It likely also has to do in part with the still-pretty-bad used car market, especially for "newer" used cars. It seems the days of getting anything that runs well for under $5,000 is gone, and even in the $10,000 - $15,000 range you're often looking at something with 60,000-100,000+ miles (especially if it's a brand with any sort of reputation for good reliability - good luck finding a Honda under $15,000 with less than ~100,000 miles!) At that point, a brand-new Mirage with a manufacturer's warranty behind it (5 year/60k warranty for most parts, 10 year/100,00k powertrain for first owner) for a couple thousand dollars more starts making a lot of sense. You no longer have to worry about how well/poorly someone else maintained the car, it's going to be a while before major maintenance costs start kicking in, and reliability for miles 0-100,000 are almost always going to be better on a Mirage than miles 100,000-200,000 even on the Hondas and Toyotas of the world.