Honest review of an honest car. 2015 Mirage.

[ThreePot]

Co-workers new vehicles.
Bad ass Dodge 1ton diesel. $65,000+
Sweet F150. $40,000+
Guess which machine all the other mechanics are curious about.....

[ThreePot]

Co-workers new vehicles.
Bad ass Dodge 1ton diesel. $65,000+
Sweet F150. $40,000+
Guess which machine all the other mechanics are curious about.....

[Aphotog04987]

Maybe - just maybe - the one in the middle? Did I win???

[Tinker1980]

Co-workers new vehicles.
Bad ass Dodge 1ton diesel. $65,000+
Sweet F150. $40,000+
Guess which machine all the other mechanics are curious about.....

Good looking 2014, 3 Pot! Of course they are curious about it... You see trucks like that every day all day. Not so with the Mirage, at least not yet.

[Tinker1980]

I had a Firefly 1998 as a first car, and I loved it because it was my first car and because I paid 1000$ for it (in 2008). But if I had 15 000$ to buy a brand new car, I'd look for something better looking and a bit more upper class than the Mirage. The engine is more than enough, but the handling overall reminds me of my Firefly, which isn't exactly a quality in 2014. If the steering was quicker (not more than 3 turns lock to lock) or manual then it would be fun to drive maybe, but the slow and unresponsive steering are killing it.

For that $15000, you could buy a mirage, a sway bar, set of springs, and still have a little more than $1500 left over.

[broody]

The base Mirage is sold 13 000 (MRSP) + taxes and shipping, which brings it to about 15 000$...

The price and fuel economy are interesting, and I like small basic cars, but the mirage feels 4-5000$ cheaper than it's competitors (yaris, fiesta) while being only 1000-2000$ cheaper.

In Canada we also have the Nissan Micra which starts at 10 000$ (the mirage is usually 12 000 or so but the base model is in promotion at 10k$ since the Micra is out) and I didn't drive it yet (they don't have manual transmission demos and I don't care about automatic) but it feels and looks much nicer overall. I would be a bit concerned about the long term reliability though, I don't thrust Nissan as much as Mitsubishi, Honda or Toyota.

[MetroMPG]

The base Mirage is sold 13 000 (MRSP) + taxes and shipping

Salut, broody! FYI, Mitsu Canada has been advertising the base Mirage for $10k + tax/shipping since the Micra came out:

Thread: Price war in Canada: base Mirage now $9,998 (plus delivery, dealer fees, etc.)

They've run that deal at least 3 times since June. The last time I saw it was a couple of weeks ago.

Nissan Micra ... I didn't drive it yet but it feels and looks much nicer overall.

I've driven it. The Micra's steering & handling beats the stock Mirage hands down if you enjoy a responsive-feeling car. (Although a couple hundred bucks gets you an aftermarket rear sway bar for the Mirage if you want one.) Then again, if you enjoy a soft ride, the Mirage wins. Of course, the Micra's power also makes it more fun, but it loses fuel economy as a result. I also prefer the Micra's looks, but that's 100% subjective. I like the Mirage's efficiency-focused engineering. And you can't get the Micra in Kermit Green.

[MetroMPG]

Co-workers new vehicles.

Hilarious photo!

[m4v3r1ck]

I've driven it. The Micra's steering & handling beats the Mirage hands down if you enjoy a responsive-feeling car. (Although a couple hundred bucks gets you an aftermarket rear sway bar for the Mirage if you want one.) But if you enjoy a soft ride, the Mirage wins. Of course, the Micra's power also makes it more fun, but it loses fuel economy as a result. I also prefer the Micra's looks, but that's 100% subjective. I like the Mirage's efficiency-focused engineering.

Micra's good car, no doubt about it, but I really like Mirage design much better. Mitsubishi's well known for it's neverending customize options. (I have chrome front light bezel, chrome door handling, chrome tank detail, etc etc etc) while there's very little options for micra's.

Mirage's handling can be better though, i totally agree! But for the smile I put on while refueling, money can't buy it!

[broody]

Salut, broody! FYI, Mitsu Canada has been advertising the base Mirage for $10k + tax/shipping since the Micra came out:

Thread: Price war in Canada: base Mirage now $9,998 (plus delivery, dealer fees, etc.)

They've run that deal at least 3 times since June. The last time I saw it was a couple of weeks ago.



I've driven it. The Micra's steering & handling beats the stock Mirage hands down if you enjoy a responsive-feeling car. (Although a couple hundred bucks gets you an aftermarket rear sway bar for the Mirage if you want one.) Then again, if you enjoy a soft ride, the Mirage wins. Of course, the Micra's power also makes it more fun, but it loses fuel economy as a result. I also prefer the Micra's looks, but that's 100% subjective. I like the Mirage's efficiency-focused engineering. And you can't get the Micra in Kermit Green.

That's right about the 10k$ promotion that's been around for 6 months, it's good that they are making a price war, although most people end up with the 13-15k$ Mirage ES Plus and Micra SV. And the Mirage should have been 10-11k as soon as it was released, when I saw it the first time I thought it could be an honest car, but not at 12 5000$. As for the fuel economy, it's sad that we don't have the euro engine in the Micra (1.2l and 80hp I think), it would be more than enough performance wise and it would be a good marketing move for Nissan since it would differentiate the Micra from the upper scale Versa Note, which shares the same engine.

As for the suspension, I don't mind the soft ride but it's a cheap feeling soft ride (with excessive body roll, and the fact that the car is narrow makes it feel a bit unsafe when pushing it through the curves). The Yaris offers the same soft ride over bumps and potholes while feeling more planted and having less body roll in the curves. Of course it's more expensive, but the 5 door LE with accomodation packages has really well chosen features and the 2014 model has a 1500$ rebate. And even if the Mirage is reliable, it's built cheap (just like the Metro back in the days), and nowadays, how many Geo Metro do we still see on the road vs Toyota Tercel from the same era? The ratio is almost 1:10, and I'm sure they didn't sale 10x more Tercels in Canada.

The two economic cars I would to see here in north america are the Toyota Aygo and the VW UP!. The Up! I like their design approach. For example, rather than putting cheap and poorly fitted plastics all over the place, they simply leave bare metal on the door panels, which really looks nice imo.