Hey ho everyone!
I'm finally going to get my own first car soon and the lucky girl is the Mirage/Space Star (It's called Space Star here) currently waiting for her to arrive to the dealership I ordered her from, she already landed in port which is pretty far and should be getting checked out and fitted out I believe, I should get her in a week or two I believe.
So I little bit of pointless history of my life, skip if you don't want to hear my ****ty NPC backstory
I used to work as an HVAC Technician and Electrician for mid-sized service company for a few good years so I never had to buy my own car since the workplace gave all techies a Renault Kangoo, a nice work horse of a car, even fully loaded with equipment, 2 ladders on top and AC parts, the thing carried itself well enough.
However about a year ago I decided I had enough after developing a dual Inguinal Hernia, and at age 27 that was quite a shock for me, went through surgery, it sucked, getting back to work wasn't easy and I couldn't see myself doing this type of work anymore, so I left the job, used all my cash to go through a web development bootcamp and then a cybersecurity bootcamp, after some hardwork and soul crushing months of job hunting I managed to land a cybersecurity job, I'm currently a SOC Analyst and I quickly realized not having a car really F'ing sucks, it's starting to rain hard here and public transportation always sucked here, now with the rain, trains constantly have issues and get delayed and I don't want to be constantly late for work and having to get up at 5AM just to make it on time sucks.
So, I went online to look at the cheapest cars available, I obviously started with second hand cars, looked over at some old Hyundai i10's and i20's
however anything around the price range that I could afford was always super old, beaten up and had tons of miles on them, I was worried about taking a gamble on any of the cars I went to see, they were way too beaten up, engines sound like they were going to give up on living at any moment and the owners looked like people who didn't care about their cars..
So I started to look at new cars, and boy oh boy with the economy today and how the world is, all new cars were super expensive, I was starting to lose hope, until my Father came up and let me know he knows someone who works at a Mitsubishi dealership and that they said they have a bunch of cheap, reliable, super fuel-efficient cars for sale right now and that we should come take a look today because tomorrow this car model is going to get another price increase.
We went, sat down with the agent and they point to the 2022 Mitsubishi Space Star SE (the one with the red lines up front) and they tell me they can make a good deal for me, low monthly payment 3 year plan, full bumper to bumper warranty and free yearly inspections at their dealership garage, this really was an amazing deal, I went to look over at the car, loved its looks and what it had to offer for its price.
Now I didn't get to actually drive one, they didn't have one sitting in a garage waiting to be test driven, just the one on the 2nd floor for showcase, so I had to quickly check online about how the car actually is.
And well.. I found out 2 things, sub reddit r/cars REALLY hates this car, like, mega hate boner levels, you'd think this car murdered every user's family over there or something just by how much they loved to **** all over this car, and lots of reviews online also said it's a ****box and to stay away.
But then I thought i'd look for forums or subreddits dedicated to actual owners of this car, one of them was this place right here, and I quickly found out that almost everyone who actually owns and drives this car, actually loves it, or at least, doesn't think the car is going to murder them or something, or blow up trying to get off a ramp into a high way.
after reading a hell of a lot of posts talking about the car and users here going over their experience with it, I realized this is exactly the car I need, a car that is just that, a car, a vehicle that will take me from point A to point B, reliably and without eating at my pockets each time I started the car.
I signed the deal and ordered a "diamond white" SE edition of the car just like the one I saw at the floor showcase/display.
Now I'm sitting here, legit giddy about getting to drive it, I really hope it's going to be exactly how so many people say it is, the bad and the good, some said it's almost like a Go Kart, well I really hope it is because that sounds like a real hoot to drive.
I promise to post pictures when she arrives!
I also ordered a few decals for her because I think it's hilarious to take a slow econobox and slap rally type decals on it, anyone who doesn't know what this car really is will assume it's a rally car just because of how it looks
Edit'
Forgot to mention it's the CVT version
btw I would appreciate any tips on taking care of her, I think I remember reading that fluid change every 50K~ is a must, anything else besides that?