Originally Posted by
Cobrajet
Most manufacturers offer "unicorns" on their sites. Ever try to buy a Prius C1? Or a stripper 5-speed Versa S sedan?
The stripper $10k CAD Mirages and Micras are actually fairly common sights here. There are definitely not a lot of them on dealership lots, but it wasn't strictly a marketing ploy; they are available, and they actually sold a bunch of them.
I can't speak about the $10K CAD base Sparks though. I haven't followed them as closely.
All 3 base cars came without A/C, had wind-up windows (rears on the Mirage), and manual locks. No A/C for most people is a deal-breaker.
Surprisingly, Nissan revealed that in ~3 years of sales, 8% of Micras sold were the base $10k model. Higher than I expected. Mitsu hasn't shared the stats on base Mirage sales.
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View my fuel log 2014 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 62.4 mpg (US) ... 26.5 km/L ... 3.8 L/100 km ... 74.9 mpg (Imp)