great post ZEFKE! everyone should replace their own cabin air filters. it is so easy to do that unless a person has medical issues, there is no reason not to do it youself.

the mirage filter is in the same area as the yaris filter, which reminds me of a popular DIY mod for the yaris which would probably work on the mirage as well. it involves the use of a forced-air furnace filter, which is cut (by you) to the correct size and inserted into the cut-out frame of the original filter. one furnace filter makes 4 to 6 car filters for a price of about 5 dollars. some people of course only want to use the "correct" filters but for those who don't really care, i'll hopefully remember to post some pics when i do my first DIY filter. the maintenance manual recommends that we change our cabin air filters every 10 000 miles. if one sticks to that schedule (seems a little too frequent for my environment) then the savings will add up fairly quickly. and these filters work just fine. nothing gets by them that wouldn't also get by the OEM filter.