Mitsubishi Mirage monthly sales, US & Canada, 2013-2023 (projected 7000/yr for U.S.)

[Top_Fuel]

...On top of the large discounts that have been offered already, what sort of large rebate are you expecting to see?

White Bear has great deals that any potential Mirage shopper should jump on. No argument there.

I'm watching for a potential return of the huge $3500 rebate that Mitsubishi offered back in early 2016...



This was back when the 2017+ body style refresh was right around the corner, and Mitsubishi just wanted to clean house on the "old body style" inventory. A lot of people on this forum (me included) own a Mirage because of that rebate.

The situation today is strangely similar (new body style coming)...but now you have to toss in a terrible economy and lagging car sales on top of it. So I think the potential is there for more significant discounts coming down the road.

[Dirk Diggler]

The Mitsu CEO said the profitability of US sales wasnt as high as they hoped. Thats discouraging considering in the public eye, they were making a nice comeback albeit small. I wonder just how much it costs to manufacture one Mirage in Thailand? And I wonder if the profit margin is small because the Mirage's components are pretty reliable. Does a Daewoo Spark cost less to produce vs a Mirage because its less reliable (my opinion only). Any estimates? I think Mitsubishi pays about $5k to manufacture a Mirage. What price do you all think?

[Cobrajet]

The Mitsu CEO said the profitability of US sales wasnt as high as they hoped.

Of course it wasn't. Mitsubishi isn't going to out-Toyota Toyota or out-Honda Honda. Hell, they weren't even doing that back in their late 1990s and early 2000s "glory days".

If they want to make a profit and keep selling cars here, they need to find a niche. "Affordability"? "Reliability"? "Value"? All are possibilities.

I'd say USD$5,000 to put a Mirage together in Thailand is probably about right. If they could afford to sell them for @$9,500 in 2016, I'd say they must cost much less than that to build.

[MetroMPG]

I updated post 2 with the monthly totals (/3 for new quarterly numbers) for the US & Canada.

The Spark fell considerably more, percentage-wise, than the Mirage vs. Q1 numbers, but still beat it in total sales:

	Mirage sales, US	Spark sales, US
Jan	1511	3117
Feb	1852	3117
Mar	1283	3117
Apr	1269	1770
May	1269	1770
Jun	1269	1770

[inuvik]

Considering there are over 2700 Chevrolet dealerships in the US and only 350 or so Mitsubishi dealers the Spark sales are actually much much worse on a per dealer level.

[MetroMPG]

True. And I say this a lot but... we also don't know what proportion of sales are retail vs. Fleet. Though I expect fleet sales have all but collapsed with the decline in rental business.

[El Kapitan]

Gas prices creeping back up again. Something for potential customers to consider. It didn't seem to affect them much last time, pre-COVID, though.

[Top_Fuel]

Into the third month in a row with no change in Mirage rebates...




9/1 UPDATE: September rebates still unchanged for Mirage...




10/1 UPDATE: October rebates remain unchanged for the Mirage and G4.

[MetroMPG]

3rd quarter (Jul-Sep) sales numbers should be out today.

A friend of mine co-owns a low end used car lot (like $2500-6000) and their business has never been better (past 3 months). They think that lower income people getting stimulus/COVID income from the feds are using it to replace their old cars.

I wonder if the Mirage being at the bottom end of the new car market will benefit from something similar. If demand is solid, it would explain why Mitsu factory rebates aren't as generous as we might expect.

We're about to find out!

[Top_Fuel]

Mirage rebates are pretty insignificant right now...and have remain unchanged for the last 5 months. So either there is a decent demand, or there's not a ton of supply...or both.

White Bear had almost 30 5-speed Mirages at the beginning of the summer priced at $10,500. They sold the last one a few weeks ago. They only have CVTs left.

Do we know when the first 2021s will hit the US?