Mitsu may or may not do well, I have no idea about that.
But one thing I strongly disagree with is the notion that the Mirage is now "too expensive for people looking for economy cars."
No, it just isn't- I literally bought one a month and a half ago and was thrilled with the price for pete's sake. I can't stress enough how the price for *everything* has gone up. Yes, five, or even two years ago an MSRP of 17-19k would be too high for a Mirage, but it isn't too high for a Mirage in 2023. Go to cars . com and see the prices of all new cars. You will find that the Mirage is one of the few, if only hatches/sedans you can get for under 20k. You'll find a few Rios or maybe the odd Versa sedan and that's IT. And those cars were competitive with the Mirage 10 years ago as well. If you want something truly *better,* at least when I've looked, you are really needing to start at 23k MSRP, and for budget shoppers (like I was), that extra 3-4 k matters... a lot!
Now a better argument might be that "there is a certain MSRP for a brand new car where people will just do used no matter what." But that amount is going to be flexible because as inflation goes up, so do wages (not nearly enough to offset the inflation, alas). I'm not sure I've seen enough evidence yet that the Mirage MSRP would be that threshold, given the prices of everything else now.
If the Mirage dies, it is probably a combination of factors, such as:
1. Government pressure to not make ICE cars.
2. North American customer tastes. Yep, in a marketplace, sometimes the things *we* like aren't liked by enough people, so those things die even if we love them. It sucks, but it is a reality (and it unrelated, to a degree, to price). I guess I could agree that an ultra low price might entice some of those people to the Mirage even if they didn't prefer it, but I'm skeptical this is actually true in large enough numbers to matter, given the ease of auto financing for most.
3. Business model choices by automakers. I'm not an economist but being in a family of entrepreneurs, I've noticed two models of business success that both work: selling tons of stuff for tiny profit or selling a limited amount of things for large profit. The Mirage very much depends on the former strategy, but it is clear that auto makers today prefer the latter strategy.
I think if Mitsubishi could make more mirages they would sell more- I think White Bear would have more of them. My local Mitsu dealer sold their Mirage inventory as fast as they got em' in (I was told each one lasted a few weeks). I think the sedans are actually less attractive to some (I prefer a hatch for various reasons) so I think the amount of those you see could just be the fact they sell slower. My Mitsu dealer has had the same 2023 G4 sitting in the showroom for some time.