Reviewing 10 years' of owning my Mirage

[dspace9]

I bought my Mirage ES brand new in April of 2014, and have only owned my Mirage since then. Now a decade later, and I have 218,000 kms on the odometer. Mirage replaced my 1998 Ford Escort wagon. Only other car I have owned was a '85 Rabbit Cabrio.

My Mirage has been a pretty good car for me overall in these years. Things I like about the Mirage: drives and looks the same as the day I bought it. Always has returned excellent fuel economy. Usually getting around 5.3 L/100 km's this time of year. Winter time I expect around 5.9 to 6.5 or thereabout. Gas is like chewing gum to me, a waste of money and something I just buy and dispose of. So buying a gas guzzler is just silly imo.

I like the hatchback style, and have shoved many different things into the back. Small upright freezer? Check. Junk from previous home owners? Check. Dead maple chopped up with my chainsaw. Done that too. Got lots of scratches but that's why I bought a hatch in the first place.

Things I dislike about my Mirage: the size. People seem to really get offended by its presence on the freeways. Only 2% of the time, but I have been passed dangerously, etc...usually by big F150s and the like ilk.

A bigger car would make me feel a bit less vulnerable on the road. I'm a "pro-active" driver who keeps up with traffic, but wow, do some people seem to try to dominate my car. Maybe they equate their strength with a big car payment to go along with their big vehicle. I won't get too psychoanalytical on this topic.

What if there's a baby on board? Or the Mona Lisa? Or Mona Lisa's grandma? People are dumb sometimes.

Second thing I dislike about my Mirage is dumb little issues with the car. Pieces of interior plastic falling off like the housing for the seat belt. Or the back license plate light rotting out. Or the faulty windshield wiper nozzle. But small quibbles don't add up to a big beef; my Mirage has been a good & dependable car after 218,000 kms now.

Some work I have had done to my car in the past 3 years:

Exhaust piping at the front of the exhaust system. Resonator is still making a racket of noise at high speed when accelerating. Vibrates my right foot a little. But car is not noisy when cruising. Free foot massage.

Replaced spark plugs and serpentine belt and transmission fluid around 180k mark.
L & R brake rotors replaced. Replaced front wheel bearings.

Besides that, and that flywheel/starter issue everyone knows about, my Mirage has been reliable. I dream of driving something bigger, but I love stick shift (esp. in the winter) and I don't want to give up my hatchback if I upgraded to a new VW Jetta (or other car)

Happy Mirage Motoring!

[Mark]

Nice 10 year summary/review of your 2014 Mirage!

I like dreaming about other vehicles, but buying one would ruin the dream!

[Fummins]

Nice review. Time fly's! I find many tards are either just angry at little cars because little peepee syndrome or they are just stunned and don't know they're tailgating. The worst one that I encounter often is a backwards hat wearing, gym bag toting, guy who I assume works for a small time trucking outfit(hopefully not as a drive). Nearly every morning around 5:45 drives like....like you'd expect an X6 and M4 driver to drive lol

I stumbled upon his fleet of euro trash recently just a couple block away from me, in a considerably lower valued house(according to honestdoor.com) so that made my day.

My wife tailgates everyone, everywhere, all the time. I have to be half cut before I let her drive me anywhere. Even following me when we go camping or are moving vehicles around town. Turns out she thought safe following distance is 2 car lengths not 2 seconds lol

I just drive everywhere with the rearview mirror in the "dim" setting. I can still see fine whats back there but I find it reduces the amount of poops given about whats going on back there.

Oh, and keep in mind that the speedometers on the Canadia Mirages typically read 5kph high so doing the speed limit is 5k under unless you're running taller tires. Check it out for yourself with a speedometer app. This doesn't seem to apply to the US cars.

This reminds me, I'm pretty sure I have a noisy front wheel bearing that I keep putting off.

[Top_Fuel]

I bought my Mirage ES brand new in April of 2014

I assume you must have had one of the first Mirages sold in North America?!? I don't even think I knew these cars existed until 2016.

[7milesout]

"Try to dominate my car." Yes ... that's a good way to describe it. I sense that too. But around where I live, I mostly get tailgated by soccer moms in X5s and QX80's. They come up quick. I guess their thinking is that if I see that they're wanting to go much faster than I'm going, that maybe I'll feel guilty about holding them up a couple seconds in getting up to the next red traffic light, and maybe that will make me speed up. I don't. I'm probably using my cruise control.

I don't care for the tailgating, and I don't care for the swerve back into my lane that is inches off my left front bumper. Somehow that's supposed to impress me I guess. I can't figure their thinking on that one.

When I'm in my bigger vehicles, including my Rammer, I show respect for all traffic, and have no issues with small cars conserving fuel. It's weird. I drive slow in the Blueberry, and I drive slow in the blue Ram. But I don't get the attitude of domination from other drivers when I'm in blue truck, and driving just as slow (maybe slower, to conserve dinosaur juice).

[Fummins]

This pretty much sums up how most people drive when stuck behind a Mirage @0:20


I had to share this one too...

[7milesout]

LMAO at that first one. Yes, that's how people react around me!

[Fummins]

LMAO at that first one. Yes, that's how people react around me!

Same here. Can be going 20 over the speed limit on a 4 lane road and someone will fly up behind doing 1000mph only to drive 2' behind for no apparent reason. On comes the windshield washers til I'm out of fluid. They usually either back of or get even irritated. Either way it can be a fun hobby.

[Johnny Mullet]

My 2017 Mirage is the best vehicle I ever owned. PERIOD!

[Grumpy Bear]

I used to have a Mazda 2 Coupe and got treated like that by everyone. Rodney Dangerfield cars. Everything I drive I drive the same and get very different reactions, depending on WHAT I'm driving. Intimidate the 2. Pity the Buick LaCrosse. Stay way off the Silverado. Go figure.