Stupid Consumer Reports "report" on Mirage

[Dirk Diggler]

When I picked up my 2021 Mirage, the salesman was complaining he can't keep enough Mirages stocked on the lot. These cars are selling. If Mitsubishi does what it's famous for, namely keep old but proven designs going for years, then the Mirage might stick around for another 5 years or so. I hope Mitsu can come up with a cheap hybrid Mirage in the future.

[Mark]

I'm cheap like Mark but I'm also prudent. Buying a new car is an exciting experience! Not so much when it used.

I like shopping for cars. I don't like spending money on them. These have been my last 4 vehicle purchases (past 30+ years) for myself (vehicles that have been driven by me 99% of the time). Hint: If you don't like sharing your vehicles with others, buy a manual. I can't tell you how many times that has worked. Sure you can borrow my car, but it's a manual. Response back - Thanks, but I will asks someone else!

1990 Ford Festiva L manual - $5,300 brand new
Ford offered a $1,000 rebate on a $6,300 entry level base car. I paid $5,300 minus an $850 trade for my wife's terrible Plymouth Horizon at the time. The owner of the dealership didn't even leave his desk to look at our trade. Since we were buying a $5,300 new car (14 miles on it), he said it wasn't worth his time & effort to even think about offering any more on a trade. I just wanted to dump the Horizon more than anything else. So I paid $4,450 for the new Festiva after the $850 trade. Little did I realize that I would be driving the Festiva for the next 14 years.

2000 Honda CR-V LX AWD manual with 20,000 miles - $12,000 (2004 private party sale)
This was my best vehicle purchase of all time in my opinion. If the vehicle hadn't been rear ended in 2013 (@154,000 miles), I may still own it. It did most everything I wanted without being flashy. Even @ 154,000 miles & 13 years old, the factory brakes were still on the vehicle. It's a shame that the CR-Vs evolved into something I lost interest in. I only buy manuals.

2011 Subaru Forester 2.5X AWD manual with 15,000 miles - $17,000 (2013 Milwaukee Subaru dealership)
This was more of a desperation purchase. My CR-V has been declared totaled, and I received $5,900 from the other party's insurance. I test drove a 2010 Forester 2.5X manual with 23,000 miles for $18,000 in LaCrosse the week before. By 2013, AWD manuals were becoming harder to find. In hindsight, I wish that I had bought a used Honda Element AWD manual. I needed a vehicle sooner rather than later, however. At the time, $17,000 for Forester with that low of mileage was a great deal. I didn't see a better deal in the States at the time, & believe me I looked!

2017 Mitsubishi Mirage ES manual - $9,299 brand new ($14,220 window sticker).

I currently still own the last two vehicles above.

My Forester is @ approximately 98,000 miles. It received a free new short engine @ 90,000 miles (compliments of a class action lawsuit against Subaru). The new engine has been great, & my Mirage is the one racking up the miles these days. If I am driving on nasty winter roads, using my trailer, or hauling multiple relatives/friends around, the Forester gets used.

The Mirage @ 60,000 miles now takes care of the rest.

I am hoping both vehicles will last me another 10+ years. If that ends up being the case, I just shared my vehicle purchases over 40+ years. I prefer no vehicle payments over new cars.

I highly doubt that I will ever buy a new vehicle again. The Mirage was a fluke at the time. Paying under 66% window sticker made me stop looking at used economy cars & take the plunge on buying one. Had I qualified for the 3 rebates at the time, I would have paid under 55% window sticker for my Mirage. Times have changed!

[Dirk Diggler]

CR and JD Power both continue to publish that the Mirage will have terrible predicted reliability. They've printed this since 2014 in one form or another. Do they have access to info we don't know about? I think it's bs. CR focuses on the 1st year of ownership and warranty work, not % of vehicles over 100k miles and mostly trouble-free.

[7milesout]

CR seems to be just like politics in the U.S. All those people in politics are "too big for their britches." And CR seems just the same. And, I bet CR gets funding from various manufacturers. And somehow those manufacturer's cars probably fair better in their reports otherwise.

I know when I was with Hyundai-Kia, JD Powers was invited to the plant, treated like kings, and the word was Hyundai gave them a sizeable chunk of money to evaluate their new car. Somehow, the JD Power ratings went sky high on those cars. Today, those very same cars are hoopties, and commonly dragged around the Thunderdome until they're scrapped or crashed.

As far as Consumer Reports go, they seem to have a mindset detent. Meaning, their brains fall into a detent of expectations. No matter what the vehicle is they are reporting on, their mind compares it to their ideal expectation mindset.

So, the last 10 cars they evaluated have top notch materials and soft touch feels. Then they bring in N.A.'s least expensive vehicle and have all the same expectations. And when it doesn't it's like: "OMG, it doesn't have 400 hp!" "OMG, it doesn't self park." "OMG, it doesn't weight 5,500 pounds!" "OMG I hear sounds." "OMG, no Mark Levinson surround sound!" "OMG the steering wheel doesn't lock!" "OMG this thing doesn't run 315/45/22's!" Which leads to their opinion that this is a horrible car and all the owners who bought it hate their car.

So ... not worth the pixels used to display the report.

[Ares]

The article is from motorbiscuit. I stopped reading those articles a long time ago.

It's like teaching middle schoolers how not to plagiarize: just add some words here and there and cite your source. Whatever leftover opinion the writer may have is middle school level as well.

Can not recommend.

[CROSSBOLT]

Last time I paid any attention to Consumer Reports concerning cars was about 1963 when they said nasty things about my very first car, a Peugeot 403! I bought and paid for that car with my own money just like I did for my first motorcycle, a 1960 Honda Hawk 250 (domestic model) the bike was new and the car was used, 600 bucks each.

Consumer Reports say they are not paid by anyone other than their report sales. That may be true but they have the biggest morons testing cars. I think most of the test data is accurate but which data? I think they can be bought to praise one brand or model over another. I have ignored them for all other tests and recomendations in favor of what forums have to say about whatever. Even that can not reveal some deficiencies.

Some deficiencies are not even with the hardware. Some are with warranty. You already heard my warranty beef with GM and the Spark. The same warranty issue exists with Kymco. Two year warranty is worthless because most dealers won't or their techs can't honor it. The knowledge base is the Kymco forum. Screw CR.

[vintzend]

(off-topic: I remember reading reviews from their Dutch equivalent, back in the 90s, about portable Minidisc players, a format I was highly into back then and complaining that the buttons from portable MD players were so small... I found that so funny... that these players were so compact were an USP for MD)

[Mark]

(off-topic: I remember reading reviews from their Dutch equivalent, back in the 90s, about portable Minidisc players, a format I was highly into back then and complaining that the buttons from portable MD players were so small... I found that so funny... that these players were so compact were an USP for MD)

European reviews of the Mirage (Space Star) helped me make a wise decision to buy one!

I may use CR to help pick out a wash machine or dishwasher, but I don't give their stupidity on vehicles much credit.

[CROSSBOLT]

CR seems to be just like politics in the U.S. All those people in politics are "too big for their britches." And CR seems just the same. And, I bet CR gets funding from various manufacturers. And somehow those manufacturer's cars probably fair better in their reports otherwise.

I know when I was with Hyundai-Kia, JD Powers was invited to the plant, treated like kings, and the word was Hyundai gave them a sizeable chunk of money to evaluate their new car. Somehow, the JD Power ratings went sky high on those cars. Today, those very same cars are hoopties, and commonly dragged around the Thunderdome until they're scrapped or crashed.

As far as Consumer Reports go, they seem to have a mindset detent. Meaning, their brains fall into a detent of expectations. No matter what the vehicle is they are reporting on, their mind compares it to their ideal expectation mindset.

So, the last 10 cars they evaluated have top notch materials and soft touch feels. Then they bring in N.A.'s least expensive vehicle and have all the same expectations. And when it doesn't it's like: "OMG, it doesn't have 400 hp!" "OMG, it doesn't self park." "OMG, it doesn't weight 5,500 pounds!" "OMG I hear sounds." "OMG, no Mark Levinson surround sound!" "OMG the steering wheel doesn't lock!" "OMG this thing doesn't run 315/45/22's!" Which leads to their opinion that this is a horrible car and all the owners who bought it hate their car.

So ... not worth the pixels used to display the report.

J.D. Power, in my opinion, is providing questions loaded, phrased and designed to produce a desired result. Their only interest is ultimately influencing buyers (little people, you, me, any consumer with cas or good credit) to fall for companies with their stupid awards. Like Motor Trend Car of the Year: grossly overweight, know-it-all David E. Davis or whatever his name, describing how great the latest GM car, truck is for this year. Transparent that Motor Trend is a has-been magazine eclipsed by nearly all the other car magazines since 1958.

Always liked Road & Track but awakened they generally tested cars in the 60's I could not afford! Went to Car & Driver since they had a sense of humor and nostalgia and did reports on nearly everything and were tough on stodgey American manufacturers for shortcomings like drum brakes when discs were better.

[dspace9]

David E. Davis or whatever his name, describing how great the latest GM car, truck is for this year. Transparent that Motor Trend is a has-been magazine eclipsed by nearly all the other car magazines since 1958.

Are you taking about John Davis of Motorweek? I think it's on PBS? Anyway the guy who has been doing reviews on TV since the 80s with the distinctive voice.

Well he was one of the few US mainstream reviewers who likedthe Mirage. Watch his 2015 review of his 2014 or 2015 tester Mirage.

Says the car reminds him of old Hyundai's from the early 90s. He seems to take the Guy from Triple D approach to reviews, and likes everything



"I waited a year to bother test drive the new Mirage, and I'm glad I did"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvays8Zsulg