I wanted to thank this forum-

[Danny F]

Hi all,

I came to this forum back in April or May under the name of Danny. I forgot the pw, couldn't seem to figure out how to find my account, etc. I did the thingee to get a replacement, and not sure what happened.

Anyway, I sold my Mirage, but wanted to thank the members who's info I used to buy it in the first place. Before I came here, pretty much everyone said to not get it. In buying it, I lost (I think) $2,000 on a Fusion I had bought a month or so before. Might be $3,000. Either way I took a bath on it.

Financially, this car turned out to be the best vehicle decision I ever made. I got lucky in that the chip problem caused a shortage. Still, the end result was I bought my car new for $13,500 in April or May. I sold it back after putting 29,000 miles on it for $12,500.

In addition, I saved almost $2,000 in fuel over the Fusion in that time. Each fill up I figured my MPG, then figured in what it would have cost me in fuel had I had the Fusion. Then took the difference and put it in my savings. Each fill up was $17.38 here, $19.51 there, and so on. At the end of 7 months it came out to not quite $2,000. To be exact, $1977.86.

Other than checking the oil a couple of times to make sure it could maintain the 7500 mile change interval without having to add any, I did no maintenance on it. Wiper fluid and checking the tires I guess might count, but the car was new, and nothing went wrong.

The dealership on both ends were great. They're sister dealerships. I bought from one, sold to the other. Those dealerships are Grand Blanc Mitsubishi and Waterford Mitsubishi. Anyone in Michigan can walk into either dealership and be treated well. I hope they do well for themselves when they sell it.

They had actually called a couple of months ago to see if I wanted to sell it. I thought I might, but wanted to make sure I had another vehicle lined up. When I looked at HHRs, they wanted $8,000 or so for cars with north of 100,000 miles. Skip that. I'll just keep what I have.

Then around the New Year, a friend wanted to sell me his car for $2,000. I was thinking it might be worth it to see if they still had any interest, so I called them back. This was on a Tuesday. We set up the inspection for Thursday. On Wed I drove my friend's car for work. All that did was drive up the price for what I was willing to sell the Mirage for.

After driving his car for a day, I appreciated the Mirage more. Especially when it came time to fill it up. Uggh!! So I went down there thinking I was probably going to keep the car, but I guess I should keep the appointment. I'd already cancelled on them once, after I had looked at other replacement cars. At least I'd get an idea of what they thought it was worth.

When the manager came to me and said I was about to get the deal of my life, my immediate reaction was to roll my eyes and think "yea right." I'm almost 60 and have heard some form of that comment for years. I said something along the lines of "I guess we'll see."

When he told me what they'd buy it for, I immediately said "SOLD!!"

So I no longer own the Mirage. In my job we put so many miles on our vehicles, it's probably better to get older used vehicles that ya drive for 2-3 years. Having 2 vehicles is almost a must, because there's going to be times when they need service. Buying new probably isn't the best idea because under normal circumstances they depreciate so fast.

Again, I'd like to say thanks to the people who posted when I was in the looking stage. The information was very informative and gave a perspective I didn't get anywhere else. I bought it because of what was stated in these threads. Had I not gotten the offer I did, I'd still be driving it.

You all be well and I hope your year is a prosperous one.

[Fummins]

Hi all,

I came to this forum back in April or May under the name of Danny. I forgot the pw, couldn't seem to figure out how to find my account, etc. I did the thingee to get a replacement, and not sure what happened.

Anyway, I sold my Mirage, but wanted to thank the members who's info I used to buy it in the first place. Before I came here, pretty much everyone said to not get it. In buying it, I lost (I think) $2,000 on a Fusion I had bought a month or so before. Might be $3,000. Either way I took a bath on it.

Financially, this car turned out to be the best vehicle decision I ever made. I got lucky in that the chip problem caused a shortage. Still, the end result was I bought my car new for $13,500 in April or May. I sold it back after putting 29,000 miles on it for $12,500.

In addition, I saved almost $2,000 in fuel over the Fusion in that time. Each fill up I figured my MPG, then figured in what it would have cost me in fuel had I had the Fusion. Then took the difference and put it in my savings. Each fill up was $17.38 here, $19.51 there, and so on. At the end of 7 months it came out to not quite $2,000. To be exact, $1977.86.

Other than checking the oil a couple of times to make sure it could maintain the 7500 mile change interval without having to add any, I did no maintenance on it. Wiper fluid and checking the tires I guess might count, but the car was new, and nothing went wrong.

The dealership on both ends were great. They're sister dealerships. I bought from one, sold to the other. Those dealerships are Grand Blanc Mitsubishi and Waterford Mitsubishi. Anyone in Michigan can walk into either dealership and be treated well. I hope they do well for themselves when they sell it.

They had actually called a couple of months ago to see if I wanted to sell it. I thought I might, but wanted to make sure I had another vehicle lined up. When I looked at HHRs, they wanted $8,000 or so for cars with north of 100,000 miles. Skip that. I'll just keep what I have.

Then around the New Year, a friend wanted to sell me his car for $2,000. I was thinking it might be worth it to see if they still had any interest, so I called them back. This was on a Tuesday. We set up the inspection for Thursday. On Wed I drove my friend's car for work. All that did was drive up the price for what I was willing to sell the Mirage for.

After driving his car for a day, I appreciated the Mirage more. Especially when it came time to fill it up. Uggh!! So I went down there thinking I was probably going to keep the car, but I guess I should keep the appointment. I'd already cancelled on them once, after I had looked at other replacement cars. At least I'd get an idea of what they thought it was worth.

When the manager came to me and said I was about to get the deal of my life, my immediate reaction was to roll my eyes and think "yea right." I'm almost 60 and have heard some form of that comment for years. I said something along the lines of "I guess we'll see."

When he told me what they'd buy it for, I immediately said "SOLD!!"

So I no longer own the Mirage. In my job we put so many miles on our vehicles, it's probably better to get older used vehicles that ya drive for 2-3 years. Having 2 vehicles is almost a must, because there's going to be times when they need service. Buying new probably isn't the best idea because under normal circumstances they depreciate so fast.

Again, I'd like to say thanks to the people who posted when I was in the looking stage. The information was very informative and gave a perspective I didn't get anywhere else. I bought it because of what was stated in these threads. Had I not gotten the offer I did, I'd still be driving it.

You all be well and I hope your year is a prosperous one.

Congrats. Here's hoping there's no sellers remorse to come.
My ol'lady used to get sucked in when the dealer would tell her the same thing....They called her within a year of buying her latest one trying to get her to trade it in because "they're paying top dollar for trade in's" lol. It's the last new car that'll be in our garage. I think.

[Danny F]

I appreciate the thoughts. I'm good though. I think of it like this- Had someone came to me on May 1 and said "I'll give you a vehicle that all you have to do is put fuel in it, and that vehicle gets over 40MPG, and you can drive it for 8 months and put 29,000 miles on it. It will cost you $1,000 (plus insurance) to do this. Do you want this deal?"

I'd take that offer every time.

Now some of it will depend on how my next vehicle turns out. All the no cost part of the new vehicle is over. My oil changes were free. I was going to have to start paying for everything just like on any other vehicle. That $12,500 can buy a lot of fuel. Plus, my insurance will go down $160/month. Yea, Michigan has high rates.

I've ran all sorts of numbers on various vehicles. Some I win, some I lose. No vehicle wins in all categories. A big $$ I had to consider was insurance. In my case, having 2 vehicles with one being in storage cost less than just one vehicle, due to a multi car discount.

What I was doing was putting my mini van on regular coverage when I needed to go to Home Depot for something. So every few weeks I'd pull it out of storage and put insurance on it for a day. Then put it back in storage. They were ok with it for awhile, but recently told me if I wanted to put insurance on it, I was going to have to keep it on for a month. That means I was paying about $150 to take my own vehicle to Home Depot.

Anyway, before this becomes another book- I'm really happy with how everything turned out. I appreciate the input so many people posted. I read quite a bit before I joined. I'm really happy I bought it, and with full respect I'm really happy I'm selling it at this time. Once those chips come in, the offer wouldn't be there. I'd have 80,000 or so miles in 2 years on it. If I waited 10 months, and then tried to sell it, I'd get (guessing) $2500 for it. That means it would have cost me $1,000/month, plus the extra insurance.

For the time I had it, the Mirage came through like a champ. In the end though, that time had come to pass.

[MetroMPG]

Glad you found the forum helpful.

Strictly on a numbers basis it seems to make sense to drive a cheap car and replace it every year or 2. Provided you don't find that to be a big hassle.

And srry if I missed it, but what replaced your Mirage?

Also worth considering: there ARE cheap Mirages out there.

I think Canada may have escaped the level of insanity of used car price inflation that I've read about in the US (though I'm seeing fewer deals than I used to around here, and also seeing some sellers asking silly prices).

[7milesout]

Seems like buying a new Mirage every 30k miles or so, while this craziness is going on, would be the way to go for you. A $2,000 car would be much more likely to give you trouble in the next 30k miles. Of course a friend may be selling you a much nicer car than the $2,000 may lead to believe. Meaning, a friend could be giving you a helluva deal. But the average $2,000 car is more or less, a hooptie. Not something that would reliably roll 30k miles with no problems...

[Mark]

Financially, this car turned out to be the best vehicle decision I ever made. I got lucky in that the chip problem caused a shortage. Still, the end result was I bought my car new for $13,500 in April or May. I sold it back after putting 29,000 miles on it for $12,500.

.

If someone offered me what I paid (brand new) for my 2017 ES manual with 58,000 miles on it, I would laugh at them. It would be a stupid transaction on my part. I paid $9299 ($14,220 window sticker car). So let's say a dealership paid me $9,500 for my car today. Keep in mind - my Mirage is 5 years old (manufactured date). So let's say I want to replace it with something similar now.

So I do a 500 mile radius search on cars.com & look at my option for Mirages under 60,000 miles. These are my options (manuals only) -

2015 ES manual with 52,277 miles is $12,990. I would much rather own an updated 2017+ Mirage!

2019 ES manual with 42,134 miles is $12,995.

2017 ES manual with 48,232 miles is $13,990.

2019 ES manual with 32,852 miles is $14,590.

Next up is -

2022 ES manuals for $15,580 @ White Bear.

These were the only low mileage manual options in a 500 mile radius on cars.com.

I understand the excitement of selling your car for $1000 less than what you paid for it, but I think you took another huge loss in today's market. If someone offered me what I paid for my Mirage new (5 years after the fact), I would just end up paying $3,000-5,000 for something I already had (2017+ Mirage ES manual). That's depressing, not exciting to me!

A 5-year old Mirage use to be a $5,000-7,000 car. Prior to this craziness, cars depreciated about 50% of their value in 5 years. I can get a better price for my car today, but replacing it would also be way more expensive.

Obviously, I could put the $9,500 in the bank & buy someone else's junk for a couple thousand dollars. If I wanted to go that route, I would have done that in 2017.

I agree with Darin to a point about buying older cars and driving them for a few years, but I bought a brand new Mirage when they were selling for $7,500-9,000 brand new (depending on how many of the three rebates you qualified for). If a Mirage can truly go 414,000+ miles if taken care of well, that's 10+ years of ownership (even @ 40,000 miles/year). Someone like me may go 15+ years of ownership without issue, because I am not putting that many miles on per year.

Even if I made a couple thousand dollars selling my Mirage after 5 years, it would still be sort of stupid to sell it in today's market. You can't really compare a year ago to today any more.

A highly discount Mirage deal was hard to beat! Those deals may be gone forever. If a person is no longer interested in driving a vehicle that is affordable, reliable, & economical, I can understand selling it!

[Fummins]

I got lucky(imo) and bought mine for $1000. Replaced front brakes and windshield(about $250). Drove it for 6-7 months then threw a next to new engine and transmission in it for around $1250. Some thought is was unwise to put money into a high mileage car with nothing wrong with it. I figured it made more sense than financing basically the same thing but shiner paint for 20k...I didn't want to join the I don't own my car the bank does club.

I guess I'm into it now for $2500 not including the winter tires I kept from my previous car. It's got almost 300,000km but there's nothing wrong with it. No rattles or squeaks, steering is tight.

I don't want to drive a new one because then I'd know how worn out mine really is lol. I'll just keep comparing it to ridden hard fleet cars.

The only questionable part on the car is the rear brakes. I have never looked at them(from what I recall) so they're still fine.

[Mark]

I got lucky(imo) and bought mine for $1000. Replaced front brakes and windshield(about $250). Drove it for 6-7 months then threw a next to new engine and transmission in it for around $1250. Some thought is was unwise to put money into a high mileage car with nothing wrong with it. I figured it made more sense than financing basically the same thing but shiner paint for 20k...I didn't want to join the I don't own my car the bank does club.

I guess I'm into it now for $2500 not including the winter tires I kept from my previous car. It's got almost 300,000km but there's nothing wrong with it. No rattles or squeaks, steering is tight.

I don't want to drive a new one because then I'd know how worn out mine really is lol. I'll just keep comparing it to ridden hard fleet cars.

The only questionable part on the car is the rear brakes. I have never looked at them(from what I recall) so they're still fine.

Everyone's situation is surely different, I think your example is a great one. With the major updates to your Mirage, it would last you a very long time without having that much invested in it. No matter how long you drive it, it can depreciate more than you paid for it. You could probably double your money selling it here in the States, but you wouldn't feel great about that if you had replace it with something else here at the same time.

For someone like Dirk or myself, buying a Mirage that needed an engine/transmission replacement wouldn't be such a good deal, unless we made a long trip to Fummins' garage up north & paid him in beers to work on our car!

[Dirk Diggler]

Everyone's situation is surely different, I think your example is a great one. With the major updates to your Mirage, it would last you a very long time without having that much invested in it. No matter how long you drive it, it can depreciate more than you paid for it. You could probably double your money selling it here in the States, but you wouldn't feel great about that if you had replace it with something else here at the same time.

For someone like Dirk or myself, buying a Mirage that needed an engine/transmission replacement wouldn't be such a good deal, unless we made a long trip to Fummins' garage up north & paid him in beers to work on our car!

Hear Hear I say!

[Fummins]

Everyone's situation is surely different, I think your example is a great one. With the major updates to your Mirage, it would last you a very long time without having that much invested in it. No matter how long you drive it, it can depreciate more than you paid for it. You could probably double your money selling it here in the States, but you wouldn't feel great about that if you had replace it with something else here at the same time.

For someone like Dirk or myself, buying a Mirage that needed an engine/transmission replacement wouldn't be such a good deal, unless we made a long trip to Fummins' garage up north & paid him in beers to work on our car!

Absolutely. I gave the wife a hard time about buying a new turd but I could not stand constantly fixing problems with the stupid Armada that we had briefly. There's nothing wrong with buying new. I just hate financing crap but I'm not one to hoard piles of money either. Will work for beers.