Does anyone wish they had bought Chevy Spark instead?

[Mark]

That jibes with the many reviews of the 2016+ Spark I read after it joined the sub-$10k base price war in Canada with the Mirage and Micra: nicer interior, quieter cabin, better infotainment, and generally more refined driving characteristics of the three.

If the Mirage's powertrain was placed in a Spark, I would gladly drive around in one!

Small economy cars that are built for the U.S market should come with 175/65-14 or 185/55-15 tires, and the Spark comes with the second ones. The tire brands that I prefer don't even make 165 wide tire any more. Shipping cars here with 165/65-14 tires shows Mitsubishi poor marketing research, & a different tire size is an easy fix.

[Wallythacker]

Why the hell does my CVT cost more? It better be from Aisin instead of Jatco! lol

That version comes with 24/7 phone support with the Anxiety Treatment Centers of America. *

I don't know where you are getting these prices maybe it is just a Canada thing. KBB Says the lowest price for a new Spark is $14k that's easily $2k more than a mirage costs. Combine it with out 100k warranty, 8MPG better city 6MPG better highway, and an extra passenger seat I don't see how you can see Chevy as better price wise. In the US it all comes with AC.

I would rather order online and pick all my options as well and completely cut the dealers out. It drives me bonkers they wont even let you pick the winter floor mats.

All my figures came from the Canadian websites for each car.

Small economy cars that are built for the U.S market should come with 175/65-14 or 185/55-15 tires, and the Spark comes with the second ones.

Which you could have had on your Mirage if we were ordering our cars built to our desires.

* Just kidding bro. You've got every right to be concerned about things as the next person.

[Eggman]

$8,400 OTD for a brand new car is pretty cheap. I believe this was a couple years ago, but I couldn't get a Mirage for that price at any time.

Can't really get a Spark for that price either. Just for a fair side-by-side comparison, it is important to use the actual price rather than that individual's price reduced by factory, dealer, and especially credit card discounts:

Between Chevy's end of the year 20% OFF MSRP, a $380.00 Dealer Discount and the almost $3,200.00 GM Earnings that I had on my GM MasterCard we were out the door; tax, title and everything for a little over $8,400.00.

So out of fairness the total is more like $11,600 ($8,400 + $3,200).

I know Mitsubishi has offered various similar incentives. A car shopper can only use what's available at the time, and not everyone will have that GM MasterCard discount.

[Mark]

Can't really get a Spark for that price either. Just for a fair side-by-side comparison, it is important to use the actual price rather than that individual's price reduced by factory, dealer, and especially credit card discounts:

So out of fairness the total is more like $11,600 ($8,400 + $3,200).

I know Mitsubishi has offered various similar incentives. A car shopper can only use what's available at the time, and not everyone will have that GM MasterCard discount.

My brother got $3,000 off his 2018 GMC pickup truck for a GM credit card he cut in half and threw away a year before this purchase. He never used the card once. Yet, they gave him another $3000 off. If he was questioned about it, he was asked if he would reapply for the card. For $3000, he said "sure"! It was never questioned.

I sort of disagree with you about what is fair in pricing. If we went by MSRP, I would never recommend a Mirage to anyone! To me what is fair is what people are actually paying for a car.

It's just an example I shared. There are 20+ Chevy dealerships closer to me than the nearest Mitsubishi dealership, & that Mitsubishi dealership is disgusting. I wouldn't buy a Spark, but I can see why some people do. They are affordable cars, and dealerships are plentiful all around. Towns of 2,500-5,000 have Chevy dealerships in Wisconsin. You will never find that with Mitsubishi dealership. It took a Mitsubishi dealership willing to deliver a Mirage to my house 4 hours away for me to buy one. Most people don't buy cars that way.

I am not aware of decent Mitsubishi dealership in Wisconsin. I have no problem with the Chevy dealership in my hometown. Owners are even former students of mine now. I'm just not interested in GM products.

If anyone wants to think Mirages are thousand less than Sparks, they are free to believe that I guess. I just know that I could buy a Spark for a quite bit less.

[Mirageman38]

You can have a dealer advertisement that states the sky is falling and pigs are flying and it doesn't make it true. Sparks are not thousands less than Mirages. Comparing Autos to manuals is apples and oranges. Clearly that is a $1000 price difference at least.

Read the advertised $8k spark and you will realize its a manual and "Dealership add ons are $1000 more, delivery fee of $500, licensing and registration not included, includes x/y/z rebate". By the time you get to the end of all that you are pretty much at the possible price of a manual Mirage.

My 2002 Impala has permanently deterred me from any GM product. As for the tires when you can get $45 Federals that work fine I would prefer a smaller more efficient tire.

[Bigdeezy]

My friend bought a 2017 Chevy Spark LS (CVT) for $9,898 out the door in late 2016. He is right at 60,000 miles. He follows the oil life monitor (~7,500 miles) and takes it to the dealer to get the oil changed and tires rotated when it tells him to. He has had the air and cabin air filter replaced, the coolant replaced, and a single transmission service (I don't know if they did a drain and fill or a flush, but it was at the dealer).

Also, and I can't emphasize this enough, he's a horrible driver. A real stab and steer, ditch to ditch kinda guy. I'm talking, jack rabbit start/stops, erratic lane changes, locking the brakes up, etc. As soon as his engine turns one cylinder over he stuffs it in gear and goes... even in winter. One time, he switched from reverse to forward so fast the car actually stalled. He drives his car like a damn go kart. In fact, I refuse to ride with him because he makes me nervous. All of that... an he hasn't had a single issue with it. Go figure...

[Wallythacker]

My friend bought a 2017 Chevy Spark LS (CVT) for $9,898 out the door in late 2016. He is right at 60,000 miles. He follows the oil life monitor (~7,500 miles) and takes it to the dealer to get the oil changed and tires rotated when it tells him to. He has had the air and cabin air filter replaced, the coolant replaced, and a single transmission service (I don't know if they did a drain and fill or a flush, but it was at the dealer).

Also, and I can't emphasize this enough, he's a horrible driver. A real stab and steer, ditch to ditch kinda guy. I'm talking, jack rabbit start/stops, erratic lane changes, locking the brakes up, etc. As soon as his engine turns one cylinder over he stuffs it in gear and goes... even in winter. One time, he switched from reverse to forward so fast the car actually stalled. He drives his car like a damn go kart. In fact, I refuse to ride with him because he makes me nervous. All of that... an he hasn't had a single issue with it. Go figure...

I think Sparks are tough little cars. The rentals I had were about 30,000kms and they were still a tight peppy little car. I bet they had been thrashed thoroughly.

[Dodge Aries K]

Why the 1.5L turbo instead of the 2.0? Mostly packaging and it's a more modern engine design. Even with a little turbo on it the thing would still get decent fuel economy. I've driven both an Eclipse Cross and an Outlander Sport with the automatics and the Eclipse Cross definitely felt more peppy. I was surprised it had such a small engine in it once I looked. And I'm not saying replace the Mirage's 3 cylinder, I'm just saying it wouldn't hurt anything to offer that little turbo engine as an option. I would personally snap one of those up right away if they offered the turbo engine with a stick... It would be a blast to drive I'd bet, just like the old Mirage Turbos were.

[Mark]

You can have a dealer advertisement that states the sky is falling and pigs are flying and it doesn't make it true. Sparks are not thousands less than Mirages. Comparing Autos to manuals is apples and oranges. Clearly that is a $1000 price difference at least.

I'm not saying Mirages are thousands less than Sparks. YOU are the one that stated (post #78) Sparks are a couple thousands more than Mirages, & I don't believe that is true at all. I only compare manuals. I never look at automatic vehicles, especially vehicle with a CVT. Thus, I am comparing apples to apples (manuals only) every time I do a search. If I search the two cars at the same time & sort by lowest price, I see Sparks first (& the Spark manuals are 2020 models already).

Reviews of what customers are actually paying for Sparks seem to reflect some of the deals that others are expressing about Mirages. I don't think there is a huge price advantage for either vehicle, & that is my point I guess.

Prices listed on cars.com, autotrader.com, & kbb.com are somewhat useless. The listing of Mirages is no better than any other brand/model. I wouldn't visit any dealership without knowing their OTD price first, because I value my time.

Some people seem very happy with their Sparks, but I don't personally know anyone that owns one. The Sonic is more common in my area, and I do have some friends that own them. They are diehard GM customers, however. If they have a GM card, they don't even consider anything else.

I am not a brand loyalty type of person. I bought a Mirage, because new ones could be had for $9,000-9,500 at the time. That price applied to everyone. Other rebates (loyalty customer, veteran, etc.) were added on top of that. Once I confirmed the Mirage was somewhat reliable & quite economical to own, I bought one.

Adding more standard features (raising the price of the Mirage) each year hasn't made the Mirage more appealing to me. Car critics driving top trim level GT models and only stating MSRP prices aren't doing this car justice. It took some work on my part to discover the Mirage. Two years later, I'm still not aware of decent Mitsubishi dealership in Wisconsin. I keep saying this, and no one ever points one out to me either.

Despite all that, the Mirage is holding its own, & I have one in my garage. Personally, I think it has done quite well. If the same powertrain carries over into the next generation Mirage, I will be even more impressed. It seems like that may happen, too!

I don't need to pick on the Spark to feel good about my Mirage. I think a highly discounted Mirage or a good used one is a great value!

[Mark]

Why the 1.5L turbo instead of the 2.0?

Because the new Honda CRV has a 1.5L turbo maybe? My dad's GMC Terrain has a 1.5L turbo. These are not vehicles I would buy, but it's the latest trend.

If the Outlander Sport (with 2.0L or 2.4L engine) had a 5-speed manual AWD model, one would replace my 2011 Forester 2.5X manual some day. My Forester has a new engine with less than 2,000 miles on it, & it's paid for. In a way, I'm glad that I'm not tempted to replace it with something else. The older Foresters are rated to tow 2,500 pounds, & that is also useful to me. Adding CVT to vehicles have reduced towing capacities for many models in recent years, too.