It's actually a good car for what it's designed for. It's basic transportation and nothing more. Mirages are surprisingly reliable and get good gas mileage.
I disagree. There are better options in this segment. The Kia Rio, the Hyundai Accent, the Toyota Yaris (and Scion iA/Mazda2), the Honda Fit are better choices. In fact, I'd rather have a 1999 Corolla before this.
@@darthdarthbinkss in Europe Mirage (Space Star here) competes in A-segment, with Fiat Panda/500, Toyota Aygo, Kia Picanto etc. But you dont have these in the Us. I find it is unfair to compare the Mitsu with more "sophisticated" cars like Yaris or the Fit.
I ride the bus for free. While my commute is long, it's 100° outside, and I have no deal with humans, it's way better than paying for the privilege of a lump of poop.
I'm glad you enjoyed my Mirage! I know they're not the most fun cars on the planet but they're excellent doing their goals they set out to do... Get you somewhere while using as little fuel as possible.
My first car was a 1988 Subaru Justy GL FWD which also had a 3-cylinder engine, so I love that the Mirage still exists. These cars serve an important purpose in the marketplace and it's a shame that sub-$20K cars have basically disappeared.
@@aenoymotors Oh! Have you got the CVT serviced? I ask because these really need 30,000 mile fluid changes, as well as clean the pan magnets, and replace the pan filter, and cartage filter which is located behind the driver tire. It's like a 4 hour job if it's your first time doing it, but it's essential to keeping these CVT's alive. I know people who have CVT's but never service them, or rarely service them, and they break. But when properly taken care of, they will treat you nicely!
I bought my 2015 Mirage brand new and still own it and love it. 9 years and almost 130,000 miles later it still delivers great mpg's. I am on my 3rd set of tires, replaced the front brakes once. Other than regular maintenance (oil changes, filter replacements, CVT drain and fill every 50K miles, a couple of headlight bulbs) I have had zero issues with this econobox. No breakdowns, no Check Engine Light ever, doesn't burn any oil. It has never been in a shop for repair, I do my own maintenance other than tires and brakes. The little 3 cylinder is a Mitsubishi design from the late 1990's (yes, that is not a typo) and it is not uncommon for these engines to go more than 300,000 miles without any repair. Is it underpowered, absolutely! It's just a econobox which is reliable, delivers great mpg's, and is affordable. If most of my driving was long high speed freeway commutes I wouldn't recommend it, it's not that kind of car. Don't get me wrong you can drive it 75mph+ all day long but the mileage really starts to drop above 65mph because it's only 78hp! But if the majority of your driving is city driving, 2 lane highway driving, suburban freeway's then it's a no brainer. My lifetime mpg's are over 40mpg with my all time best of 51.2mpg.
That's the important part. Many people can't or don't want to take a gamble on a used car when they can get a new Mirage with a full warranty for the same money.
That's what happens when you have the inherent torsional imbalance of a 3 cylinder inline engine coupled with motor mounts that are on their way out lol.
It's a shame these are discontinued. They serve a valuable purpose and they're good cars for what they were designed for. It's basic transportation that's cheap, reliable, and efficient and doesn't try to be anything more. Many people can't or don't want to take a chance on a used car when they can get a Mirage with a warranty. The pink is a fun color. From what I've heard, there are a few chassis tweaks that make the Mirage handle surprisingly well. With a manual, it's the Corolla GR we have at home.
I had one for a few years. It was good and cheap. Exactly what I wanted it for. After a few years I just couldn’t take the boring anymore. I felt like it would have ran 15 more years without any issues and I couldn’t imagine driving it any longer than the 6 years I had it. I got one for my mother in law and it’s a great car for her. They really will run forever.
I loved this car! Me and my sister both bought one as our first cars in 2015! 6500$ each brand new with warranty, winter tires too! We work downtown and we would always squeeze into all kinds of parking and narrow openings in traffic!
It's pretty sad that buyers no longer have any affordable brand new subcompacts to choose from. These type of vehicles meet their mandate to get people to and from work as economically as possible. They are perfect for city driving and shorter commutes. Not everyone wants or needs an expensive SUV or crossover.
Don't forget that CAFE regulations are *VERY* punitive on the MPG that a car with a small footprint (wheelbase x track) needs to meet. It's very difficult for a manufacturer to get a subcompact to meet the MPG that CAFE says it needs to. Whereas if you sell bigger cars, and particularly "light trucks" (SUVs, with is another +40% on the MPG allowance), you are allowed a much higher MPG allowance by CAFE.
It’s really funny because I was talking with my friend about his automatic Mirage from the same era yesterday evening, and I was wondering if Zack already had a video of it. Lo and behold, he posts a video about it today. They’re quite zippy and fit in the tiniest of spaces!
Crazy they’re cancelling these because I’ve read these and the Versa are recording record sales. 🤔 Who knew there’s people who want new cars but can’t afford overpriced crossovers which manufacturers only seem to offer. 🙄 Not smart to cancel a niche product that’s selling but Mitsu hasn’t been smart in years. 😂
Mitsubishi doesn't really care about the US market. They're doing well in other parts of the world,they simply aren't willing to invest the money into making a team of people to make vehicles specifically to cater to the US markets like Honda and Toyota do.
@@TwoDollarGarargethey’re bringing the PHEV DX off road van concept from the Japan mobility show to the USA as a production model. Mitsubishi confirmed it during their reveal of Momentum 2030. The concept is even in the press release image as a silhouette. It’s supposed to come later this decade. But yeah, their better cars can’t come fast enough.
@@faheemabbas3965 That doesn't mean they're actually going to make it road.Legal it sounds neat , but it's the definition of not american , so it has to be cheap then.
I'm about 3,000 miles into my new 2024 Mirage ES, and I have been loving it. AC & cruise is now included on the base model. The numbers aren't impressive, but it's actually more powerful than my 117hp Honda Fit. It's my first experience with the CVT, the only option on a new one, and I'm surprised that I actually like the feel of it. It's different, but I like it. I'm sad these are going away, but I'm happy I got one in time. I'm very glad that I didn't listen to those snobby car enthusiast types who don't understand what a car like the Mirage is all about. It is the perfect fit for me! I got the metallic wine red, which is a very cool looking color as well.
I have a 2015 Mirage. Had it from new. Now, 9 years later, no defects. 52 mpg on average over 85.000 miles (I drive like a grandma and mostly on freeways). Once a new set of tyres, a CVT fluid change (surprisingly expensive!), a generator belt and front brakes. Every year a service and windscreen wipers. That's it. It drives best at 85 miles an hour (which I don't do often because it is illegal in my country). No rattles, no rust, no oil consumption (zero!), nothing broke, nothing. Seats still look like new. I have nothing to complain about.
See, I share your attitude about appliance cars. I buy vehicles for a purpose, not on emotion, and if I buy a basic transportation car it doesn't have to have any excitement to it whatsoever to be a "success" in my book. Like you said, if there's working a/c, great fuel mileage, it's reliable and cheap...what more can you want? I bought a new 1991 Geo Metro with a 1.0 liter three cylinder, 51 or so hp, and I loved it for about four years, 47 miles per gallon and all. My dad bought it from me for an insurance route and he drove it on up into the early oughts. He sold it to a preacher who drove it a year or so and gave it to a church member who then destroyed it in a wreck. It was a good car that fulfilled every promise it made, and all for $6700. I'd buy a brand new one today if they still built them.
I owned a 22 brand new and I lost it to a deer after 75k trouble free miles. Change coolant, trans fluid at 30k and oil every 6k or 6 months and you’ll be fine. The car is extremely underpowered so you’ll need to plan out merging on the highway. Although I’d never buy another, it was certainly a nice drive
@@CollinMac96 Nice! I actually upgraded.. Or depending on the person, downgraded. I went from a 2004 Cadillac Deville, to a 2024 Mitsubishi Mirage. The Cadillac is more luxury, but boring to me. The Mirage is exciting to me. (:
I had a 2015 Mirage DE manual and shouldn't have sold it. It was an efficient and reliable appliance. It was inexpensive but you weren't going to win a drag race with it. Great car for the money.
I actually had a 2013 Spark 2lt with a 5 speed for a little while. It was a bit more interesting than the Mirage but I feel that engine wise the power was very similar feeling... And it got way worse mileage. Mirage also has more room.
Thanks for the review! Some of these cars get well above 200,000 miles. One made it to about 400,000 that you can easily find. And someone on RU-vid maintains a fleet of these cars and quite a few have 300,000 miles.
Can't believe its still got all the hubcaps what a treat! With the 5 speed these are very tolerable and reliable little cars, heck even with that rangle jangle little CVT they're not bad but the CVT makes them SCREAM bloody murder on the freeway. Reminds me of my old Metro, way too small to drive on Texas freeways but a cute little reliable car
Man a car reviewer that understands what a car was built for without the bandwagon hate. Cough* doug cough*. I own a 2015 manual mirage, supposed to be my daily now turned into an autocross/still daily car, it has potential for a project. Its fun to throw around. And its one of the true econobox out there. It is a great car and does well for its intended market and use. This the reason why i like this channel. Dont give in the hate, pointing out the cons without mocking to death it is one of the reason why we stick around.
You see a lot of these in Europe. Such a shame carmakers are focusing on bigger cars with greedy profit margins and discontinuing all city cars and cheap-to-buy/run options.
Fantastic review, nothing wrong with reliable, basic transport. I love what the owner did making it his work vehicle and removing the back seat (three doors for easy cargo access) I love the colour. I'd get the bright, unique ones too. I love how the owner retrofitted the heated seats and cruise control, I would've also installed the manual.
'Its not pink, its purple!' Real interaction I had when I accidentally offended a guy by complementing the pink color. I still feel bad he was so hurt by the compliment
It seems like it would be a good cheap car with a manual but the automatic CVT is a no-go. Its hilarious to see how unbalanced the 3 cylinder is in the engine compartment. It looks like a 4 cylinder with a bad misfire.
I love this car! It's cute, it's affordable, it's a people's car! But I think that most of the hate that these used to receive is not because it's a cute economy car, it's more because of what Mitsubishi was and what it is now... They cancelled the production of the Lancer and the Eclipse because of cars like this, crossovers/SUVs and I think that's what caused the hate, the change of Mitsubishi...
Mitsubishi made a statement last month that Mirage is not going out of production... but that still doesn't answer if its going to be available in the usa.
As someone who drove one of these for a while, it's honestly the best use of a cvt... light, efficient, and cheap. I managed to squeeze 50mpg out of one once over a 40 mile stretch of almost pure freeway in the middle of the night. Definitely thrifty.
The only downside is that it is a CVT car. The Mirage is not a bad little economy car if it has a manual transmission. However, price wise, it competes with the Nissan Versa, which is an all around better car, as long as (once again) you get it as a manual transmission.
My friend has one. AS well as a NEW m2 BMW. ( legit ) yet he loves the little Mirage as a daily. :) Good little basic cars SO yes! Am impressed WE need more cheap cars here down under we getting cheaper EVs from china ( about 30 AUD ) BUT not like this under 20 k now. Even the MG3 is now 30 k ( it was 20k drive away ) AND you MAY get the last new one as of 10-7-2024 as the cheap old one is on run out. Awseome vid zac :D
Not a totally useless car. But for a few more thousand dollars, folks can also opt to consider a kia soul which is bigger, more powerful, more spacious, more solid inside and the kia brand having a better car network around the states overall.
Well, if you don't need to go 85 for more than 30 minutes on a highway to commute everyday then I think it's perfectly reasonable. I know the cvt may be boring but for traffic there is no better option than a auto box
I like the CVT, it has a much lower cruising RPM on the interstate, and it's more smooth accelerating up to speed. No shifts besides the torque converter around 10 MPH.
I had one of these with manual transmission for two weeks as a hire car for holidays. What can I say… Horrible, in all the aspects. You get better with a Fiat Panda or a Citroen C1. I can’t see any reason for someone to buy this one.
40 MPG on the highway? My 200hp 2 liter turbo wagon can get over 50 (Saab 9-3) Expected more out of this car. Parts may be a bit cheaper. But this car just seems like a rather bad deal
It really depends on how you drive. Out of mine, the combined MPG is 52.2. But cruising down the interstate at 55 MPH with the AC off I get 65 MPG. With the AC on it drops to 60 MPG. You lose about 1 MPG for every 1 MPH you gain above 55 MPH. So 75 MPH will get you about 40 MPG. Maybe 45 if you're on flat ground.
Ima be real I drive my cousins mirage because i dont hav a car atm and let me tell you. Id never own one of these things unless i was desperate and had no other options. This is easily the worst thing ive driven. Obviously its amazing on gas and can get you from point A to B but only if its not out of town or it doesn't take a while. Because ive had to drive my cousins 2019 mirage G4 longish distance and nearly every time it goes into limp mode and what ive learned is the trans overheats easily or at least thats what i concluded to when i looked into it. You definitely cant take them on the interstate because they barely get to 80. Which 70 is the speed limit but we all know you gotta go a bit faster than that somtimes and if you stay at like 60 or more it just speeds up the overheating. The lack of power is a issue but the drive sport mode on my cousins helps with that but all it really does is kill the regular economy modes lag when hitting the gas. And still you literally have to floor it to get it to accelerate like a normal car up to speed. But maybe thats just my driving. Worst of all this though is the car itself. I think this things hella unsafe. Its got like hardly no crash support. I wrecked my cousins car in the right fender when i was going like fuckin maybe 5mph or slower taking a right turn behind sombody. They brake checked me in my blind spot when i was following the flow of traffic. The whole right front was crumpled in from hardly hitting them headlight busted fender crushed kept the passenger door from opening and the radiator support and hood bent back and no airbags deployed. Frame rail was fine at least it drives fine but it was horrible. Wedged under their suv. All they got was literally a smudge on their bumper.😐 Im just saying keep in mind what you're getting into if you get one. You could always find a better decent sedan for the price of these.
I have a '23 mirage G4 black Edition. I get comments all the time asking where to buy one and how much mpg I get. I avg about ~45. A while back I had a guy in a mustang stop me and ask me about the car and the looks.
I know Uncle Doug likes to crap all over this car, but Mitsubishi would be making a GRAVE mistake killing off this car as a lot of people just need simple, basic A to B transportation.
Even in 2024 they have heated seats, you can buy a new one right now with heated seats. And if you get the SE trim level, you get push button start, heated seats, lane keep warning, arm rest, remote start, part leather seats, and more fancy trim.
I would love to see the super cheap base model vehicles we see in other countries here in the United States. Stuff like the kei vehicles or that Indonesian version of the Toyota Hilux called the Toyota Hilux Champ. Hand crank windows, manual transmission, boxy as heck looking, but most importantly, less than $20,000 new.
@@bwofficial1776 True, but we just need to yell at the government enough until they let us have them. We have quite a few semi modern to modern vehicles here in the USA that are just as safe or less safe than some of those types of vehicles. And our emissions crap is bullshit anyway, just make the vehicle perpetually larger to avoid penalties.
The Ralliart would have been ok if they brought back the 5 speed one last time. The CVT turned what could have been a rally car into just a good looking cruiser. Should have got leather seats instead of the black edition stuff... or or they could have put in a sun roof?
153k miles is pretty high for a small car like that especially with a CVT, im guessing not original tho, nice that it hasnt been scrapped and has been given all the chance at a car life
I've maintained a fleet of 30+ Mirages over the last 10 years. There's a few here with over 300,000k miles on the original engine and cvt and a bunch of others have over 250k miles without problems. Had a few cvt's fail between 125-200k miles, but after I started changing the fluid every 30k miles they seem to last a lot longer...Who knew.
These CVT's can last a very long time. Someone on RU-vid maintains these cars, and a lot of them have over 300,000 miles with the same engine, and transmission. Most have the CVT.
Doug Demuro really showed off what an entitled rich person he was in his review of this. Granted I do think another cylinder would be an improvement (its acceleration time is borderline dangerous if you want to take it outside of town) but if you take that into account, its a nice economy car.
To be fair, just compare this Mitsubishi Mirage (A00) to the previous generation Mitsubishi Colt (Z30). Mitsubishi implemented cost-cutting in almost every area of the car. The four side window design (like a Fit) made way for a cheaper design with two side windows. The four cylinder engine made way for a three cylinder engine. Even the exterior door handles were cheapened. People tend to complain when the new model is worse than the old model. 🙂
I find the acceleration to be perfectly fine. I've taken this up high elevation interstates, 4,000 feet, and 5,500 feet, and it did great. Goes up the Cajon pass in California just fine as well. Just 55 MPH, cruise set, and about 2,700 RPM up the steepest hills. I find you can merge with 2,500 RPM. Never end up needing more than 3,000 RPM, even out of state with the faster speed roads. It does great! Over it's life I've averaged 52.2 MPG. But on the interstate going 55 MPH with the AC off I get 65 MPG, and with the AC on I still get 60 MPG.
What are you smoking? It's a tinny, vibrating, loud piece of crap with the build quality of a 1990s Hyundai. I'm poor myself, and I'd never be caught dead in one of these death traps. Do your research.
@@GeeEm1313 Safety wise, they are safer than a lot of older cars like the Pontiac Montana, but this is the least safe new car. These cars, especially the highest trim level, is a very nice cheap car. They aren't very shaky either. The engine is if you look under the hood, but you don't feel it much inside the car. Build quality seems better than a Tesla I got in, which is weird. And the tech it does have, well, it works well. For example, my mom has a 2024 Ford Maverick, the screen sucks. It's always freezing, and very hot. Back up camera on it sucks. Door panels are very scratchy like sand paper. Rear door seals are falling off.. But in the Mirage, it has none of that. Sure, the doors are plastic, but not like sand paper, it's pretty smooth. And the backup camera is nice, and the screen looks better, and isn't lagging, and freezing. Ride quality is similar, the Maverick is more smooth, and less loud. But that's about it.
@@GeeEm1313the hatchback is a bit light and you can feel it when passing a semi at highway speeds... but if you drive it conservatively you really do get 50mpg... the steering took 2 weeks to get use to though
0:39 You won't think as positively about one when you have to do an oil change on one. Draining it is not a problem but getting to the filter is the problem. Ima leave it at that. I'm sure there's plenty of videos on RU-vid about.
I get the filter on mine just fine. You see the gutter under the filter to direct the oil? Well, when putting the new filter on, put the filter higher than you would think. Don't put it down where the spout is, it's a bit above it. Still easy to get to. But after a few changes I get it on in a minute or so.
@Have.An.AmicoDay (im answering both of these comments) That drip part is nice. And I don't mind it. But that's not the problem I have. The problem I have is that radiator hose, thays what gets in my way. But the next time I have to do an oil change on one ima keep what you said (first commenter) in my mind.
@@bricegraham8256 Give it a try! Just remember, what you think is high enough, is not high enough. It's 2-3 inches above it. Unless our idea of "high enough" is different.
@extralock1045 lol no my definition of higher is the same lol. Yeah whenever we get one of those at the shop ima for sure keep in mind what you said it'll come to me when I see one pull up. If one pulls up. I been at this current shop for a year now and I have yet to do an oil change on one of those cars. Let alone see one inside the shop. At the last shop I seen them I can count on my hands 3 or 4 times and I been at that ship for 2 and a half years.
