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Thread: Salvaged Mirage

  1. #1
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    Cool Salvaged Mirage

    Hello Everyone, I have been on the forum for a while and have seen a lot of good information on here. Me and my wife own three mirages and I want to post a little about the latest addition.

    Back in May of 2021 I wrecked my wife's 2020 mirage with under 2000 miles on it. It was totaled out by insurance and I kept the salvage. I bought a 2015 ES at an insurance auction to fix her car, but I had some leftovers, including a leather steering wheel with cruise control, good wheels and tires, hatch, rear bumper and taillights... so I had to keep them, I mean they were good parts and all, so then I was on a mission to find a wrecked mirage that needed only these parts. I found my dream salvage car in December of 2021, it did not go to auction until February 2022 but I won it for $1840.00

    It is a 2014 DE with a five speed. It had 78,000 miles, was listed as nonrunning, had two bald front tires, and was wrecked in the back.Name:  mirage2.jpg
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    It was listed as non running but I saw in the pictures that the inside of the key was gone and I knew it needed the security chip in order to start.Name:  mirage9.jpg
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Size:  93.5 KB so I bid on the car thinking I could order blanks and have them cut and programmed on site (which was 3.5 hours from my house.

    So me and my wife took two wheels a jack and blank keys to the auction site, after having been told by multiple lock smiths that we needed to call when we got there.

    I changed the front wheels, but there was a problem, we couldn't get a locksmith out there, and the car wouldn't run because of the damaged key. we had drove a 2020 mirage up there so towing was out of the question. As I'm sitting in the driver seat of my dream junk car thinking "what have I done?" i saw a shiny red thing on the dash in the defrost vent... THE INSIDE OF THE KEY! i quickly pop the key apart and put the electronics in, put the key in the ignition and she fires right up.

    We drive home, and get other keys cut and programmed by local locksmith.

    I ripped the rear bumper off and spent 3 hours trying to get hatch open, damage was worse than I had thought, and the hatch and bumper I had would not fit on there with out the unibody being repairedName:  Resized_20220621_140905.jpg
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    After months of calling around with no luck, I called a good friend and he knew a frame shop that would pull it out for $416.00, so that the used parts I had would go on there and fit properly.Name:  image000000(1).jpg
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    I swapped the hatches out with my wife's help and stuck the good bumper in the car so the frame shop would have it for fitting and drove the car to to them(an hour away from me).

    They did a fantastic job.Name:  20220701_130947.jpg
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    Now the car is whole again and I have gotten it aligned, got an oil change, put a K&N air filter in it, and have new NGK plugs on the way. I also installed the steering wheel and have used ETACS Decoder to turn on the cruise control and am awaiting the switches for clutch and brake pedal which are being shipped from asia.

    So all in all I got a 2014 with 79,000 miles for about $2300.00 I think this is the start of something beautiful.


    Last edited by hkpotts1; 07-08-2022 at 09:45 PM.

  2. The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to hkpotts1 For This Useful Post:

    AtomicPunk (07-08-2022),Cobrajet (07-09-2022),Fummins (07-08-2022),inuvik (07-10-2022),MetroMPG (07-09-2022)

  3. #2
    Wow. I need to find a bodyshop that can do work like that for cheap, what a bargain.
    Mirage videos:

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2014 Mirage SE wussie cvt edition. 1.2 automatic: 37.7 mpg (US) ... 16.0 km/L ... 6.2 L/100 km ... 45.3 mpg (Imp)


  4. The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to Fummins For This Useful Post:

    hkpotts1 (07-09-2022),inuvik (07-10-2022),mohammad (07-09-2022)

  5. #3
    Senior Member AtomicPunk's Avatar
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    Great find and salvage. And what luck on the key! Quite a deal, especially in today's market.

  6. The Following User Says Thank You to AtomicPunk For This Useful Post:

    hkpotts1 (07-09-2022)

  7. #4
    What a great thread!!

    Resourceful & done on the cheap - fantastic combination.

    I'd love to get a damaged hatch... I have ideas for streamlining my car , but don't want to mess up the original one.

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2014 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 63.2 mpg (US) ... 26.9 km/L ... 3.7 L/100 km ... 75.9 mpg (Imp)


  8. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Fummins View Post
    Wow. I need to find a bodyshop that can do work like that for cheap, what a bargain.
    It was hard, most shops that could do the work said that they only dealt with insurance companies, the ones who didn't want to do the work made up excuses that it was structurally unsound... which didn't make a lot of sense because I drove it to them. I was only able to find this shop because my friend is a car guy, who's friends are car guys, the best key is networking.

  9. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by MetroMPG View Post
    What a great thread!!

    Resourceful & done on the cheap - fantastic combination.

    I'd love to get a damaged hatch... I have ideas for streamlining my car , but don't want to mess up the original one.
    Well if this hatch wasn't warped on the passenger side and was just cosmetic damage I'd give it to you if you'd paid freight charges. But I think it is too damaged for you to be interested in. It is hard to find these in junk yards, I did find one salvage yard that is 1.5 hours away, they have a 2014 in there, I went that far to get interior pieces that were missing on this car, but they charged me $37 for 5 dinky plastic pieces I was upset. but the just got a 2017 in there and I have been thinking about driving out there to see what I might like to pull of one of those cars. I also want to say to you, that growing up my dad had a 1990 geo metro four door and I loved that car, it gave me a love for hatchbacks and I think that the Mirage is the new metro and I absolutely love these cars, but a metro or a tracker is still on my wish list.

  10. #7
    Definitely this car is the spiritual successor of the Metro.

    Last summer I just sold a 2000 Metro 1.0/5-speed with about 230k km on it for $750. Not rusted out either!


    Thread: Just sold my 2000 Chevy Metro 1.0/5-spd. Gone in 60 minutes! Fastest sale ever.







        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2014 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 63.2 mpg (US) ... 26.9 km/L ... 3.7 L/100 km ... 75.9 mpg (Imp)


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