Even though I was traveling most of today, I wasn’t completely insulated from the important news of this world. I know this because in the middle of my flight to Los Angeles, the captain ordered all of the seatback video screens paused, and dimmed the cabin light — all to set the proper somber tone for this announcement. “Passengers of Onanism Air Flight 219,” the captain began, “I have disappointing news. According to reports, as of 2025, the Mitsubishi Mirage will be no more.” The captain paused here to let the gasps and occasional shrieks of grief dissipate. “Let us take a moment of silence to pay our respects to this cheapest of available automobiles in the American market.” Even though the mic was then switched off, the muffled sounds of plaintive sobs and the pounding of fists on instrument panels was unmistakable. I sat in my seat, dumbfounded.
We reached out to Mitsubishi for comment, but they, as you’d expect, declined to comment. And I get it; they’re probably going through some things right now. The source of the news, Automotive News, is a very reliable source, and the source of the source of news seems to be Mitsubishi Japan. So, while it’s not 100% confirmed, this does seem a likely happening, miserable as it is.
If you’re out there thinking, somehow, “Who gives a shit? It’s just some crappy little shitbox nobody really likes?” then I’d like to respectfully ask you to shut your filthy mouth, you. Consider this: Even though there’s a limited handful of cars with MSRPs that start under $20,000, the only model car last month that actually sold, for real-world money, for under $20,000 was the humble little Mirage. And now it’s going to be gone.
Such is bullshit.
Cheap new cars should exist. Period. They just should! It’s absurd that there are so few, and what is arguably the cheap-ass car flagship, the Mirage, is now likely to be gone. The Mirage knew what it was and lived up to that role: cheap. But it worked.
I have a bit of history defending the unassuming little hatchback (and, yes, sedan now, too, fine) that goes all the way back to 2014, when I reviewed Mirage for The Old Site and then, more significantly, defended the little car from the cruel bullying of bigshot car journalists who delighted in making sport of a basic little car whose only real crime was not taking all your money.
Want to read a quote from my defense of the Mirage? Well, too bad:
I’m picking on Mr. J. Pearly Huffman because for whatever reason, his review’s gotten a lot of attention, but he’s by no means alone here. There’s a certain pervasive belief that, somehow, no matter what the car costs, we all deserve the finest-feeling plastics and the best acceleration and that certain aspirational look that tells everyone we’re mere weeks away from being able to buy some islands.
This is bullshit.
In the same review, Huffman also mentions that the car is roomy, and can get 37 MPG city and 47 MPG highway (I personally observed almost 49 MPG in my tests). Then he goes on to say that “Greyhound bus tickets” and “hitchhiking” are viable alternatives. You know who probably doesn’t agree with that? Every fucking person hitchhiking or stuck on Greyhound bus.
I respect the Mirage. It’s an efficient and reasonable way to get your ass from one place to another, and in that respect it does the same damn thing as a Bentley or a Lamborghini Urus or whatever, and costs a whole garbage can full of ice and kidneys less.
Mitsubishi’s plan to drop the Mirage (along with all their other sedans) is bad news. It’s stupid news. It means that another automotive option that’s still reasonably priced is gone, and more people who just need decent, honest transport are going to be shoved into big-ass expensive vehicles that will feel cramped because they’re loaded up with debt.
I suspect not many out there will shed a tear about the Mirage’s death knell, but I can tell you it doesn’t make me happy. Just based on their rairity, unpretentious, inexpensive cars are the real exotics, and now we’re one fewer.
Godspeed, little shitbox.
It’s more surprising that it’s taken this long. You can scream “Americans need to buy smaller, shittier cars” from the rooftops till you lose your voice permanently and it won’t change reality.
Nobody fucking wanted the Mirage. Nobody. The only customers for it were people with a two digit credit score who had no choice in the matter. And unforgivably, the Mirage wasn’t affordable; it was cheap. It was badly built using low quality materials and poor design. NVH wouldn’t have been acceptable for a car in the 80’s. Taping a bluetooth speaker to your dash would have been a better stereo. If you wanted to converse with your passenger, you’d need to scream.
Mitsubishi sold a whole 15,814 of them for all of 2022. That’s it. And not only is it the cheapest car in America, it’s the least safe. Because the Marriage Made In Hell(TM) has deprived Mitsubishi of any measure of autonomy or funding, IIHS data has proven it to have the highest number of driver fatalities of any car, period.
Less than 25,000 sold per year, every year, and 205 fatalities for the G4, 183 for the hatchback. That’s a ridiculously high number to the point of proving the car unsafe. Which of course, jacks up the insurance rates on it.
Normal people do not want to be punished every time they have to go to the store or to work. And that’s all the Mirage ever offered.
“Nobody fucking wanted the Mirage.”
“…25,000 sold per year, every year…”
Hmm.
Well maybe nobody wanted it per se, but it filled a role in the market, which now these two-digit credit score folks have to figure out how to negotiate. I’m sure there will be cheap used car alternatives on the market by 2025. Right?
Or, with the Mirage on the lot at a lot closer to $20k, and absolutely punishing at it’s best, they went and bought a Nissan Versa instead.
Which starts at $15,980 and tops at $18,990 – making it cheaper too.
Good luck actually being able to buy a Versa close enough to MSRP to be cheaper than the Mirage.
The problem with the Versa is that Nissan dealers aren’t selling them for under $20k. As Jason noted, the Mirage was the only car *actually* selling for under $20k.
Yeah, I’m also shuddering at the thought of dealers putting thousands in markup on bloody Versas. Last year, a good friend bought a Sentra and the dealer tacked on over $4k in useless crap and fees by time she got the invoice.
One of the things was window etching, which infuriated me because they didn’t even etch the car’s VIN onto the window, but a random code. The dealer said that should someone steal that part of the car, the dealer will be able to trace it. Who is stealing Sentra windows?? Come on, man.
Our local Nissan dealers have certainly taken the crown from Hyundai/Kia as the home of the big frustration. They’re also the only local dealer who currently has a full lot of cars to sell. Wonder why.
It makes me sick that a person can’t even get a car under $20k anymore, at least once the Mirage has disappeared. Hard to believe a few years ago, I paid only $21k for a brand new Nissan Altima SR 3.5.
I looked at Versa inventory in my area, and was surprised to see that there’s next to none available. I expect that is more a cause of Versa prices being higher than anything especially as Versa sales were up so much in the first half of the year, so stocks are probably low and the only Versas left have probably been on the higher side of the range. At that price you’re at Kicks money which is probably an easier sell as more car for the money to most buyers.
“…they didn’t even etch the car’s VIN onto the window, but a random code.”
My Volvo 66 GL sedan was originally a British-market car and at some point its UK registration was etched onto each piece of window glass except the windshield. This made sense at the time, of course, because the UK registration number was intended to be permanent for the life of the vehicle. Fortunately I found a workaround now that it’s in Washington:
https://live.staticflickr.com/5699/23360716673_b61f0ef688_c.jpg
I’ve been anticipating the demise of the Mirage for a while now, and in the absence of anything else, I’ve wished for Mitsubishi to take advantage of their partnership with Nissan and offer a Mirage replacement based on the Versa.
Even if it’s a badge-engineered clone, they could still undercut Nissan on price. Of course, my hope is for more than just a clone…Mirage RalliArt, anyone? (And not just an appearance kit like the current RalliArt.) I wonder if the Versa platform can be fitted with a manual?
There sure are a lot of commenters telling poor people how to spend their money but very few who have put their monkey where their mouse is and actually bought a Mirage. And that’s exactly why it’s being discontinued — people just don’t want it.
My grandfather used to say “Never buy a used car because when you buy a used car you’re buying somebody else’s problems.” He was a very wise man, and that advice was very apt when he was buying cars years ago. The used car landscape has changed significantly in the ensuing years, however, and car buyers are finding that they can get much more value by letting someone else take the depreciation hit. A used car with the same price as the least expensive new car is no longer a risky proposition when it comes to safety, reliability, and longevity.
I’m not going to pretend to mourn the loss of a car that I would never buy myself. My only experience with the Mirage was getting one as a rental once. I should have sprung for the upgrade, but I generally like small cars and don’t necessarily need a ton of power. I’ll admit that the car put a smile on my face when I’d drive it, but it was an incredulous smile in that I couldn’t believe how bad it was. Interior space was cramped even when I drove alone. Materials felt cheap. Power was pathetic — I’d jam my foot on the gas and maybe get up to speed by the time I arrived at the office. I was thrilled when I turned it in.
If I had only $20k to spend on a car, a Mirage wouldn’t be on my list. Clearly I’m not the only one who thinks this way or they wouldn’t be discontinuing it.
I’m not saying every poor person should have been buying a Mirage, but the car had a place for cash strapped people who just needed to get to work. 10 years from now there were so many better options, and I think many people here are lamenting the overall death of the segment versus the Mirage itself.
The number of people I know who have taken the advice of spending 20k on a used car instead of new to get “a better car for your money” get exactly what you’d expect, a car with less life remaining, more repairs and maintenance required than the car that was built to be cheap and stay cheap.
In my opinion, if you can’t afford a 20k new car, you sure as hell can’t afford a 20k used car.
I think a few people here are also forgetting that a number of years ago when every off-lease car was literally half of it’s original purchase price, the advice of “never new” was fairly solid. That’s just not the reality we live in right now, and cars are either hardly depreciating at all, or they’re depreciating in a linear fashion that we’re not used to.
“…if you can’t afford a 20k new car, you sure as hell can’t afford a 20k used car.”
Quoted to add, that 20k used car was once a 40k new car, and has features and equipment complexity typical of such cars. Which down the road, can be a lot more expensive to repair than people shopping at 20k might be expecting.
Another important piece whenever people say “why would anyone buy [econobox] over a late used car” – if you’re a buyer without any cash that needs a ride with low payments and/or maybe you have credit challenges, getting a loan and with a better rate is going to be easier on the new car.
A 3 year old Civic or Corolla with 50k miles might be a nicer car for the same price as a Mirage or Versa, but the econobox should make it at least a couple years before needing tires or brakes or major maintenance items. Whereas a Civic/Corolla could need them in a year’s time, an added expense on top of payments. Let alone if anything breaks that a warranty should cover.
“IIHS data has proven it to have the highest number of driver fatalities of any car, period.”
Yeah, but the Mirage probably has the lowest rates of pedestrian fatalities.
My mom bought one of these new several years ago, with the intention of buying something small to tow behind an RV she never bought.
The Mirage was an absolute pile of crap even when new, even a fully-loaded model like my mom had, and she ended up selling it after maybe three years with like 4,000 miles on it because it sucked to drive. Fortunately, she paid like $12k for it (pre-pandemic, obviously) and then sold it for what she paid after moving to a different town that had a depressed economy and people were desperate for cheap cars.
As you say, it’s a really hard care to want.
You realize of course that the Chinese are watching, and they are ready.
And for every person who says they won’t buy a Chinese whatever, there are 10 who would, because in this segment of the market price rules and people will wave off a lot of things, if they’re even aware. And many people aren’t.
Mitsubishi’s BEST year for the Mirage was a whole 26,966 cars in 2019.
Nissan sold 66,596 Versas in the same year.
There ain’t 10 people buying Mirages.
Maybe not, but it’s becoming clear that the Chinese can build an equivalent Versa and probably sell it here for Mirage prices. You just watch.
Disagree. I just returned from vacation in New Zealand and saw a ton of Chinese cars that looked nice and happened to rent both a Mitsubishi and an MG while there. Both were smaller SUVs filling the same niche. But they were worlds apart in quality and drive. The rental guy actually apologized to me for giving me the MG, saying they were phasing them out of their fleet because of all the problems they had had. Driving it was a taxing and worrisome chore- transmission and throttle engaged inconsistently, lane departure screamed and nearly yanked you over the centerline and the infotainment seemed to have things that were supposed to be touchscreen buttons but didn’t work. The Mitsubishi was worlds apart in build quality and ride.
But how many Versas were rentals? And how many Mirages, for that matter? My local Enterprise has a fleet of both.
Dance with the Devil you say?
Rather walk.
HAIL SATAN!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9cqKafnUrk
If they don’t get taxed to irrelevance by the federal government, people aren’t going to be buying Chinese cars because they want to.
They’re going to buy them because they have to.
Our established players aren’t serving regular people, who in this country typically need cars to you know, have a job. And when those Chinese cars end up being shockingly serviceable to that underserved market, they’re going to climb the ladder, just like the Koreans did with Hyundai and Kia.
Again this assumes that the Feds actually allow them to be sold here.
I predict they won’t. I predict “safety” standards will increase accordingly to keep them out, and will also serve to make oversized luxury trucks, CUVs and SUVs the only things viable to build and sell anymore.
I also predict that they won’t. And while I don’t want to buy a Chinese car at all, I’m also pretty sick of our car market that’s been slowly sucking the life out of anyone who’s not sitting on a pile of dough.
Nearly any Chinese car able to be sold in western Europe should be able to be sold in USA from a safety perspective. So MG 5, MG 4, etc…
Currently any car manufactured in China would have a 28%import tax. Much like the chicken tax for european trucks & suvs, which have to be built here instead, even if it is an ‘American’ light truck / suv / van* that is what is keeping Chinese cars out of the US.
*thinking of vehicles like the Ford transit connect commercial small van which was manufactured in Turkey & Ford had to import All of them as passenger vehicles with back seats which were removed after they were imported to the USA.
This x1000
China can ABSOUTELY sell a brand new car here for under 10k even with the tariffs and shit against them. They can undercut ANYBODY
And, if they do, and it actually sells well enough to damage established players, just wait and see how long it takes the Koreans, Japanese, and Big Two to come out with cars around that price again by leveraging their global operations. Well, Big One, maybe, since GM doesn’t really have much in the way of global operations these days
The BYD Seagull is the smallest / cheapest New Chinese car, that happens to also be an ev, that might be considered a car in the USA & it sells in China for the equilivqnt of approx. $11,900 x 1.28 (to account for the USA applied Chinese made import tarriff) = just shy of $15,700
Of course this assumes it can meet USA safetly regs. & that BYD doesn’t need (or desire to apply to get a toehold in to the USA market), to charge more for the USA version to cover increased costs to meet those safety regs.
Amen, bother Torch! A true and reasonable tribute, to a true and reasonable shitbox.
It’s also worth noting in context of the huge EV push these days, that the Mirage is also one of the most eco-friendly cars on the US market.
Even though it’s not a hybrid.
It’s 2000 lbs so likely low production emissions.
Low raw material usage, and low running emissions from that 78 hp 3-cylinder.
If “saving” the environment was truly the goal, these kind of vehicles should’ve been incentivized and subsidized and maybe not 9000 lbs Hummer EVs or Cadillac IQs.
The entire point behind the “incentives” was to increase consumer spending of an increasingly tapped-out middle class by subsidizing it, while giving the appearance of putting forth a “green” policy. A real solution to the environmental crisis involves reducing resource consumption for a given level of living standard and therefore reducing consumer spending, and as a policy decision in a country that has forced upon its population a paradigm of endless growth and constant debt accumulation, actually doing something that will work is verboten.
These 9000 lb Hummers and Cadillac IQs were meant to extract peoples’ money and eventually fill up landfills. Let future generations deal with the consequences. And the poors? They can eventually be priced out of car ownership altogether; the rich don’t need them using up “their” resources needed for running their private jets, or having the means to travel to “their” neighborhoods.
Basically the policy is this: oversized/overweight luxury EVs for the top 20%, and fuck everyone else.
Which is really a shame. EVs could be a lot less expensive and more accessible than comparable ICE cars if they were designed with economy in mind. The Chinese are being inadvertently primed to fulfill that niche, but the problem is we have a government that very well might prevent them from doing so if the gravy-train of the legacy manufacturers is threatened.
“the rich don’t need them using up “their” resources needed for running their private jets, or having the means to travel to “their” neighborhoods”
“The rub being how much the rich like their “help”. If the servants can’t drive themselves to work they’re either taking the bus which means much more filthy public transit in “their” neighborhood as well as more excuses or servants quarters and who wants that?
Of course the rich could provide a car but then they’re liable for any damages caused by their employee in a company car.
Damn straight
This is the proper eulogy that the little fellow deserves. I too have the utmost respect for an honest shitbox that almost everyone can afford. If manufacturers have their way there will be no more cheap cars within the next couple of years and car ownership won’t even be a thing for the bottom 50% or so of earners.
And that’s a goddamn shame. While I certainly think the US is car dependent to a fault and remain an advocate of an All The Trains approach, I think turning cars into luxury items that only the most well off can afford is draconian. A regular person working a basic retail job should be able to save up and buy a new car if they want to.
A car is freedom and opportunity. You can choose to go wherever you want whenever you want and I think everyone deserves a reasonable chance at experiencing one. I’ll join you all in mourning the lost of another decent, honest, cheap one.
Those days were gone 30+ years ago. As things got steadily worse, this demographic ultimately adapted by going to cheap 15+ year old used cars with six-figure mileage, first with cash, then with credit. Now they’re increasingly becoming completely and utterly priced out of that.
There are unelected think tanks and NGOs making the policy decisions for us, and they have decided they don’t want the majority of the population to have this in the future.
I’m reasonably surprised at the decent options we have in the UK. Usually when I see the price of something in the US, I assume a 1:1 conversion to £ because thats how we usually get shafted buying things…
But for $20k (or £15,700) there’s a fairly “good” selection of stuff available here:
The usual Korean offerings are decent spec and warranty,
VW Up (surprisingly) for the badge snobs,
Toyota Aygo for a 10 year warranty,
Dacia Sandero & Stepway, if you like good news,
and also the Fiat Panda still exists?! I would of thought the 500 would be cheaper, but hey for £2k less you get more doors and a boot.
That’s the Dacia Sandero!
As the SUV/CUV-pocalypse becomes increasingly a scourge upon Europe, I predict within the next decade those options will disappear there too.
Wow, Toyota doesn’t offer a 10-year warranty in the USA. Instead they just coast on their reputation for reliability…which is about as useful as a 3-year warranty on a 6-year loan.
This wouldn’t be such a big deal in a country with proper mass transit options. And while I’m sure there will be a legion of folks claiming a used (insert larger, more expensive to maintain, no warranty, half of useful life depleted car here) is a better deal, I can say from experience that cheap and new can deliver people from some awful, tight spots financially. There’s a whole lot of people in this country that need reliable, cheap transportation, and while these cheap subcompact options are rarely popular, their complete erasure is going to be a problem for those who a Mirage was a genuine solution.
The Mirage kind of sucks, but for many people, kind of sucks is exactly what they need.
Does this mean the Versa is all that’s left? If you had told me the Versa won the subcompact thunderdome 10 years ago, I wouldn’t have believed you. But here we are. Well, that is unless the Versa meets the same fate as well.
Subcompact Thunderdome is an idea we can all get behind.
…And there’s the next new Autopian column.
The Mirage disappeared here in the UK when Mitsubishi itself did, though our choice of cheap stuff, while pretty terrible compared to a couple of decades ago, at least includes some options still, so the Mirage disappearing wasn’t such a bad deal. It was maybe eighteen cars down the cheap econobox list, something you might choose if the dealership was literally nextdoor, or if a better-looking, better-equipped, better-driving Dacia didn’t appeal for some reason.
However, I do feel your pain. Cheap cars are important new, and they’re important used. Particularly ones which are fairly cheap not only to buy but also to run and maintain. The disappearance of yet another one really strangles the lower end of the market. You can suggest used cars as alternatives, but those used cars will run out or wear out at some point, and after that you’re left with sod-all.
On the other hand, while I didn’t dislike the Mirage as pure transport, it still stands out in my mind as objectively the worst-handling new car I’ve ever driven. I can’t remember anything else having such poor body control that it tried to bounce me off the road in a straight line at 60mph, the same road that something like a Kia Picanto didn’t even notice.
I had a 2014 Mirage here in UK when I smashed my Vauxhall Insignia. For a week, it was quite good fun, with the thrummy little 3 pot engine. By the 2nd week I wanted the Insignia back…
I buy sports cars and coupes, and I am very, very fussy.
However, I may soon need a commuter car, and that will need to be: economical and start twice a day.
People who really need to drive need cheap cars, and without a source of new ones we’re screwed.
Oh I miss the good old times around 2008, when people actually cared about the climate and environment and bought small white sub 2000 lbs simple cars.
I’m not lamenting the Mirage because I never liked it much, not because it’s a small crappy car, but because it has always been a pretty poor value when compared to a Spark or Yaris or Fit or actually any used car.
In a lot of ways, the Mirage was just a rolling reminder that the good old days are gone: the 80s and 90s when you could go and buy a Tercel or Civic for nothing and it would be an actually quality and potentially fun car, not a total penalty box. I mean, even 90s Geos are a manual, lightweight, remarkably efficient little roller skate with often surprisingly long lifespans.
Compared to shitboxes of yesteryear, the Mirage was always garbage.
As a Spark owner whose best friend drives a Mirage: Fuck.
I will not be elaborating at this time.
F
Why are my comments being hidden before even approved? I will be mad as hell if I am flagged as a bot.
Count me as the Mirage target market. I like a cheap, honest hatchback, and a new car with a warranty is worth it. I posted on another article the other day that in my city, only 9% of _used_ cars are selling for less than 20k. So a new car that’s going to last for maybe ten years for the price of a used gamble is absolutely an option. I see these things all the time, and those buyers are being further squeezed into buy here pay here shit now, guaranteeing a cycle of unreliable, debt laden auction zombies.
Mirage was (is) way out of my budget, so I bought a 1998 Nissan Sentra with manual transmission few months ago with 256k miles for $2500. I have taken it on about 10 multi hour long trips since then and has not given me trouble….I even wrecked it and drove it to junkyard to get parts to replace them, but I had to get a shop to pull the frame.
A warranty is worth “it”? Where I live anyways, if you’re smart and mechanically smart, you can get a used car literally as reliable as a new Mirage for literally $15k less.
Would you pay $15k to get a warranty on the car you have now?
The problem is that most people aren’t mechanically inclined…or they don’t have the tools, space, or time to work on their car. With the average American unable to afford a surprise $500 bill, a warranty is worth it to a lot of folks.
A Mirage, in this age of insanity typically runs about 17k-18k. Financing right now is rough, but that’s still a pretty low payment.
For a 22 year old coming out of school, making entry level wages, often trying to relocate and potentially only having 3k in the checking account, a 3k used car that will inevitably need far more cash in repairs (there is absolutely nothing available in my reasonably priced for the country area under 5k that doesn’t need some sort of work) is a massive risk. I’m not exactly a big fan of financing everything, but there’s a real use case for cheap cars for those who need transportation, but are currently cash poor.
Also, cheap new cars make for cheap used cars. The market used to be flooded with 10 year old compacts. They were genuinely a dime a dozen. Now the bottom of the market is fighting over 10 year old used CRVs with 120k on them for (checks internet) for a whopping 14k. Jesus.
As for being mechanically inclined, while I agree that it’s awesome to learn to do your own work, it’s not awesome to be that 22 year old trying to replace a seized caliper Sunday night with work at said entry level job in the morning. Or any of the other countless emergency wrenching stories that my friends have. Sometimes you just need to show up to work, especially when you’re considered young and disposable to your employer. Doing your own work, initially, is also expensive unless you know someone with a tools, and of course, a place to actually do the work.
3K in the bank? On what planet?
A majority of Americans can’t even scrape up $500 for an emergency. If you have $1,000 available without having to borrow anything or sell anything, you’re in the upper 1/3.
I was trying to be fair and paint a picture of a typical person who’s living paycheck to paycheck, and at least has enough cash on hand to believe that a new subcompact hatch may in fact help, rather than hurt their goal to achieve better finances.
Now, if it’s anything like my checking account, the balance varies wildly. So while there may be 3k in someone’s checking account at one time, that doesn’t mean that the 3k isn’t already earmarked for upcoming bills. That 3k is by no means being described as savings, or as disposable income in this scenario.
This typical financial dilemma of living paycheck to paycheck is why when people recommend used cars to poor people, they seem to forget that they’re in fact indirectly recommending that they FINANCE a used car, because many people do not have the money to buy even a 3k used car with cash.
There is nothing more brutal than living paycheck to paycheck, having a car payment on something that’s old, and worrying that if the car breaks, their entire livelihood is in jeopardy.
Dethklok would say “That’s brutal.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW47FkThbio
A warranty is absolutely worth it to most buyers. Not everyone wants to wrench on their daily on Monday morning when the boss is already threatening to fire you for being late too often. Even if they can, which is a stretch. And you’re probably much more capable of shopping for a reliable used car than the general public. Again, 9% of used cars where I live sold for under $20,000. Sure, some of them were probably in the 5-10 thousand dollar range and were reasonably reliable-ish. If the buyer were smart enough to figure out it wasn’t just a warmed over disaster waiting to happen.
Every used car is a risk. For those who have the capacity to absorb something that fails, it’s a no brainer; there’s a good chance you’re getting something that could last years for very little outlay.
For people who have hardly any cash to their name at all, a used car could genuinely ruin that person’s life. For every “I bought an Accord for $2500 dollars that I drove for 8 years with basic maintenance!” I’ve also heard a “I bought an Accord for $2500 and I’ve pumped another 5k into it in the first 8 months of ownership, 1k at a time so I never felt like I could give up on it (this was my brother).
When you’ve been burnt a few times, the value of “if this thing turns out to be a real piece of shit, it’s someone else’s problem” becomes real.
For folks living in rentals or apartments, a new car warranty can absolutely be worth it. Having done it, working on a car outside an apartment with a limited tool set gets old fast. A lot of apartments prohibit working on cars with the Karens enforcing it. Or their tools will get stolen once it gets set down. Having a cheap new car with a predictable payment helps a lot with budgeting and saving for a house or rental where car work is possible.
Warranties are great! I bought my first Smart new while working at McDonald’s. My car before that (my first car) was a 2001 Kia Rio.
When that car broke, I had to race to fix it before work, because when I wasn’t working, I wasn’t making money. And when I was late or absent, I edged closer to being replaced by someone else. It was like that when I became a programmer employed at a corporation. Lots of programmers in and around Chicago so you’re still replaceable to a company…
When the Smart broke? I tossed the keys to the dealer and drove out in a loaner. Things breaking were barely a hiccup in my day. It didn’t matter what broke and how much it cost, because the warranty paid for it and I didn’t have to get my hands dirty to fix it.
People who didn’t have to live this won’t ever get what you are saying.
Now imagine having to pay today’s rent, utility costs, and having a student loan on top of all of that, on a McJob wage.
I knew working homeless people that were too broke to afford a car to live out of(And an apartment? HAHAHAHAHAaaHAHA *cough* HAHAHAHAAHAHA…), and worked with them at a previous low-wage job.
I was 19 and living with my parents at the time. The McWage job paid my car payment ($250) and often the bills at home my parents couldn’t afford to pay. My down payment on the Smart was the Kia itself. I already had bad credit at 19 (parents took out loans in my name and didn’t pay them) but for whatever reason, Mercedes-Benz Financial Services didn’t seem to care and gave me 3% APR. Maybe the dealership fudged something to make it work…
Money was so tight back then that my dad didn’t even have a car, so the Smart also got him to and from his job at the VA. How did I put 160,000 miles on that car in 7 years? Lots of that kind of stuff. It was a reliable workhorse! And I didn’t have to pay a dime on repairs for 50,000 miles.
But yeah, even back then McDonald’s just didn’t pay a wage that you could live on. Most of the other employees at the store I worked at were all related, and thus pooled all of their paychecks together. Even then, they struggled.
When I worked at McDonalds we subsidized life by stealing boxes of hamburgers as they rolled off the truck …
This is heartbreaking.
It means we are going to see more busted up used Nissan Sentras and Maximas on the road. Because let’s face it.
The market segment that caters to new Mirage owners and used Sentra owners as a venn diagram is practically a full eclipse despite a sliver of a difference in credit score and self respect.
Who do you want driving next to you on the freeway?
The dude in the new Mirage that he’s still making easy payments on, a proud owner of a new car that he cares about, is maybe even happy with?
Full coverage insurance assured.
Or.
The same dude that has to settle for something used that he’s making the same payments on, an ashamed owner of an old car he doesn’t care about, is maybe even neglectful of?
Insurance? Why would I bother?
New car ownership is getting spendy.
I mourn the loss of the Mirage.
It was a sentinel guarding the gates of the “has not’s” from the “cares not’s”.
Excuse me for a moment..
Sorry..
Let me dry my eyes with a shop cloth for a second.
It’s times like these us proletarians need to take a step back and appreciate what we’ve got.
It could all be gone tomorrow.
(walks out into driveway, kisses two fingers, places kissed fingers on hood of immaculate 2000 Chevy Prizm with freshly installed (brand new) intake manifold, shocks and struts)
This is sad news indeed.
It’s gonna make it more difficult to talk coworker’s, friends and family out of buying a Versa.
It’s a fucking tragedy.
True proletarians take the transit of the masses, comrade.
But yes, I agree with your overarching sentiment. Hold onto that Chevy Prizm. At least you can fix most of it with basic tools.
And inexpensive parts. New rotors and break pads, replaced in the driveway for under $100 all in.
Public transit doesn’t get me to the beach on a Friday night or to southern Utah by next Tuesday if that’s where I choose to go.
The Prizm will. And I never have to worry where I park it. Nobody cares enough to even notice it.
I’d hate to have to replace it with something new in this market.
I hear you on that one. That’s one of the reasons I built my “bicycle”. It gets me where I need to go, costs me next to nothing to run, is easily and quickly repaired, and is very hoonable. Nothing on the new car market appeals to me, and if I wanted to, I could buy a new Tesla Model 3 or a new Mazda MX5 in full right now.
I’m looking for the following:
-Less than $25k
-At least 200 brake horsepower
-Rear wheel drive
-Under 2,500 lbs
-If EV at least 200 miles range, if ICE at least 40 mpg and manual transmission
-Minimal features, no touchscreens
-Repairable with basic tools
Until then, they aren’t getting my money. Meaning, they probably never will. The Model 3 and MX5 are the closest of any vehicle to that list, and both fall well short. A modified Mitsubishi Mirage could come quite close as well, except it’s FWD.
If I needed a car quickly, I’d pay someone to finish my electric Triumph GT6 for me and use that. I don’t have access to the workspace needed to finish it right now.
Has any production car anywhere ever meet those criteria?
Not in the U.S., but the technology has existed to allow for it for more than half a century.
I’m basically envisioning a modern Little British Car, but with modern mechanical reliability, slippery aerodynamics, and performance to match or beat cars 2-3x its cost.
LOL. For much of the country there is no public transportation.
It’s a chicken and egg problem: what comes first, demand for transit to spur construction or construction of transit to spur demand?
That’s why I made that comment. It was a backhanded criticism of car-dependency, U.S. capitalism, and communism all in one ironic sentence.
I have “good” mass transit availability compared to most of the US, and even here it is utter shit. My “bicycle” will get me anywhere I need to go locally faster than the bus or light rail will, and for cheaper, and at any time of the day or night. This is still true if I were to operate it with the motor disabled.
Our mass transit is similar to much of the other small to medium sized cities in this country.
A bus that travels between point A (downtown) to point B (Walmart).
I have a bus network with stops every mile and which connects to the MetroLink light rail system that spans approximately 35 miles of regional small towns. But you will have to wait up to an hour between transfers or pickups, pay at least $3 each way, and it does not run in the late evening and early morning hours or on certain holidays. Of all the U.S. cities I’ve been in, this is also bar none, the best mass transit system I’ve ever seen, and it is borderline unusable.
When my grandmother was a little girl, there was an expansive light rail network in this city that was by her description, almost as convenient as a car, went anywhere, ran at all hours day and night and holidays, and cost a nickel each way. Around the US, such systems existed. They were bought up and torn down by the auto industry, oil industry, and other related industries, with the blessing of government, to get people to spend more money and help grow the economy out of the depression. We went from 0.4 cars per person or driving age to 1.2 cars per person of driving age as a result.
The results we have today regarding many issues that are the source of societal woes, unease, unhappiness, resentment, and general malaise in this country were no accident, but the results of deliberately and carefully crafted policy decisions, done at taxpayer expense often in defiance of the will of the people “for our own good.”
The Versa is a great car as long as you get it with a manual transmission….I woulda got a new one or Mirage, but I am waaaay too poor for that, so I bought a 1998 Nissan Sentra with manual transmission and 156k miles for $2500 a few months ago and has been a good car to me, my commute is 8 hours (4 each way).
I have no problem with the manual Versa or a Sentra.
I was alluding more to the poorly maintained, possibly unsafe versions of these types of used cars.
Less affordable new vehicle availability will surely lead to longer used vehicle lifespans and more scary shitboxes in the hands of those that can’t be bothered with anything but the bare minimum of maintenance.
Damn that’s a long commute.
There’s two funny things about this decision.
The first is that the US still has the Mirage because it has been dropped in a number of first world markets as it no longer complies with side impact engineering requirements. But the US with its “really high vehicle safety standards” still gets it.
The second is that Mitsubishi are actually reaming North Americans spectacularly if they are charging you anything over US$15,000 to drive one off the showroom floor. Because they didn’t even cost that much here in Oz.
Even now Kia sells the similarly
sized Picanto into this market from AU$16,290 MSRP…that US$10,510.
I’d suggest that rather than lamenting the loss of the Mirage…I’d lament the fact that your market is being sodomized because of it.
I’d say, in general, the US market is sodomizing us, its buyers.
It is not fair we don’t get micro cars like the Picanto or Kei cars in the U.S. I paid $2500 for a 1998 Nissan Sentra a few months ago.
This makes me so sad. The only cars I’ve ever bought new were cheap appliances: Ford Ka, Fiesta, Kia Soul, Hyundai Kona.
Every single car on that list gave me 60k miles (or more) of cheap and cheerful commuting: comprehensive warranty, great mpg, cheap tires, easy routine maintenance.
I want to spend as little money on the appliances as possible, so that I can spend as much money as possible on the bad decisions I drive for fun.
I don’t know how much Mitsubishi marketed this car, but they should have reveled in how cheap it is, the cheapest new car in the entire country. And it gets 37mpg City! I almost want to buy one just to spite them for ending it.
“but they should have reveled in how cheap it is, the cheapest new car in the entire country.” – this marketing tact didn’t work for the Tata Nano in India; probably not all that more effective here. People like excess, whatever the margin might be.
The Mirage died in the US the day they got rid of the Manual.
Agreed. The budget-conscious don’t want to be forced to spend $3k when the slush box turns itself into a metallic paste.
You mean the rubber band stretcher. For comparison’s sake, the CVT in the mirage is exactly the same as the CVT in the Versa, but in a 500lb lighter car with 25% less torque. So, it runs a long time.
Jason, I couldn’t have said it better. Time to pour out an 8oz Pepsi…
I…I don’t want to live in a world where no cheap entry level shitboxes exist. We’re not all made of money! Some of us are made of calzones, good bourbon, bad decisions, ill-fitting character, and moderate disappointment.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
I hope a cheap Chinese car is sold here for 2025. They can swoop right in, and we’ll have affordable cars again.
Respectfully, no. I don’t want cars made by forced labor or anyone involved in the genocide of the Uyghurs. I’d rather drive a rusty Omni than a new Chinese made anything.
Genocidal maniacs run all governments of the world, not only the Chinese government. Lots of prison labor in the U.S. too these days(albeit, I’m not aware of US prisons making our cars or parts, yet at least). I get your concern and point though, but for virtually every product you buy, blood is on your hands in some form. Lots of change is needed in this world, including and especially here at home, change which the power elite are resisting at every turn.
I think the U.S. auto market is becoming increasingly more primed for the Chinese to take it over. I don’t see this as a good thing, but the reigning power brokers are setting up the conditions to make it a necessary thing, because the alternatives they are pointing us to will be even worse.
(albeit, I’m not aware of US prisons making our cars or parts, yet at least)
Licence plates
I was aware of those, but didn’t consider them a car part. They aren’t needed for the car to actually function as a car. But technically they are a car part. It would be nice to have a civilization where they weren’t required or issued.
> a rusty Omni
And again! What’s with this site and the Omni?
Blame everyone else for gouging and eliminating their lower-priced models, making room for the Chinese in the first place.
If not China, maybe something from Latin America or India. They have cheaper cars too.
We already have Chinese cars at expensive prices (Buick Envision, most Volvos) that cost less to make than the Mirage. So why not Chinese cars at more-affordable prices?
How about that device you’re typing away on, who made that? Or the clothes your wearing? How about the desk you’re sitting at or the ingredients in your food?
Not to mention the very land you are occupying now, that’s got blood on it too.
Every car you drive has plenty of Chinese-sourced materials. It’s impossible to avoid.
I respect your decision to to your best to avoid it, but even companies with robust compliance systems cannot avoid it.
I just got back from a week in the greater LA area where I was less than pleased to see a Mirage as the car my company was willing to spring for. Then I drove it from Thousand Oaks to Ontario and fell in love to the tune of 50-ish mpg, a mind blowingly small turning radius compared to my Ford Transit Connect or Subaru Ascent (a ridiculous combination of cars I’m embarrassed to own), and a decent CarPlay compatible head unit. It was missing a hub cap and the fuel door was permanently indented but that just added to the charm. I love hatchbacks, but I never suspected I might love this one. Sad to see it go and glad to know I won’t be mourning alone.
Any chance this is all just a … mirage? Or maybe Mitsubishi is pulling a GM Bolt: the Bolt Is dead. What, they’re selling like hotcakes? Psyche! The Bolt is back! Perhaps we’ll soon read that Mirages are selling out, too and Mitsubishi will reconsider, then we’ll be seeing Mirages everywhere.
One can only hope….they may replace it with something with a different name….but if it is automatic only, don’t bother. I only buy manuals.
I actually see a fair number of Mirages on the road, so people are actually buying them it seems. Although around here there are new Nissan Versas listed for less than a new Mirage…which is strange given how long the Mirage has been around and how basic it is, even compared to the Versa.
It’s disappointing to see another small, inexpensive car leave the market. New and cheap with a warranty is better than the gamble on a used car for a lot of people who need reliable transportation that won’t bankrupt them if it goes wrong.
They sold a bit under 16,000 last year and about 5,300 in the first 7 months of this one, about 19% of Mitsubishi’s total volume. However, sales were well over 20,000 units as recently as 2021. Its still almost tied with the Outlander Sport in popularity and is way ahead of the Eclipse Cross and Outlander PHEV in sales.
I see a fair number of Mirages in my work’s parking lot. It’s popular because its a cheap, efficient commuter car.