I'm currently driving a 2014, 5 speed ES that I picked up after seeing a dealer advertisement. My guess is that the high trim, manual transmission, combination was a tough sell. Frankly, I didn't want a high trim car either but have since been a little spoiled and find that I actually like the pushbutton start and automatic climate control.
I love the car. My previous car was a manual transmission Saturn ION that I bought new and pretty much hated for the 6-7 years I drove it. The Mirage has been reliable*, doesn't scrape it's nose on a two inch bump, doesn't bang my elbow with a stupid center armrest/console, doesn't have some weird lag between throttle and engine that takes me 30,000 miles of driving to get used to, doesn't fall apart and clunk and rattle... Anyway, enough of the ION PTSD. I find the Mirage very comfortable and fun to drive.
I'm a mechanical design engineer with a bunch of patents (none of any significance ) and handle most of my own car maintenance and repairs. I'm fortunate enough to be one of those who drives the Mirage by choice instead of necessity. I'm a minimalist and the Mirage fits that philosophy perfectly. My coworkers scratch their heads and think I am a little weird (I am, as are most hard core design engineers I have met). My wife calls the car a "losermobile". I think that is funny.
I have been lurking on this forum for a long time. Just this morning, after my short drive to work, I noticed that cold air was blowing out of the passenger side vents while the driver side was significantly warmer. This reinforced a feeling that my heat just wasn't working as well as I remembered. I did some googling and found a thread here describing what seems like my issue (mystery goop in heater core).
Pretty awesome! Decided I might as well subscribe so I can say thanks for that.