New owner in Ohio.

**wellswebdesign** · 03-31-2015, 02:01 PM

Hello everyone, proud new owner of a 2015 Mirage ES manual, in Infrared.

My daily driver since 1998 has been the Saturn SL2 I bought brand new. I figured after 17 years, I should get a new car.

I do almost exclusively city driving, and my MPGs have gone down the past few years to where I'm now at around 24.5.

I've been researching for the past probably 3-4 months, knowing that my old Saturn wasn't long for this world. I had read all the professional reviews (that almost all had negative things to say about the car) as well as independent reviews (that had mostly positive things). My first stop in to any dealership was about a month ago to my local Mitsubishi dealership. I'm not a super-experienced manual transmission driver, and this was 5pm Friday night traffic, so I test drove the CVT to get an overall feel for the car. Just a short, few mile loop, and it was nice. I was impressed.

Fast forward a month. February's $1000 rebate went up to $1250 in March, and with the $250 Saturn loyalty bonus, it made the deal even sweeter. I decided that even though I wasn't a super-experienced manual driver, that I wanted to go with the manual. And I wanted the ES, because ~$1300 more for the added features seemed worth it to me. Problem was, the huge regional dealer (Ricart, 6 different manufactures, 1,700 cars in stock, and their own 6 acre test track) that had the good prices, only had the ES in CVT. At the Columbus Auto Show, I spoke to a salesman from Ricart. (for purposes of this post, all prices from now on include the $1,250 customer rebate and $250 Saturn loyalty rebate) I said, "You have the DE manual for $10,995, and the MSRP difference between the DE and the ES is $1,300, could you get an ES manual for $12,300 (~$10,995+$1,300)?" He said they could get one in, and they would honor that price. I email him to confirm pricing, he says, "My manager says it would be best if you came in and we built one online and then looked to see if we can get one." Yeeeeeah. But, it was a nice Saturday, and I figured I could test drive the manual DE there, as well as test drive a Kia Rio, one of my other front runners. Mirage Manual was absolutely wonderful to drive. The Kia Rio was alright, but didn't "feel" twice as powerful as the hp/torque ratings would tell you it is, and the MPG wasn't as good either. So after doing some checking, the sales manager comes over and tells me they just can't get an ES manual in. None of the other dealerships they can get inventory from have or are willing to let go an ES manual.

The local dealer right down the street (Columbus Mitsubishi North) had the ES in manual (5 of them, actually), but wanted $1200 more than what Ricart wanted for the same car. So, yesterday, armed with my knowledge and a complete breakdown of pricing options from the two different dealerships, I gave them the price I wanted to pay for the ES manual. I said if they couldn't come close enough to what I wanted the ES manual for, I was going to go to Ricart and get the DE manual for $10,995. The new car manager wasn't in, and the used car manager couldn't authorize any price reduction. I was on my lunch and had to go at this point, but asked if they could get a hold of the new car manager and see what they could do. Couple hours go by, and I get a call. They can't match the $12,300, but they can come down to $12,550. Or if I want the DE manual, they can match Ricarts' price of $10,995.

Went in last night around 7:15. Was driving home by 8:45. They were courteous and professional (except for a tiny bit of swearing in front of the customers. c'mon, have a little class!). No hard sale on the extended warranty, which I actually contemplated, and I never think twice about extended warranties. $18/mo for 5 years to extend the bumper-to-bumper to 10 years, seemed like a good deal. I'm sure it'll get offered to me again in 4 1/2 years. We'll see how the Mirage is holding up then. Hopefully as good as my Saturn has.

So there's my story. Thanks to everyone who has posted such helpful info on this forum. I've been lurking and reading a lot of it lately, and your enjoyment and honesty about the car had a significant impact in pushing me into buying my first car since Clinton was president.

Oh yeah... 6 mile drive home from the dealership? 49.5mpg. 6 mile drive to work this morning? 44.8mpg. Essentially 20mpg better than what I've been getting in my compact car. If only I had a longer drive, the car would *really* pay for itself.

Josh

**Daox** · 03-31-2015, 02:39 PM

Welcome to the site Josh, and congrats on the new Mirage!

Doubling the fuel mileage, nice!

**grsupercity** · 03-31-2015, 02:50 PM

Glad it all worked out. We would love to see some pics.

**wellswebdesign** · 03-31-2015, 03:23 PM

Originally Posted by grsupercity

Glad it all worked out. We would love to see some pics.

Here's a photo from right before they drove it off the showroom floor. I plan to get better pictures on my lunch today.

Thanks for the welcome. I've always been able to do my own maintenance on my Saturn, and plan to do the same for the Mirage in the future. Everything I did was limited to remove and replace, but saved myself a ton of money. Radiator, struts, wheel bearings, control arms, water pump, EGR valve, exhaust pipe and muffler (several times over). Compared to other small cars I looked at, the Mirage engine compartment looks simpler, and I can almost get my arm completely through to the ground in the front. Amazing.