It's one of the cars on my list. The cheapest Civic with 1.5 turbo and 6MT is about $23K ( thanks , Honda ). I might even "push" the Mirage up to 2500 RPM from time to time !
I've heard rumors that the CVT is better geared for freeway usage than the manual transmission, but coming from the CVT-only Scion iQ, I never really considered getting a manual. Since the manual is only on the base model, though, it is cheaper.
That's likely true of every model that offers CVT and manual. However, the manual partially compensates by having better mechanical efficiency (i.e., lower pumping and frictional losses).
Yeah, a CVT Mirage would likely suit my commute better, but I have some side roads which would negate that. Even if I didn’t care about efficiency, I still have a manual fetish. I just like the act of dancing my feet and hand to make a nice shift, and pushing each one to be nicer. It’s a car nerd thing, but I want to play that game for the sake of playing that game...
I've thought about driving a manual before, but then I'd have to learn, and I drive in too much stop-and-go traffic. The CVT is rather weird, even compared to the one in the iQ I used to drive. It has two sets of primary gears to have more overdrive for highway speeds, which makes coasting around ~30mph involve switching between those two gears. Then you have the "simulated" gears as the CVT ratio changes, which, combined with AC can mean it feels like it skips a gear accelerating from a stop, or that it "surges" slowing down to a stop. All that said, in regards to fuel efficiency, I have no complaints. One trip, driving several car lengths behind a semi for most of it, I averaged ~ 53MPG, at ~60MPH. My most recent tank I averaged 47MPG, with a lot of freeway driving. The one condition in which the iQ seemed to be more efficient was in city driving. I don't know of any other car that has a 1MPG difference between city and highway estimates.
To clarify, I don't want to follow a semi so closely that I don't see the curvature of the lane markings, and have to make constant steering corrections. At absolute minimum, it should be easy for another car to merge onto the freeway between me and the semi.
