I might have out-cheaped the cheap! (Cheapest roadworthy used Mirage?)

[MetroMPG]

I got the car for $850. Less than four digits for a 5 year old car with under 100,000 miles.

Holy cow!!! Congrats!

You win.

I think Wally is next in line: his grey base 2014 5MT was around twice that price before tax/inspection, but it's got 50% higher miles than yours.

My 2014 top trim 5MT was $2600 before tax/inspection. Similar mileage to yours, but mine had significantly more stuff wrong with it: Here's everything that was/is wrong with my $2600 Mirage

How/Where did you find it?

[Dodge Aries K]

Facebook marketplace is where I found it. I look for cheap garbage all the time on there and it was posted that it had electrical issues and wouldn't start.

[MetroMPG]

And the botched dome light installation prevented it from starting?

[Dodge Aries K]

It prevented a lot of things from working. Door locks, the fast key, radio, etc. I had to put the key into the slot on the dash to get the car to start.

[Dodge Aries K]

Okay, a quick update. Drives way nicer both with cleaner CVT juice, reset the "oil degradation sensor" that dealer says you must bring into dealer to do, and the TSB trans software update I had to pay to have done (fortunately they did it for half price... $70 instead of $140). I called and asked about the dealer changing the trans fluid... all they do is put the car on the lift, drain out whatever comes out, and fill it back up. Oh and reset the computer. That's it. And that's $189? Pfft. Forget it.

Following some advice on here I jacked the back passenger side way up and then it got 3 and a half quarts of nasty black trans fluid out. In a few weeks I'll be doing the same again as well as changing the cartridge filter. Waaaaay cheaper to buy at Nissan dealer. Less than $20 USD for filter and o-ring. Mitsu dealer wanted like $40 for just the filter.

In other news, I enabled the outside temperature display and the reverse warning (the cluster beeps when it's in reverse... because JDM TYTE YO... but mostly to see what it did) so now that's a thing. Why the temp gauge wasn't enabled on the ES I have no clue. I want to play with more settings eventually... there's one for an alarm so maybe there's a factory alarm that can be turned on? That would be pretty cool. Still waiting for the SRS recall parts to show up at the dealer so that'll probably be next week when that shows up. Until then, the car is sitting until I get some of this other garbage all done and ready to go. Got a Vibe, Avalon, Sundance, and Shadow convertible that all need to go Go GO soon as they're all done getting fixed.

[dspace9]

Until then, the car is sitting until I get some of this other garbage all done and ready to go. Got a Vibe, Avalon, Sundance, and Shadow convertible that all need to go Go GO soon as they're all done getting fixed.

I was looking at a Dodge Shadow convertible a while back, a lot of bang for your buck with those cars.

[Dodge Aries K]

The shadow droptops are neat! I was the second owner of this particular one, my good friend was the third. The original headgasket finally let loose so he gave it to me to fix and sell. It's a 1991 with 62,000 miles and a 5 speed manual. Clean little car, too. Should make someone very happy for a long time after I fix it.

[Dodge Aries K]

Got a set of low mileage used tires put on the thing. Went with P175/65R14 since finding the right size is almost impossible for this thing in the used market. The noisy sound in the back while driving is now 100% gone so it was just a bad tire so that's good. The car feels different with the slightly larger tires. A bit slower but a bit better planted.

[Eggman]

The noisy sound in the back while driving is now 100% gone so it was just a bad tire so that's good.

What did that tire look like? Was it cupped or otherwise worn funny?

[Dodge Aries K]

It had some flat spots on it and was also down to the wear bars. The poor car had a mismatch of every single tire being a different one. These poor cars really do get ****kicked when they're down, don't they? I'm guessing they got whatever used tires they could get here and there (it's a hard size to find) and that was one of them.