What would your second vehicle choice be after the Mirage??

[RapidRick]

I am currently new car shopping, which is why I have been lurking on this board for several months now, and occasionally posting.

I currently drive a 2002 Ford Focus, which I bought new and has 212,000 miles on it. I am about 6 weeks away from buying a new car and the Mirage is definitely on the short list.

My job plays a big part in the car I buy. I own and operate a hot dog cart business, and I use the Focus to tow the hot dog cart. I also work a second job delivering pizza. The plan is to keep the Focus for the hot dog gig and use the new car as my daily driver, plus to deliver pizza in. Of course I would put a hitch on the new car to use as an emergency backup.

I am shopping 5 different cars, and the way I have done the math, all 5 cars cost nearly the same after 10 years of driving... I tried to use fuelly.com to get to most accurate measure on the gas cost. I figured the gas at 20,000 miles a year at 3.50 a gallon.

MSRP 10 yr gas cost
2014 Versa SV 16,030 + 21,276 = 37,306

2014 Spark 14,305+ 18,041 = 32,346

2013 Insight 19,390+ 15,086 = 34,486

2013 Prius C 19,875+ 13,806 = 33,681

2014 Mirage 15,195+ 17,500 = 32,695

After over-analyzing this situation from just about every angle for about the last year I am actually starting to move towards the Honda Insight just a little bit, but I have not done test drives yet. My wife and I are going to do that in a couple weeks.

Thoughts? Criticisms? Suggestions? Cuss words?

[Daox]

I'd estimate a lot more than $3.50 for gas. In 10 years I highly doubt it'll be anywhere near $3.50. Perhaps look at some trends and take a stab at an estimate.

[Daox]

Here is what gas prices have done in the past 10 years...

http://gasbuddy.com/gb_retail_price_chart.aspx?time=24

[Daox]

With the prices being so similar though... I'd probably go on what I like best and what drives well and feels good.

[MetroMPG]

Daox has a good point. What happens when you re-run the calcs with gas at $5 a gallon as the 10 year average? Makes sense to view multiple scenarios.

If I knew I was going to be driving the same car in predominantly city use (my assumption of your situation) for 10 years, I'd be torn between the Mirage (5-speed) and the Prius C. The Prius would be more entertaining (in a geeky way) to pilot, and require less effort to get great fuel economy than the Mirage, but I bet we'll learn that the total cost of ownership of the Mirage will be at or near the top of the list in Canada/US.

EG: see thread: Mirage the cheapest car in Australia to run

[MetroMPG]

What about Fiesta 1.0 turbo?

Thread: 2014 Mirage 1.2 vs. Ford Fiesta 1.0 ecoboost - which has better mileage/fuel economy?

[RapidRick]

Here are the numbers at $5.00/gallon
10 year gas cost at $5.00/gallon

2014 Versa SV 16,030 + 30,395 = 46,425

2014 Spark 14,305+ 25,773 = 40,078

2013 Insight 19,390+ 21,551 = 40,941

2013 Prius C 19,875+ 19,801 = 39,676

2014 Mirage 15,195+ 25,000 = 40,195

[RapidRick]

The delivery driving will actually be in more of a mixed use situation. There is some stop and go city driving, but a lot of it is cruising along two lane highways at 50-60 MPH. As for the Ford suggestion, lets just say I'm not really interested in buying another Ford.

[kalifornia]

I have seen tons of pruis c's slightly used around you on autotrader.com. Just out of curiousity how come you don't want another ford since you have gotten 200k miles on the one you have?

[RapidRick]

I have seen tons of pruis c's slightly used around you on autotrader.com. Just out of curiousity how come you don't want another ford since you have gotten 200k miles on the one you have?

I bought the Focus new, it needed the transmission replaced at 46K, it needed the transmission replaced again at 89K. Both were replaced under warranty, but I have never driven the car hard and there is simply no excuse for that.

Add to that the fact the car locks itself when you put it in drive, but does not unlock itself when you put it back in park. That is the most annoying damn thing ever, and when I told the dealer about it they told me there was nothing they could do.

Add to the fact that Ford has an institutional character problem when it comes to being honest about gas mileage.

Added together, no thanks.