The holy grail! Base Canadian Mirage with no options: no AC, manual locks (no remote), wind-up rear windows, manual HVAC settings, no cruise, etc. Yet another cheap, used scratch 'n' dent special with high kms for its age (174k).
Details
Colour: Frigidaire White. A littlle banged up, with rust creeping around the edges.
Front carpet: 50% sodium chloride
Aftermarket bluetooth thingy!
Stiff clutch pedal.
Yes. Possible fubar rear axle.
Stock Enasaves in decent shape. Two are much newer, so I will have to investigate rear axle alignment.
I just measured the stock battery, and it's a bit bigger than I thought. One of my boat batteries is only slightly wider, by an inch. H & W are the same.
That means I won't be able to use the plastic "tub" the stock battery sits in, but aside from that, it'll fit just fine.
7-day forecast isn't convertible friendly. I'll probably put away the crapcan Miata and put the Mirage back in service later this week or early next.
FYI, stock battery measurement/dimensions: 9 x 9 x 6.5 inches, give or take a quarter inch.
So, it looks like used car pricing craziness has finally reached the sleepy corner of Canada I live in.
This is based on watching 3 things for several years now. I have 3 email alerts to let me know about:
(1) Mirages under $4500
(2) Nissan Micras under $4500 (both within 500 km)
(3) any local (within 50 km) manual transmission cars under $4000.
The inventory of #1 & #2 has gone to basically zero in the past month or so. The inventory of #3 is about 1/3 of normal levels.
At this point I could probably tidy up & sell my Mirage for twice or more what I paid for it.
I have 2 other vehicles that I can use in its place while I wait for prices to return to normal and then snap up another cheap Mirage.
What percentage of the 911 new Mirages sold in Canada last year were manuals?
The manual pool to pick from isn't growing that fast, but it's not like new Micra or Fit cars are being added to the manual pool at all these days. Bleak times for manual lovers!
One could always buy a VW Golf. Cheapest 2022 Golf in the States has a MSRP of $31,035. It's still a manual, however!
(The upper Kammback portion was already there. I added the fender skirts and the clear panels between the skirts and the Kammback.)
Haven't been stopped by the cops yet!
Filled the tank a week or so ago:
68 mpg (US) = 3.5 L/100 km
Disclaimer: the car is able to get stupid numbers because (1) summer temperatures; (2) it's modified for efficiency; (3) the big one: I mostly drive rural back roads / scenic roads with a max posted speed of 70-80 km/h = 43-50 mph. And there's almost no traffic to speak of, so I can freely coast, coast, coast to minimize braking for stops/turns, without infuriating other drivers. Also, the engine is operated like a hybrid: it never idles, and it gets shut off when approaching almost all stops/turns & even on some descents. (4) Oh, also: no fuel-sucking AC in this poverty spec $#!#box!
I love it.
(Aside from the screwed up camber on the rear axle & the wonky clutch.)
metro - I'm kind of digging on your front wheel covers. Don't know why. They look kind of interesting, and do look air-slick (functionable). Did you find those or fabricate them?
Also, do you have an engine kill button on your shifter?
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View my fuel log 2020 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 42.4 mpg (US) ... 18.0 km/L ... 5.5 L/100 km ... 51.0 mpg (Imp)
metro - I'm kind of digging on your front wheel covers. Don't know why. They look kind of interesting, and do look air-slick (functionable). Did you find those or fabricate them?
They're home-made & super low tech. Very heavy-duty aluminum foil cut to fill the holes between the spokes, fastened with aluminum tape (like the stuff used in HVAC ductwork). So what you're seeing is a combination of the factory alloy, foil & tape.
Not sure how long it's going to last, but so far, so good!
Also, do you have an engine kill button on your shifter?
Yes! And it's responsible for the biggest % improvement in my car's fuel economy of all the mods I've done to date. I made it for Mirage #1, and I've since moved it to #2 and the current, #3.