Thread: 2021 Mitsubishi Mirage ES (Garage entry)

I prefer the previous body style, especially the 2014-15. It had a better approach angle, it's shorter, and it looks funkier, which befits the car's performance. Now, my car looks like it wants to be fast, which is not what I want it to do nor what it wants to do. I would have been a different customer, if I wanted a fast car. The color, however, is great. The Android Auto is so-so. I am noticing that the USB connection is becoming unreliable 30 months and 70,000 miles after purchase (purchased new). I don't think infotainment should have a hard-wired connection, to much plugging for a socket, should be bluetooth. The back-up camera is actually quite nice. I would prefer a wheel box on the back hatch. Also, the rear thru-axle makes it impossible to do a rear alignment, so, if you're alignment goes out, then I guess you shell out for new parts, maybe independent axles. The whole suspension is too loose, anyways. My guess is mpg would improve without all that force lost to compression. For the size of the car, it is roomy. I haven't added anything to it. I am considering a snap-on rack and a hitch, though I haven't really had any need for either, as it's just me and my gf. I am sad to see the MT discontinued. I would compare an automatic transmission to a manual the same as I would compare a blender to a chef's knife. Two of the original wheels got bent up, so I am running after-market steelies. Currently on 14x5, not sure the offset, 165 65 snow tires. Just purchased 14x5.5 w 35 offset for 175 70 studded snow tires, I'll be putting summer tires on the 14x5's, as the affordable petlas snow tires i was using here in the stud-banning northern great lakes have tread separation after a summer's worth of testing over 10,000 miles including a cirque from STL to CO to UT to AZ to SD to Sac to SLC and back in July. I am curious to see how long the tires will last on separated tread, it's been over a thousand miles including at least 800 on the highway. Oh, the speaker system is awful, at least from my affordable android phone. That's one of the reasons I'm curious about the 2014-15 models. It would be neat to get an ES with the same steering wheel and thus I presume the same electronic hook-ups, and then install a better infotainment system, and maybe a spare wheel box on the back hatch with a backup camera on it, as well as rails, a hitch, a panoramic sunroof, and a stiffer suspension system. Road noise and lack of tint can be a bit much, though, in all honesty, given the vulnerability of being this small on a highway full of oversized vehicles, it's nice to be more aware of the surroundings. Tinted windows would also make it harder to enjoy the view on those starry nights, though I did have to load up on sunblock for this summer's excursions. I drove my vehicle through the holiday blizzard of 2022, from STL to Ottawa, started Friday after work, caught up to the blizzard overnight in Ontario, and then drove through it. Had to get pulled out of a ditch by a semi in Ontario, such is life with door-deep snow drifts, a front dampener that likes to plow snow, studless snow tires, and a car zombie apocalypse the likes of which prove fact is stranger than fiction. Also taken this thing into the forest roads west of Hot Springs, AR, I couldn't tell if the gawkers in their side-by-sides were intrigued by my presence or angry that I was driving more aggressively on their roads than they were, even crossed a couple streams. Let's see, drove up Grand Mesa this summer, took the forest road that ran along the north edge of the mesa and all the way to that cabin on the edge of the plateau, and then drove down the dirt switchbacks over to Saddelback campground, good use of the snow tire tread, and a full 29 hours of driving straight from St. Louis. People in Nola loved this car when I lived there for a year, I bought purple touch-up paint for the body and green touch-up paint for the steelies, and it looked like a mardi-gras-mobile. I passed someone who was driving a much more capable vehicle while driving up the Mount Washington auto road, though on the way down I had to take it easy, because the brake pads started to knock. Heck, when I bought this car in the summer of 2021, I flew out the twin cities, and then drove back all the way to new orleans. Nearly made it to the entire lower-48 in this car so far. Been to three corners, just waiting on a reason to go to Seattle that isn't coffee, diversity ralleys, mountains choked with smoke, or over-prescribed software engineers. I placed my bets on that purple Mirage from Minnesoter that went 400,000m, was the '14-15 trim. Hopefully I can get past 110k, which is when my Sentra's engine failed back in the mid-2010's.