I have a new Australian spec Mirage sedan (manual). When I say "new", I mean that I drove it out of the showroom 2 weeks ago with 21 km on the odometer... but the car was manufactured mid-2014.
Photo says "sample only, not actual vehicle" but I got that actual vehicle (the one that was on display in the dealer's showroom).
Styling
The looks of the sedan kind of grow on you. It isn't a pretty car at first sight.
Engine/performance
Performance is lively enough with just me in the car, but with the whole family (total weight 270 kg, or about 600 pounds) and with the air conditioning on it is noticeable that I need to hold the gears a little longer and shift back maybe an extra gear on the hills.
Interior
The rear seat is noticeably roomier than the hatch. I need to put the seat all the way back and recline it a little as well as I am very tall (6 foot 7 / 200 cm), but even then my wife can sit comfortably behind me. In the hatch the seat behind me would be pretty much unusable by anyone taller than a toddler. The real surprise is the amount of boot (trunk) space, which is not far off what you would expect in a large sedan.
Plastics, trim etc are very, very cheap in the Austraiian spec base Mirage, which probably explains some of the lighter weight. But we do get air conditioning and a decent (by my standards) stereo.
Biggest disappointment is the lack of a split-fold rear seat, which means that carrying longer items is difficult.
Fuel economy
The sedan's extra weight means that it is rated for slightly worse fuel consumption, but at this stage I'm usually getting comfortably better than the 5.9 l/100km (40 MPG U.S.) it is rated for in the city.
In terms of fuel economy I achieved the official rating based on my first real fill-up yesterday. That is for mostly city commuting in heavy traffic, often with the air conditioning running. The claimed fuel consumption should be just about achievable by a reasonably skillful driver doing a mixture of city driving in moderate traffic and country driving.
For the type of driving I do the fuel economy is amazing. And economy seems to be getting slightly better as I'm approaching 1,000 kilometres travelled.
Price
Currently, Australian Mirage pricing officially is:
- Hatchback: $13,940 for the ES base 5-speed manual
- Sedan: $15,990 for the ES base 5-speed manual
I love the Mirage, but I think an Aussie buyer would have to be mad to pay anywhere near that for a Mirage.
Mine was advertised at A$10,888 drive-away but I ended up paying $10,850. Woo hoo!
A quick look on the most popular car selling website here shows brand new 2015 model mirage hatches and sedans still going for just under A$11K drive-away.
Overall
Motoring journalists don't drive like I do, their opinions are largely meaningless to me.
The Mirage is comfortable, gets me to work, fun to drive, economical, and plenty big enough for a 2nd family car.
Sedan vs. Hatch specs:
Australian specs:
Hatchback ES (base trim) Sedan ES (base trim) Curb weight 5MT (kg/lbs) 865 / 1907 925 / 2037 Curb weight CVT (kg/lbs) 890 / 1962 940 / 2072 Fuel economy 5MT & CVT
(combined L/100 km / mpg US)4.6 / 51 4.9 / 48
Source: hatch / sedan
(Note from MetroMPG: the fuel economy ratings aren't comparable to current U.S. EPA ratings. The Australian system is closer to the pre-2008 EPA method, which produces optimistic ratings that many people don't achieve.
Also, the Oz Mirages (both hatch & sedan) are a bit lighter than the U.S. & Canada ones.)