I've not been active on this site in a few years, since my 2014 Mirage ES was totalled in an accident and I replaced it with a new 2018 Hyundai Elantra. I've been having A LOT of reliability issues with the Elantra though, and the 6spd auto is horribly behaved for city driving, which is 70% of the driving I do.

I'm toying with the idea of selling the Elantra now to take advantage of the inflated pandemic value, driving my bulletproof 2007 GMC Canyon work truck well into 2022, then hopefully using the cash from the Elantra to buy a new Mirage to replace the Elantra, if good deals can be had again. Remember when you could buy a Mirage loaded for $12k? That's what I'm talking about. If not, I'll just stick to my truck. The Mirage isn't worth anywhere near the MSRP they're asking.

The engine and transmissions in the Mirage seem to be quite bulletproof. I highly value reliability. My only reservation with buying another new Mirage is the rear axle defect that affected my 2014. Is it still a problem with the current new Mirages? There's no way I'll touch another Mirage if it's an ongoing defect that owners just have to live with. It's too big and expensive of a problem to shrug off. The thought of buying a new sideways driving car, eating through tires with the only solution being to roll the dice and spend over $1,000 on a new axle that may be defective as well, is not acceptable. Even if it's caught and covered under warranty, since the replacement axles have historically been defective too, that indicates there's no real fix for the issue and I'd be stuck with the problem for the life of the car. So I'm looking for reassurance that Mitsubishi has addressed the axle defect and new models seem good moving forward.