Some people think Mitsubishi should just lower the MSRP on the Mirage instead of offering perma-discounts. Here's one possible reason why they don't...
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For years, Canadians have had sub-$10k MSRP vehicle options in the Nissan Micra (now discontinued) and the Chevrolet Spark.
You have to keep in mind this was mostly a marketing exercise: yes, you could actually buy a sub-$10k car, but not many people want to buy a car without air conditioning or an automatic transmission. I've seen stats for the Micra: roughly 8% sold were base. To get air & automatic required spending another $3500 to go up to the next trim level (where you got a bunch of other options the base cars didn't have). The Spark's trim price difference is similar.
Nissan & GM's little price war generated a LOT of favourable press & light-hearted reviews of those "old school" base model cars with manual locks, wind-up windows and stickshifts.
Mitsubishi never officially joined the game by lowering the Mirage's MSRP.
Instead, for years, they offered significant ($2500) factory cash rebates on the base trim Mirage to effectively make the purchase price around $10k, same as the Micra & Spark.
But Mitsu missed out on a lot of free advertising for the Mirage, whenever the automotive media ran one of their frequent "$10k cars" pieces. Because those articles went by MSRP.
I've heard it said that one reason Mitsubishi never dropped the MSRP is because factory rebates can be used in place of a down payment on a new vehicle. So you could walk in the door of a Mitsubishi dealership and get a new Mirage without having to fork over ANY of your own money up front.
True? Dunno. I've never bought a new car. Seems plausible, though. Do dealers require a deposit when you sign on the dotted line for your new car?