what is the one (or 2) things that drives you insane about your Mirage

[Wallythacker]

The sun visor. It's the most useless piddly little POS of any car I've ever owned. It's not long enough when the sun is right at 2100 and low on the horizon. That has been a big beef of mine since new. Note to self. make an extension and stop harping about it. Self: Ay ay herr Kapitan.

I did say 2 things are OK.

TWO. Where the hell is overdrive? Why must my poor 5 MT churn over 3500rpm just to cruise at a leisurely 73-75mph. WHY? CVT only turns 2100rpm or so at the same speed? That makes zero sense to me. If we have the brains to drive a 5 MT surely if we encounter a hill and we had a real overdrive we would be intelligent enough to DOWNSHIFT when needed. No, Mitsubishi decided our engines should bop and buzz like hornets on meth.

[7milesout]

Wally - The 5MT runs 2 overdrives! Both 4th and 5th are overdrive. That's where overdrive is! The rpm our engines turn is quite pleasant compared to a lot of other cars I've driven.

Now I'll go and think about the 2 things. I have one for sure.

[7milesout]

The HVAC auto climate CONTROLS. It's not so much that the climate control in and of itself sucks. I think most do, including my Lexus. It's the freakin' controls of it. I've tore into this before. I won't go into so much detail as I have, I think most do not agree with me, and that's fine. But, at Hyundai-Kia, I was the TFT Leader (Task Force Team) for Design & Control. It was big team, and we covered every control. What we did was we analyzed everything a driver could put their finger on in order to control something in the car. Or what a driver could look upon to understand something about controlling the car. And compared those items to our leading competitors. Which meant we compared them to Toyota and any other OEM that was convenient.

Having been the lead of that team, I can tell you all, that we would have ripped Mitsubishi a new big shiny metal ass upon review of the Mirage HVAC controls. Anywho, that's 1.

There's one other thing. But it only slightly irks me compared to #1 above. At night, notice how when you go to make an adjustment to the outside mirror, the mirror button is not lit. But the traction control button right next to it is! That's freakin hilarious! Nobody gives 2 sh1ts about traction control ... on a Mirage! But I can't find the friggin mirror adjustment. In reality, that's minor to me compared to the dayim hvac controls.

[Cobrajet]

The dead steering feel and wallowy suspension. Even when my Mirage was new the suspension would bottom out against the bump stops if I went over an average speed hump at more than 15 mph. I know this was improved in later models, but sheeesh. The suspension in this car always felt like it was engineered to handle one-lane goat trails in Afghanistan rather than urban US streets...because it probably was.

The steering in this car always felt dead, and I absolutely hate the return-to-center...or lack of it. I always wondered if it was because of the electric power steering, Mitsubishi goofing up the caster angle when designing the car, or a combination of both. I still sometimes oversteer when taking off from a stop because it can be hard to tell which way the wheels are pointed if I am not moving.

[Jibles]

Driving characteristics in sub zero temps. On initial driving after a cold day at work the car is down right dangerously sluggish.

[klroger]

I guess I'm pretty easy to please "cus I only have 1 issue... The bent up right wiper arm. I know why it's there, but it really rattles me every time I look @ it from the front...

[Top_Fuel]

...Why must my poor 5 MT churn over 3500rpm just to cruise at a leisurely 73-75mph.

Reminds me of this old thread...

Gear ratios - 5-spd manual vs CVT (speed-vs-RPM-chart)


Bottom line:

Install taller tires, then install Euro-spec 5-speed differential gears (3.55 ratio) in place of the factory 4.055 final drive ratio. Somebody get me that part number.

[MichiMitsu'15]

Radio controls...having to hold the button down for three full seconds to turn off the radio annoys me every time. Is there is some sort of trick I don't know about to turn it off with just a tap?

[Wallythacker]

Reminds me of this old thread...

Gear ratios - 5-spd manual vs CVT (speed-vs-RPM-chart)


Bottom line:

Install taller tires, then install Euro-spec 5-speed differential gears (3.55 ratio) in place of the factory 4.055 final drive ratio. Somebody get me that part number.

Notice how our 78 hp autobahn wundercars are graphed out to 130+ MPH in one chart? Hey. I'm all for giving it a try.

[Fummins]

I can't complain, I knew what I was getting into when I bought one. I guess I don't love the fact that these things are tailgater magnets. Some of that is just perception though.