I can't speak for all parts of the country or for all Mitsubishi dealerships, but a Mirage was still quite cheap to purchase brand new through all of 2020 & into the early part of 2021 (April was sort of the cut off point).
Erik (who goes by MrFixIt on this forum) paid $10,400 OTD for the 2021 ES manual (yellow) that he bought for his wife (mid February of 2021). He has a number of You Tube clips about his two Mirages (2018 CVT & 2021 Manual). I might add that his OTD price included White Bear delivering his wife's brand new car to his home in North Carolina on a flat bed truck. He introduces his wife's new Mirage below -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTKrYAVx9eQ&t=230s
I am way over the top in sharing my good deal from White Bear with others, but I am not the only one who got one from White Bear. Erik purchased his 2nd Mirage 4 years after me, & in some ways his deal was even better. I do believe he qualified for a couple rebates (loyalty & military) at the time (which I did not), & that made a big difference, too.
Like some others, I used to follow White Bear's pricing of the Mirage for years. I could have bought a 2021 ES manual for under $11,000 OTD as late as March/April of 2021. I would have qualified for the larger loyalty rebate in that case, & that would have put the car under that OTD price without any negotiations. From past experience, WB would have delivered that car to my home 4 hours away, too!
My biggest knock on Mitsubishi is someone living in North Carolina shouldn't have to make a good deal on a Mirage in Minnesota. If Wisconsin has a good Mitsubishi dealership, I am still not aware of one after purchasing mine over 5 years ago. If Mitsubishi vehicles become Nissan products eventually, I buy a Nissan instead. That's not happening, however. Nissan is not a brand that I would be interested in these days.
Jump ahead to 2023, a new Mirage has become a vehicle that I wouldn't buy at any price. If a brand new ES CVT was $10,000 brand new, I still wouldn't be interested. I am not going to buy something I don't like.
Thus, I would be looking at the 2017-22 Mirage ES manual & 2017 SE manual if I needed to buy a car today. Just looking briefly for a best deal (500 mile radius search) a 2018 ES manual (under 30,000 miles) is listed at $13,900. That's about the same price my local Mitsubishi dealer wanted for a new one. I test drove a 2018 ES manual in October of 2017 & ordered my 2017 ES manual from WB the next day. That was on a Tuesday, and White Bear found my car in my first color choice within a few hours later at another dealership. They drove my new car to my home that same week on Saturday. A 5-year old Mirage for $13,900 doesn't seem like a good deal to me. Others may feel otherwise in today's market, & I get that.
Carvana has a 2017 ES manual like mine (under 10,000 miles) for $15,590. I get it's low mileage, but I could have bought two brand new 2017 Mirages for less than that if I had qualified for the rebates. If you qualified for all the rebates and financed with Ally, an ES manual would have been $7,500 @ WB. I stared at those prices for months before they got the best of me. I honestly feel Carvana & CarMax are stuck with a large inventory of cars, they overpaid for.
If I had to pay $13,000-$15,000 for a used Mirage ES manual, I would buy a Honda Fit instead. For that amount of money, I just feel it's a better value (130 hp/6-speed manual) even if it costs me a couple thousand more.
I don't share these things, because I like ripping on a Mirage. I really like my Mirage a lot. Buying it at a good price is a big part of that equation, however. If a car like a Honda Fit is priced close to a Mirage, I buy the Fit. It's just a better car. I would be looking at used Scion models & the Yaris, too.
Simple items have become expensive. I paid 99 cents for a dozen eggs at my local Kwik Trip for years (maybe a decade or more). I bought a dozen a few days ago for $4.99 from the same store. In just a short period of time, eggs have become 5 times more expensive. I know this is a small item, but I am just a single guy buying for myself. Imagine feeding your family, & I am just looking at eggs. I have stopped buying some things even though I could still afford them. I like eggs, but I don't see myself eating them as much now. At some point, even eggs become less appealing to me.