Junkyard gem!

**Subcompact Culture** · 04-06-2020, 03:24 PM

Originally Posted by Cobrajet

LOVE Those Enkeis, by the way. Hope they weren't totaled with the car!

**Dirk Diggler** · 04-07-2020, 12:54 AM

Originally Posted by Cobrajet

Look carefully and you will see the core support is also bent. That car may be a dumpster fire underneath the front end.

My ex-gf just had her 2014 5-speed DE with 130k written off in an accident. She got $3400 for it, and was not even expecting that much. She knew that car owed her nothing...and she owed nothing on it.

Doesn't take much to scrap one of these. But that is just because it is a cheap car. My Mirage is in great shape. It is a five-year-old car with 143k that could pass for a one-year-old car with 14k. But it is getting to the point in terms of age and mileage that anything other than very light cosmetic damage will send it to the wrecking yard.

130k? That car owed her at least another 70k miles lol. I dont want to think of the Mirage as a throw away car after 100k miles. : (

**Cobrajet** · 04-07-2020, 07:18 AM

Originally Posted by Subcompact Culture

LOVE Those Enkeis, by the way. Hope they weren't totaled with the car!

They were. She tried to get them, but the towing yard said she couldn't remove them for liability reasons.

**Mark** · 04-07-2020, 07:25 AM

Originally Posted by Dirk Diggler

130k? That car owed her at least another 70k miles lol. I dont want to think of the Mirage as a throw away car after 100k miles. : (

It wasn't thrown away, because she got $3,400 for it.

Running the numbers through kbb.com, a trade may have fetched $1,200. They gave a range of $500-1200 for that.
That was for a car in good condition not smashed up. $3,400 is about mid-range for what they list it for a private party ($2,200-4,300) sale.

If you are going to trade in an older Mirage, you shouldn't expect much. If own/drive a Mirage for 10+ years, I am not going to care.

**Cobrajet** · 04-07-2020, 02:10 PM

Originally Posted by Mark

It wasn't thrown away, because she got $3,400 for it.

Running the numbers through kbb.com, a trade may have fetched $1,200. They gave a range of $500-1200 for that.
That was for a car in good condition not smashed up. $3,400 is about mid-range for what they list it for a private party ($2,200-4,300) sale.

If you are going to trade in an older Mirage, you shouldn't expect much. If own/drive a Mirage for 10+ years, I am not going to care.

Her car was clean, save for a broken driver's side mirror cover and a scrape on the passenger quarter from getting too close to a dumpster. I thought $3,400 was pretty reasonable (I actually told her to expect between $3,000 and $4,000), and she was expecting much less.

**Mark** · 04-07-2020, 05:13 PM

Originally Posted by Cobrajet

Her car was clean, save for a broken driver's side mirror cover and a scrape on the passenger quarter from getting too close to a dumpster. I thought $3,400 was pretty reasonable (I actually told her to expect between $3,000 and $4,000), and she was expecting much less.

I agree $3,400 is not bad. If she had decided to trade her Mirage in for a new one, she would have received much less in trade. Especially if it was scraped up by a dumpster some.

At the same time, her former Mirage would have still served her quite well for a number of years. Life without car payments is good, too!

Accidents happen. Thankfully, she wasn't hurt. Hopefully, she's enjoying her new orange Mirage, too. Wonder if she senses much of a difference from her 2015 Mirage compared to her current one?

**Mark** · 04-07-2020, 08:38 PM

Originally Posted by dspace9

Everyone I know has a bigger car than me, and one I thing I've realized after owning a Mirage over 6 years straight now, my Mirage is always the smallest car on the road, unless you pass an original Mini, or some select few other cars. So, I found at first my Mirage got loads of attention, because it was the only one around and I remember in Michigan I parked my then new Mirage at one of those outdoors lookouts, and anyway I saw a bunch of motorcycle drivers parked there too and were looking over my Mirage when I got back from the lookout site and they asked me about my car etc.

So I think Mirage being Mitsubishi makes it a cooler tiny car than any Yaris, being a Mitsubishi.

I would value the excellent dealership network of Toyota over the "cool" factor, but I get what you are saying. I see Mirages around, but I don't know anyone that owns one other than me.

Sadly, people should be interested in affordable, reliable, economical cars, but they're not! That's their problem, not mine. I don't care what anyone else thinks of my Mirage. I like it for the reasons that I already stated.

I wouldn't pick a Mirage to be in accident with, but it's much safer than a motorcycle. That's how I sort of look at it. I dreaded hitting a deer with my motorcycle. In that respect, I feel safer in my Mirage.

I drove a 1990 Ford Festiva for 14 years & thought nothing of it. It took me to work every day & did long trips to summer school classes. I earned two degrees with that car. I had the money to pay for my classes, because I drove a cheap car!

For those that don't remember the 1988-93 Festiva, this is what they looked like (I owned a pop yellow one) -

https://www.google.com/search?q=1990...w=1159&bih=566

In my opinion, they were tough, simple, little cars. Hauling a whitetail buck on top while driving across Wisconsin probably looked pretty redneck. Not sure a Mirage would do that. The top seems pretty thin! Plus, I own a trailer now!