Quality "feel" vs actual durability? Do light cars last?

When I get in the Mirage and drive around, I hear more road noise, wind noise, and the sounds of bumps/potholes. The soft suspension rolls around and the doors feel light/tinny when I close them.

By comparison, more expensive cars have sound deadening, firm suspension/tight steering, and heavy doors that make a satisfying sound. The expensive car accelerates faster and brakes better too.

Purely by "feel" the Mirage leaves the impression that it isn't as well-built/durable. Aside from obvious capacity limits I don't know of any reason the Mirage wouldn't be as long-lasting as other cars/SUVs, but I can understand why people might not believe that.

In the Mirage's favour: simple design (e.g. basic suspension), timing chain, not direct injected, not turbo, time-tested in foreign markets, 10 year powertrain warranty, Mitsubishi reputation.

Does anyone know any technical/specific reasons a "better" car would last longer than a Mirage, given appropriate use and care?

Oh, and as a post-script, one of the reasons I bought a Mirage was my experience with the Ford Festiva/Mazda 121, which had a similar "unrefined" sort of quality but never failed to start and go!

My biggest issue with premium/luxury cars that they contain more parts, especially electric and are liability over time.simple issues like contact corrosion can cause malfunction. So simple cars like Mirage will be more reliable as they have fewer parts.

On other hand there is more effort is going into expensive cars, and they usually more overbuilt. Mercedes doors quiet as they put much more metal into it.

In light cheap you'd have to worry about structural durability as it isn't easy to built cheap light and strong (pick 2).

i have a customer of mine he was just here for an Oil change. He had 80k on his ODo he is a Realtor and does a huge area that is why he has so much. That is 80,000 Miles. he absolutely loves it. told him when the 17 Comes out he will be getting a call from me to try to get out. He is a older gentleman and hast done any thing to the car but preventive maintenance. So that being said i would put faith in to this little car

it's a back to basics car.

in comparison to others which has all these electric mumbo jumbo.

yes my mirage does indeed feel and sound cheap compared to our other cars in different classes but it's as reliable and more efficient. the only thingd the mirage lacks are better NVH.

In my opinion the Mirage does in fact have a lot of electronics. It is a modern day automobile with probably more ECU modules than you can count on two hands. For a cheap car its well equipped in my opinion. It has a backup camera with parking sensors, a CVT transmission, auto climate control, navigation, power everything, key-less entry, push start button, heat seats, soon it will include Android and Apple smartphone integration, 7 air bags with various other safety measures, etc. etc.,. It does however still feel cheap because it is. It is an inexpensive car, in relative terms. If you want something with a better perceivable feel to it, then don't be surprised to pay almost double if not triple the cost. The Mirage is not trying to be anything but an inexpensive car with good bang for the buck.

As for durability, well that's going to take time to determine but so far it has proven to be very durable. 80K miles without any major issue seems pretty good to me. I think the Mirage go several hundred thousand miles or more if maintained properly. I haven't heard of any major issue that would cause me to say otherwise, have you?

The only problem that seems to happen at the dealership is bubbles on tires, or blow tires. Gotta love the North East roads with all the craters and pot holes every where.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Canoehead

Purely by "feel" the Mirage leaves the impression that it isn't as well-built/durable.

---

11 years ago, I jumped into the cheap, efficient car segment with both feet when I bought my first 1.0L Firefly (Chevrolet Metro clone). Coming from a Honda Accord, I had exactly the same impressions & concerns about how lightly-built it felt and whether that equated to durability/reliability.

But the evidence is that those cars do in fact go many hundreds of thousands of km trouble-free with regular maintenance.

Anecdotally, the 2 Fireflies I've owned have been the most trouble-free used cars I've ever owned. (30+ cars). I've saved a lot of money in repair costs in the last decade.

The car's achilles heel is fatal underbody rust due to a poor design that traps water (and salt) in the front end, weakening the suspension mounts. Of course, rust is a problem for all cars exposed to road salt or salt air, but lightly built cars will suffer fatal rust sooner simply because there's less material.

I predict the Mirage will be a similar story: being thrown away due to rust rather than mechanical problems. Owners in rust prone areas who plan to keep them should be doing annual rust-prevention treatments.

EDIT: I also predict that in 3-4 years, we'll start to discover where the Mirage's serious and potentially fatal rust problem areas are going to be, so careful owners be able to pay special attention to those areas and target them for rust prevention.

Solid advice. That there is good for a +10 horsepower gain... ;)

On the other hand, the power:weight ratio will improve as owners let the car rust away!