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    Senior Member Dodge Aries K's Avatar
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    The horrible story of attempting to find a decent used Mitsubishi Mirage

    Well, I mentioned I'd talk about this earlier so if you're bored and want to hear about me suffering... here you go. We'll start with the back story...

    Life is a ***** and due to a worthless tenant living in my house that I rented out deciding that paying rent was optional, I decided to try to sell off some stuff to make things easier on my limited income. So I had "Little Red" which was the cheapest operational Mirage on this board. I sold little red for $4000... making like $2600 in profit. Pretty good, right? I went and paid off my black Mirage so no more $100 a month payment there. Sweet! Well, assface still decided to not pay and was taking his sweet time finding another place to move to so I started to worry more. The used car bubble thing hit it's peak and I decided to see what I could get for my blue Mirage that I bought new. Turns out, I could get rid of it with only taking a very very small loss (I paid $11650 plus traded in a very dangerously rusted Tacoma and sold the car for $11450 to carvana). Since I wasn't doing Uber/Lyft/etc anymore due to the state of the world, I jumped on that and saved myself $200 a month on the car note and also had enough "positive equity" from paying the car down to pay off credit card debt. Sweet!

    However, me being way overstressed about the situation and not thinking two steps ahead realized that my crippled self now sold off any reliable automatic transmission vehicle I had besides my truck. Well, that's a problem for me because I (and my kid, wife, dogs) always have something going on and when my ankle/knee/back or whatever else is messing up and spazzing out I have a lot of trouble or immense pain pushing the clutch pedal on my Mirage or Outlander Sport. Plus, when this happens I can't climb into or drive my truck like... at all. The easiest solution would have been to KEEP Little Red and sell the new blue Mirage. Wouldn't have this issue whatsoever and I really liked Little Red, too. But... I did things backwards because I wanted to keep the car I bought new more than an ex-rental.

    So begins the journey of finding a used Mirage. Let me tell you something, I've owned an insane amount of cars and I never had this much trouble or suffering attempting to find a decent vehicle. These are all the Mirages... I'll put the other cars I looked at in between these all at the end if you're REALLY bored.

    The first one... a 2014 Mirage ES CVT in that awesome green. 59K on it, one owner vehicle. Some craphole dealer called Header's in Indiana has it. I call them, talk to them about it. Guy confirms the a/c works, drives fine, etc. Says the windshield is cracked and that "it doesn't seem like it shifts right... it just winds up when you go down the road" which we all know is how CVT's work. He agrees to sell me the car for $4100. I'm happy, get approved for a loan from my credit union, and rent a car to drive there. Upon arriving I see the car sitting there and my smile started turning into a frown... it was way more beat up than the pictures let on. Opened the door and the putrid smell of cigs and weed is overwhelming (sorry if you smoke... I can't stand that stench) and there's burn marks on literally every surface. Seats, carpet, headliner, radio, gauge cluster, visors, climate control, etc. I've never seen a car with so many burn marks everywhere in my life... and the original owner treated it this way? Obviously, I left it there...

    Second and third ones I looked at... stopped at a Mitsu dealer on the way home. Saw a pink 2015 ES CVT with 84K... get there and it's 110K and absolutely filthy. Dog hair, fast food wrappers, etc. Sick but cleanable unlike the first one. Go to take it for a test drive and the sales manager comes up to me and tells me the trans is no good. I tell him sell it to me cheap and I'll take it anyway and put a trans in it. Cheap ends up being $4000 plus TTL. No thanks. He has a 2017 wine red G4 SE for $9000 plus TTL. Looked nice inside and out, took that for a drive even though it's out of my budget. Front end is so out of wack it's all over the road. Control arms are bent among other things. Oh well, my daughter and I ripped the hell out of it around the weird dealer complex and left to see the next one.

    Car number four... this is at a Subaru dealer in Schaumburg. One owner, clean, 2015 grey ES with navigation. 104K on it. I forgot what they were asking, I just remember it being a bit much with all sorts of stupid fees and crap being added on. Took it for a short drive, it drove nice on that little trip. Dealer was pushy and unpleasant. Left them a bad review. Asked me to reach out why and I sent the main manager an email about it. Get a call back and they told me they'd sell me the car for $5200 OTD. I was happy about this, got approved thru the credit union, and went to pick the car up. Now, fortunately for me, in Illinois if you buy a car from a dealer it has a powertrain warranty for 15 days or 500 miles. It's a law. I did all the paperwork, pull out of the dealer's lot and all of a sudden the car starts shaking violently. CVT failure... brilliant. I get pissed off and ask to just get my check back. Of course, the answer is no. I go home, come back the next day to figure out what the deal is. They say that the local mitsu dealer wants them to drop the pan and change the fluid... I tell them it's not going to magically fix it but sure. Next day I get a call, it doesn't fix it. Have to wait for a decision from boss man. This turns into a long process of waiting... I finally get ahold of the guy in charge... next day he says they'll just refund me for the car and cancel the whole ordeal. Just have to wait like two weeks to make sure the check goes through and some other made up garbage to make me wait. I offer to buy the car for a discounted price with the bad transmission but they just want to take it to auction and make it someone else's problem. Some time goes by, I get my refund check from them, and that's that. Back searching again.

    Car number five... a 2017 grey SE CVT with 68K miles on it I found cruising through the bunches of car dealers in Rockford. A little more than I wanted to spend but I could work with it. However, find out it's another cig deluxe vehicle with cig burned seats and also it was repossessed... twice. Drove it and it drove okay but the inside was pretty rough... Nope.

    Car number six... I was down near St. Louis visiting a buddy of mine and a Dodge dealer out there got in a 2015 ES CVT in pink. Two owners, 99K on the clock. Went to see it while waiting for him to get out of work and every panel was keyed, dinged, or dented. Both fog lights smashed. Interior was scrubbed so hard all the soft material was like... ripped out of the front seats and somehow stuck all over the dashboard. Needless to say, it drove about as good as it looked... like garbage. The trans lurched and the engine seemed to be very weak. It said carmax on the back of it, I'm guessing rental first and then nasty teenager second from the description I got from the salesman of the lady who traded it in. Maintenance? HA! Never in a day of it's life. Such a steal for $5995 plus TTL! Obviously, it didn't come home with me.

    Car number seven... another 2017 SE CVT but this time in red out in Indiana again. This one is still on facebook marketplace. Was going to be like $5500 OTD. Two owners again and no repo record this time. I think it had just under 60K on it but I can't remember now. Another 3 hour drive to see it. We get there and the car is misfiring a little bit but I figured it's because they used the shiny crap on the engine bay... take it for a drive to see if it clears up. Well, the tires are completely shot and bald as can be... brakes are metal on metal up front. Pull back into the dealer pretty quick and I noticed the a/c started getting warm and then the high temperature light came on. Sweet! I leave it running because it needs to suffer more and go inside to tell the seedy salesman that something's wrong with the car and that I don't want it. My kid and I leave and head back home as smoke starts coming out of the front of the thing.

    Car number eight! This was a one owner silver (my least favorite color for these) 2015 ES CVT with 36,000 miles. It was about two hours south of me. So down I went to look at this one. It actually ran and drove decently and as an added bonus the guy told me his mother (who owns the car) bought an extended warranty on the car so it had bumper to bumper coverage through that for 10 years or 100,000 miles. It had a few dings and stuff and the tires on it were not the right size (it had 185/65r14... too big for these cars) but it seemed okay. We agreed on $5600 and I get to work with the credit union yet again. We joked about how long I'd have this loan for and I told the lady watch... I'll be back today haha. Get a check in my hand, contact the guy, and talk to him about the process about transferring over the extended warranty. All of a sudden his attitude changes. He says that I don't get the warranty because his mom can cancel it and get a refund and that it wasn't advertised with said warranty. Well, it was barely advertised at all to begin with! I tell him that's pretty scammy that he would tell me about this warranty and then take it away so I walked back into the credit union maybe 5 minutes after I left. The lady at the counter starts laughing and says she didn't take my bet because she would have lost hahaha. Hopefully that dude's mom kicked his ass for messing that up because they lived in the middle of nowhere and to this day I think the car is still for sale.

    Car number nine! Yet another 2017 SE CVT in blue this time! I was excited about this one. 36,000 miles so plenty of warranty left. This one was up in Wisconsin a bit. Mark would have liked this, the owner of this car got screwed over by the Mad City machine of bad loans to people. The front bumper was actually torn in one of the corners from hitting a parking curb thing. Otherwise, it was decent. However, the owner was clueless... he needed $7000 and was going to pay $2000 himself to pay off the car (Mad City price gouging at it's finest!) and he wasn't even totally sure WHO had his loan! This was way too much of a risk for me to deal with so that didn't happen. I think he realized he was totally screwed though from our conversation about how the bank holds the title and it's too risky for me to pay him money and to hope that he pays the car off and stuff so I think he decided that he's just stuck with it until it's paid off.

    Car number ten... a larger local dealer to me that sells new GM garbage and Volkswagen euro trash ended up getting a red 2015 DE cvt in with 83K on it. Coincidentally, I have a friend who is suffering being employed at said dealer so I figured I'd go bother her about this thing, even though I really wanted an ES or SE. So we take the car out and it's very apparent it's beat. The rotors were warped, tires were bald, front bumper was broken, fender was dented in, possibly a bad wheel bearing. Aftermarket remote start wasn't functional anymore except to make the hazards flash. Inside was okay though at least, no cig smell or burns. Anyway, she tells me to make a crappy low offer so I tried to get it for $4500 OTD since it would be good enough for what I wanted after a little work. Manager idiot says sure if we can get it done today. My credit union is already closed by this time... so I can't just make it happen out of thin air. My wife offers to help pay for it so we can get it and then just get the loan tomorrow but then the manager changes his mind and tells us no that we'd have to pay $6000 for it. Obviously, that didn't happen. It's still there right now and my friend is looking for another job because she hates them.

    Car number eleven! Find a blue 2015 ES CVT with 45K on it. One owner again. Asking $6500. Went to look at it at the person's house and while it smelled like coffee, it was actually like... okayish! No cig burns or odor like that. Outside was in decent shape minus some peeling clear coat on the spoiler. Inside was decent besides being a bit dirty from spilled coffee and the leather steering wheel and shift knob seeming excessively worn/peeling. The car is under warranty until December under the 5/60 that I get to enjoy. Take it for a drive and besides the original never rotated tires being pretty well shot on the front... it runs and drives very well. We discuss the price a bit, I feel they wanted a bit more than I wanted to spend, and I left. The next day the lady messages me saying they already ordered new tires for all four wheels that were amazingly the right size and they'd sell me the car for $5700. A bit more than I was hoping for, but after all this crap I was fed up and it seemed to be an okay car so I went to the credit union for the fourth time and got it done. Now, the owners still owed Ally money on it but the credit union paid Ally directly and Ally is mailing the title directly to them (I just got the thing about a week and a half ago) so it keeps the risk low for some garbage to happen unlike that blue SE. The only downfall is that I can't really drive the car until that happens so besides a trip to start some warranty claims it's been sitting in the garage here. Now it's a waiting game to see if Mitsu will cover some of the stuff on it that's not that great. Also, I have to say, even though I thought it would be a good car, I'm almost positive it went 39,000 miles on it's last oil change. I had the dealer do the trans fluid change on it for me while it was there because I hate the smell of that stuff. Did the oil change, replaced the original air and cabin filters, and wept for it this evening. Hopefully the little car will be all right. God I hope so... I'm stuck paying on it for a while.

    Honorable Mirage mentions that I didn't see in person but talked to people about... one was a pink 2015 ES CVT that was super super clean and then got hit by a hail storm. That was the end of that... totaled out and gone. The other was a black 2015 ES CVT out in Chicago. I just never made it out there to see it and I already had a black Mirage so it wasn't a priority, but of course once I decided to go visit it the car sold. Last, there was a 2015 ES CVT in gray with the nav system that I was really interested in but the dealer fees and stuff were too ridiculous so I turned that down.

    Moral of the story... if you can buy a Mirage new, just buy the thing new. People treat these cars like absolute garbage and the CVT transmissions don't like being treated poorly. Also, don't be a landlord. It sucks.

    Finally, some other cars I seriously considered but didn't get...

    There was a 2012 Hyundai Accent hatchback that had 200K and was pretty cheap. It came with a knocking engine that I found out about after driving to see it. Garbage.

    2008 Mitsubishi Outlander V6. 150K on it. Drove nice, liked it a lot. Top model too so it had everything... leather heated seats, sunroof, Rockford Fosgate audio which in those is stupid loud and hit hard. Timing belt was never changed and that didn't look too fun but I was up for that challenge. However, it sold before I could get refunded from the stupid dealer when the Mirage I bought lost it's transmission so that didn't happen otherwise I'd probably have that right now.

    Almost made a bad decision and bought a white 2019 Outlander Sport SE being sold as new but was a dealer demo... but it would have that nice long powertrain warranty and I love my Outlander Sport so I figured what the hell. Would have cost me more than the blue Mirage that I had but... I mean it's a much more expensive car and I was going to get a hell of a deal... $16-ish OTD after trading my garbage Malibu in since there is/was a $1000 trade in rebate from Mitsu and they were going to give me $650 for that turd. However, dealer demo means service loaner. Service loaner means BEAT. The thing had rust spots in the door sill from people kicking the hell out of the sill getting in and out. It had a few dings here and there. Front bumper had a gouge in the center about an inch and a half long from hitting... something. Interior was pretty dirty and dingy. But the best part... some jerk used the driver seat as a tissue and there was dried up BOOGERS on the side of the seat. That was the final straw... I did lots of cursing and yelling at that dealer who wasted 3 hours of my time just on the drive there and back alone. No way in hell was I buying a car with mashed boogers in the seat fabric. Forget that! I'm glad in a way it was gross though, I didn't need the extra debt even though I really love the Outlander Sports.

    Anyway, that's that. Enjoy this novel!
    -Karl B. No Mirages currently...

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    Three of the last four cars I've purchased in the last 10 years were brand new or nearly new. Used car prices are outrageously high right now. If I had to buy a car tomorrow, it would be either brand new or be under 2 yrs old with less than 30K miles. It's almost impossible to find true bargains these days. The vast majority of cars under $5000 either have too many miles on them or have cosmetic or mechanical issues. Sad really.

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    Senior Member AtomicPunk's Avatar
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    You are so right about these cars. Many are just beat to hell and in poor condition. The 2017 G4 I bought had some deep scratches ( looked like key job) but otherwise clean inside and semi regular oil changes. I put touch up paint on the scratches, and eventually may have it painted right. But no way would I put up with a trashed interior or sketchy mechanicals. Only paid $6500 for a 2 year old car with 2.5 years warranty left. I can live with a couple blemishes. Nice write up, and I wasn't even bored, lol!

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    Senior Member MacClyver's Avatar
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    Good luck finding one eventually Karl. What ever happened to dealers fixing and cleaning their inventory? Never bought from a dealer I wouldn't know.

    Was this #8? if not here's another(with some super rare 4 cylinder engine).
    https://chicago.craigslist.org/nwi/c...177513589.html


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    Senior Member Dodge Aries K's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by MacClyver View Post
    Good luck finding one eventually Karl. What ever happened to dealers fixing and cleaning their inventory? Never bought from a dealer I wouldn't know.

    Was this #8? if not here's another(with some super rare 4 cylinder engine).
    https://chicago.craigslist.org/nwi/c...177513589.html
    Car 11 is the one I bought. And no, that craigslist ad is a different one. That used to have more pictures and was more beat up.
    -Karl B. No Mirages currently...

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    Wow. I thought I had patience. Haha. Car #4 experience would just demolish me in your situation. I really can't believe how shady some dealers can be. That really sucks.

    And yeah, totally agree that most people that buy these cars, treat them like garbage. Which is really unfortunate because they're actually really reliable if taken care of. But, as most people don't know, it's the owners that treat the car bad, that's why the car is in the shape it's in. (sighs).

    I think just buying or looking at the car in person is just stressful for me, especially if it's a car you want/need. Before the Mirage, I looked at maybe 4-5 Lancer Evolution 8's. ALL of them had transmission issues/clutch issues and idle issues, even though, they stated that the car was 'rebuilt' and 'fresh' clutch. But I guess it's what we get when we looked at used cars. I'm glad I bought my Mirage brand new but at the same time, I would love to get a CVT model. But seeing what you've been through, I don't know if I would have the patience, haha. At least the local dealer near me is very nice and not pushy at all.

    Seriously though, cheers to you for going through ALL of that.

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2015 Mirage DE 1.2 manual: 43.4 mpg (US) ... 18.5 km/L ... 5.4 L/100 km ... 52.2 mpg (Imp)


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    Senior Member dspace9's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dodge Aries K View Post
    Well, I mentioned I'd talk about this earlier so if you're bored and want to hear about me suffering... here you go. We'll start with the back story...
    Interesting stories, I can't believe how rough people are with their cars. I think it's a "thing" to buy a new car, then chain smoke in it. I've seen brand new cars with people in it smoking blunts and smokes chronically while stuck in traffic. Like burning their retirement fund in a bonfire of the vanities.

    I've even seen some rich dude driving in a new Alfa convertible chain smoking. Stuck in 401 traffic.

    Rich or poor, burning money is never a good move.

    Anyway you know, I've test drove some sketchy used cars myself.

    This is why I find it simpler to just buy 1 new car, every 10 years. This is my plan forward.Try to get 20 years out of my Mirage, but realistically plan for another new car in 4-5 years if needed.

    My Mirage still smells new inside. I'm at 6.5 years ownership since new (78/84 payments paid)

    My house is a lot messier than my Mirage. Not sure why.

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2014 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 42.2 mpg (US) ... 17.9 km/L ... 5.6 L/100 km ... 50.7 mpg (Imp)


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    Quote Originally Posted by dspace9 View Post
    Interesting stories, I can't believe how rough people are with their cars. I think it's a "thing" to buy a new car, then chain smoke in it. I've seen brand new cars with people in it smoking blunts and smokes chronically while stuck in traffic. Like burning their retirement fund in a bonfire of the vanities.

    I've even seen some rich dude driving in a new Alfa convertible chain smoking. Stuck in 401 traffic.

    Rich or poor, burning money is never a good move.

    Anyway you know, I've test drove some sketchy used cars myself.

    This is why I find it simpler to just buy 1 new car, every 10 years. This is my plan forward.Try to get 20 years out of my Mirage, but realistically plan for another new car in 4-5 years if needed.

    My Mirage still smells new inside. I'm at 6.5 years ownership since new (78/84 payments paid)

    My house is a lot messier than my Mirage. Not sure why.
    I had a friend growing up when I was a teenager / fresh out of High School who drove a Toyota Tercel (one of the last years before they switched over to Echo).

    Despite it being a 98-99 MY Tercel, it was in pretty mint condition... this was back around in 2006-2007.

    Found a exact copy! https://www.auto123.com/en/used-cars...ale?id=6757548

    One day we were driving and I noticed her oil light was on, so I mentioned it and she said verbatim: "Oh yeah, that's normal."

    Me: "What do you mean?"

    Her: "Well, it's been that way for years, since I've had the car"

    Me: "Have you checked your oil?"

    Her: "You have to do that?!"

    Me : ".....stunned silence"

    The Tercel took around 3 quarts of oil, after which the oil light turned off and the car ran fine.

    I have no idea where that car is now, but i'm guessing the engine probably smokes like an oil fire if it still exists.

    Many people have no idea how to maintain things they own, let alone depend on to haul their butt around in at highway speeds... this seems to be even more applicable for 'entry level' cars, they seem to be treated as disposable.

    I'm hoping to keep my Mirage until July 2025 when the powertrain warranty expires.
    Last edited by javensbukan; 09-11-2020 at 07:19 PM.

  11. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by dspace9 View Post
    This is why I find it simpler to just buy 1 new car, every 10 years.
    Yep, I have the exact same principle for car purchases.

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    Senior Member dspace9's Avatar
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    Sorry Dodge Aires, I think I'm booted off the Forum. Didn't mean to take this convo in the wrong direction. Not sure if this is my last goodbye. Cheers!

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2014 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 42.2 mpg (US) ... 17.9 km/L ... 5.6 L/100 km ... 50.7 mpg (Imp)


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