Mirage Ranked As Best New Car To Last (Article)

[Spadesheart]

I thought my car was on its way out at 245000 km. Has been making a huge racket in the engine for a while, seemed to be getting worse. Front breaks had worn out so I figured I'd let my mechanic take a look while I serviced the breaks. He batted around the engine and a piece of metal fell out; one of the covers had just rattled out all its fasteners. The car literally has no issues. A check engine light popped on for a while, we checked the code and expected it to be bad, maybe having to change the catalytic converter. Then the light just went away and hasn't been back since.

So far since I bought it in late 2016, I have changed the front break pads 4 times, rotors twice, the rear shoes twice, rear wheel cylinders once, the bearings once, and battery once. I had to change the front left caliper once but that was due to moving and not having a good mechanic here yet. I changed the spark plugs once in hopes that it would help fuel economy, but it doesn't seem to have. Engine oil at pretty high intervals, but it's starting to eat oil a little quicker now so I will likely do that more often moving forward.

Now it doesn't sip fuel quite as fantastically as when I bought it; it used to hover around 4.2-4.5 L/100km, and now its around 5.5-7 depending on weather. And it is burning through engine oil. However, it is running better at 240000 km with less maintenance than any car I, or anyone I know has had my whole life.

At this point, I drive less than 10k km per year... I don't think it's truly going to die for years.

[Wallythacker]

Hindsight is always enlightening.

In the way we see the old air cooled bugs as one of the few working cars in movies of the future the Mirage might establish itself as one of the few dependable still working computerized vehicles in the future. (IMO, all that really will be left in the future will be diesels which were the first widely available ICE of course, I personally think if it all collapses they will be the only choice. Their fuel choices are wide and not nearly as subject to degradation as gasoline ICE.)

Anyhow, it's going to be a sad day when the last Mirage is sold in North America. Mits isn't showing much sign of something comparable as the replacement. I suspect Mits are unhappy with overall sales but I think they did a horrible marketing job, the remaining product line, although attractive, doesn't seem different enough (to me anyhow) from model to model. I have enjoyed my Mirage about as much as any car I have owned. Things change during life and when it was all about owning a twin turbo Porsche in 1988 that holds zero interest to me now. I would be excited if Mits were to announce a MIrage replacement that was smaller, lighter, 6-7 speed manual, only A/C and cruise for "creature comforts" and $8,900 MSRP. Never going to happen, I know.

[Mark]

Hindsight is always enlightening.

In the way we see the old air cooled bugs as one of the few working cars in movies of the future the Mirage might establish itself as one of the few dependable still working computerized vehicles in the future. (IMO, all that really will be left in the future will be diesels which were the first widely available ICE of course, I personally think if it all collapses they will be the only choice. Their fuel choices are wide and not nearly as subject to degradation as gasoline ICE.)

Anyhow, it's going to be a sad day when the last Mirage is sold in North America. Mits isn't showing much sign of something comparable as the replacement. I suspect Mits are unhappy with overall sales but I think they did a horrible marketing job, the remaining product line, although attractive, doesn't seem different enough (to me anyhow) from model to model. I have enjoyed my Mirage about as much as any car I have owned. Things change during life and when it was all about owning a twin turbo Porsche in 1988 that holds zero interest to me now. I would be excited if Mits were to announce a MIrage replacement that was smaller, lighter, 6-7 speed manual, only A/C and cruise for "creature comforts" and $8,900 MSRP. Never going to happen, I know.

,
In general cars are disappearing from the landscape. GM sold 130,341 Chevy Malibu cars in 2023, & I heard they are dropping their last family sedan after this year.

[defensivetackle99]

,
In general cars are disappearing from the landscape. GM sold 130,341 Chevy Malibu cars in 2023, & I heard they are dropping their last family sedan after this year.

Yeah. “Momentum 2030” as they call it…or “Challenge 2025”. The Mirage is bound to be replaced by something else, per below source:

https://www.whichcar.com.au/news/mit...t-electric-car

Probably a rebranded Nissan Kick predictably speaking.

[Yeti]

I thought my car was on its way out at 245000 km. Has been making a huge racket in the engine for a while, seemed to be getting worse. Front breaks had worn out so I figured I'd let my mechanic take a look while I serviced the breaks. He batted around the engine and a piece of metal fell out; one of the covers had just rattled out all its fasteners. The car literally has no issues. A check engine light popped on for a while, we checked the code and expected it to be bad, maybe having to change the catalytic converter. Then the light just went away and hasn't been back since.

So far since I bought it in late 2016, I have changed the front break pads 4 times, rotors twice, the rear shoes twice, rear wheel cylinders once, the bearings once, and battery once. I had to change the front left caliper once but that was due to moving and not having a good mechanic here yet. I changed the spark plugs once in hopes that it would help fuel economy, but it doesn't seem to have. Engine oil at pretty high intervals, but it's starting to eat oil a little quicker now so I will likely do that more often moving forward.

Now it doesn't sip fuel quite as fantastically as when I bought it; it used to hover around 4.2-4.5 L/100km, and now its around 5.5-7 depending on weather. And it is burning through engine oil. However, it is running better at 240000 km with less maintenance than any car I, or anyone I know has had my whole life.

At this point, I drive less than 10k km per year... I don't think it's truly going to die for years.

Nice to see you've been driving it for so long!