Greetings from New Jersey!

[sphinxrider]

Hello, I'm a new owner of a 2018 Mirage ES hatch with the 5 speed manual, and so far I love it!

I used to drive a 2008 Smart and I loved that thing to death, but after 3 separate collisions and multiple repairs that got steadily more and more expensive (Mercedes dealer serviced, and priced accordingly!) I gave up on my Smart in January with 120k miles on it.

After my experience with the Smart I knew I wanted another 3 cylinder car, but one that was a bit more practical than the Smart was and hopefully cheaper to service.

I knew that Mitsubishi made the engine for the Smart Fortwo and I never had a single drive train issue with the Smart during my entire ownership tenure of that vehicle so I knew it had to be a Mitsubishi as my next car.

I signed the paperwork on my starlight silver metallic Mirage ES hatch this past January and have put 4500 miles on it so far, and having a great time, and the gas mileage, oh so sweeeeet.


The ONLY gripes I have with this car is that reverse crunches unless you are oh-so-gentle with selecting reverse, but even then it sometimes still crunches like a you-know-what, and when you engage the AC it's like kicking this poor thing in the nuts, when I need to achieve highway speeds or merge i shut the AC off to get more power!
lol, it's not a big deal but I bought this thing for the new car reliability and gas mileage and so far pleasantly surprised by this thing.

Onwards and forwards!

-Sphinxrider

[inuvik]

Welcome to the forum! Post some pics in your garage when you can and welcome aboard!

[MetroMPG]

Welcome, Sphinxrider!

You're not the first former Smart fortwo owner here.

Re. reverse gear: is your clutch properly adjusted? (It's a cable adjustment and easy to do.) Floor mats interfering with full pedal travel?

Another suggestion: have you tried shifting into first (while stopped) before shifting to reverse?

Yes, AC saps a lot of power from a little motor, as you know. Saw this related photo on Jalopnik and it tells the same story:



Thread: This Jalopnik photo made me think of the Mirage

[Daox]

Welcome to the site and congrats on your new Mirage!

[MetroMPG]

FYI, related:

Thread: Difficulty shifting into reverse - manual transmission