Is this the end of the Mirage?

[7milesout]

I didn't see it as an attempt to throw shade on the Schwabstica, who I've never heard of before (and don't care to learn anything about). Seemed like he was just listing up an interesting set of statistics. I'd never really considered the ownership of all that crap.

I have paid roughly 87% of the total "value" of my home. I have 3 or 4 years left to pay on it. I won't pay it off early because it's financed at 2.875%. Once 2030 hits, ole Schwabstica can kiss my hiney.

[AtomicPunk]

I didn't see it as an attempt to throw shade on the Schwabstica, who I've never heard of before (and don't care to learn anything about). Seemed like he was just listing up an interesting set of statistics. I'd never really considered the ownership of all that crap.

I have paid roughly 87% of the total "value" of my home. I have 3 or 4 years left to pay on it. I won't pay it off early because it's financed at 2.875%. Once 2030 hits, ole Schwabstica can kiss my hiney.

People have purchased things on credit for a long time. And when paid off, they own it. That's NOT what the WEF is talking about. Not to go too deep in the woods, which is why folks should research themselves. But my original point was financial reset is coming, but maybe different from how one thinks.

[Mark]

Mark, are you still in the market for an old Festiva manual?

If I didn't have a Mirage manual in my driveway, I would probably say yes! 1988-89 Festivas had carburetors, and the 1990-93 Festivas were fuel injected. For years, I would check craigslist.com for 1990-93 Festivas in the SW (Albuquerque & Phoenix areas). I was never all that serious, but I did miss my Festiva. My Mirage has filled that void in my life nicely.

It's funny that you brought up the Omni, because we traded a Plymouth Horizon (same car as the Dodge Omni) for our 1990 Ford Festiva. My ex-wife had a 1984 Plymouth Horizon when we got married. The windshield leaked at times creating moisture issues inside. It would pop out 3rd gear when you hit a bump in town, and the carburetor would stick wide open when it was extremely cold out. Outside of those issues, I sort of liked the car. It was very comfortable to sit in, & it seemed to handle snow quite well. The rear hatch had a large dent from her backing into something, & she never had it fixed.

When Ford offered a $1,000 rebate on the 1990 Ford Festiva L manuals, a brand new car for $5,300 caught my attention. The owner of the Ford dealership gave us $850 for the Horizon, and he didn't even leave his desk to look at it. The Horizon may have been worth more than that, but he didn't have much wiggle room to deal with a car selling for $5,300. I even understood that. Most of all, I was tired of the Horizon quirks, & the Festiva was going to become my daily driver. Our first daughter was born that year, and my ex-wife wanted to be home with her. Since she was also a teacher, our income was going to be cut in half. An affordable, reliable, & economical Festiva helped us get through that 8 year period that she stayed home to raise our daughters.

I will always have a soft spot for the Festiva, but it hasn't been sold for 30 years now. I did, however, see one the other day. It didn't look that bad. I don't need two economy cars in my driveway, but I would be content with a 1990 Festiva even today!

[Christopher_B]

Why technically it is a Horizon. I just use Omni because it is easier for most to visualize.
I have two. Both 1990 years and fuel injected (88-90's were TBI)

This would have been up your alley.

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1980-ford-fiesta-6/

[Mark]

Why technically it is a Horizon. I just use Omni because it is easier for most to visualize.
I have two. Both 1990 years and fuel injected (88-90's were TBI)

This would have been up your alley.

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1980-ford-fiesta-6/

I remember the Ford Fiesta, but it is not a Ford Festiva which had a very short run of 1988-1993. The Festiva was designed by Mazda, built by KIA in Seoul, Korea, and sold by Ford).

The 1988-93 Ford Festiva was replaced by The 1994-97 Ford Aspire, which came with air bags. People mix up the Ford names Fiesta & Festiva all the time.

If our Horizon had been fuel injected, I may not have bought the Festiva. Our small town mechanics could not solve the carburetor sticking wide open when cold, and it made the car useless during those times. I don't miss carburetors on cars. I say that after spending some time tweaking a chainsaw carburetor earlier today.

My 1990 Ford Festiva (see below) was the "pop yellow" color, because it was the only base one I ever saw in a Ford dealership lot at the time.

https://www.google.com/search?q=1990...h=585&dpr=1.05

"I could not imagine paying more than $10K for a used anything that wasn't a house. Unless of course the resale value is immense." quoting you - I share that opinion on buying an economy car like the Mirage.

My 2000 Honda CR-V LX AWD manual with 20,000 miles bought for $12,000 in 2004 was a much better value than my brand new Mirage for under $10,000 in my opinion. It towed what I needed towed, & never got stuck with good tires on it. It did the bare minimum without much fuss. I miss that vehicle the most!

[Christopher_B]

Sorry... I should have paid more attention to what i was reading when I grabbed that link. I am not a fan of the carb'd models either. A weber conversion probably would have taken care of your old horizon.

[Wallythacker]

Does 20 mpg U.S. equal about 32 mpg Canadian?

Attachment 24761

Math error by me, I saw 22.x on your display somewhere and that's 27mpg Canadian. Not bad at all considering you could fill your tank with virtually anything, peanut oil for example, as long as it was filtered properly and happily motor down the road

It's funny that you brought up the Omni, because we traded a Plymouth Horizon (same car as the Dodge Omni) f1984 Plymouth Horizon when we got married. The windshield leaked at times creating moisture issues inside. It would pop out 3rd gear when you hit a bump in town, and the carburetor would stick wide open when it was extremely cold out.

I don't need two economy cars in my driveway,

Mark, we had an '84 Laser, IIRC it was the 2.2L, carb and auto. Maybe was EFI, been a long time. Our windshield leaked and the carb would freeze WOT during bad storms. It looked great but was a POS. My 86 CV 2.6l rebuilt Mitsubishi, 2v was 100% reliable and would not rust. Chryco used a lot of galvanized material making it. I don't need 2 econoboxes either but I'm trying to plan for my kid for her first driving years and perhaps my last.

If I had a clean sheet of paper it would contain a 2023 Mirage 5 MT ES + in anything but white. 2nd car is another Mirage for me CVT) plus maybe Mazda 2 5MT for trailering larger items. I love my Vue but with the right offer I will sell it. Hard to beat AC and 5 MT getting 38-40mpg Canuck at 60mph though. I see the writing for it on the wall.

As long as I have a valid license I will have 2 road ready cars. Being without wheels becomes horrible with age and even worse during an intense winter. The few hundred annual bucks it takes for a 2nd car on standby is peanuts when it's needed.

[7milesout]

Math error by me, I saw 22.x on your display somewhere and that's 27mpg Canadian. Not bad at all considering you could fill your tank with virtually anything, peanut oil for example, as long as it was filtered properly and happily motor down the road.

Wally - I think in the video I linked in here somewhere, the overhead probably read 22.X mpg. And yes, it will get that under some of the best circumstances. If I could just cruise it along a rural highway at 60 mph, it might even go a skosh over 25 mpg. Maybe. But in average its more like 20 mpg. If I just roll it around town here, it would probably be between 17 and 19 mpg ... which still crushes. Because this truck is friggin huge. 7,140 pounds! And it will do everything, except, haul more than 2 people in comfort. I've hauled 6 people, the back 3 weren't all that comfortable (but weren't miserable). The front middle was my wife, and I thoroughly enjoyed shifting gears with her sitting there straddling the shifter. My 2003 GMC Sierra (was my dad's) under all the same circumstances would probably be 1 or 2 fewer mpg. And is a standard cab 2WD short bed, as small as a full size pickup gets.

[rohoGames]

We all know how you feel - your rant is present in pretty much every thread on this forum.
Your constant posts about how expensive things have gotten is tired.
THAT'S INFLATION. THAT'S THE COST OF DOING BUSINESS. THAT'S LIFE.
Only an IDIOT with more money than brains would buy neglected used car over a new Mirage for the same money.
And, let's face it, almost everyone who buys a Honda/Toyota/fill-in-the-blank doesn't maintain it, and passes on the neglect to the poor unsuspecting buyer who thinks it's a better value than buying a new car.
We've all been down that road, and that's why we're here.
If I were in the market today for a car, I'd still buy a new Mirage at sticker price, than any used car for the same money.

Yes, 100% agree and of course this is exactly what I just did. Having just spent every waking hour on cars . com for weeks I can confirm that you can’t just grab a used vehicle for 15-16k under 60k miles and do the tidy “move up in class and features” gambit that used to be available.

I was looking at things like Chevy Trax from 2017 with over 60k miles that were stickered at 18k. They were fully loaded, yes (but not always). If you tried to stay in the same subcompact econobox class you ran into the issue that many gently used models (Chevy Spark, Kia Rio) were priced right at the Mirage MSRP. Even for nicer Mirage trims.

So absolutely yes the current new Mirages still represent maximum value in 2023 and are a great choice - I’m still amazed that I managed to buy, in 2023, a brand new car pretty loaded with great features under 20k.

But, unfortunately I do agree with others that the marketplace isn’t always served perfectly by the makers of product. It looks to me like the American auto industry is moving towards more expensive cars with higher profit margins per car, which puts the squeeze on reasonably priced cars. So many cars that I really liked last time I was in the market for a small car over ten years ago simply don’t exist anymore as new vehicles.

And like many others here, I’m deeply suspicious and skeptical of the forced movement to EVs. I’m a marketplace kinda guy. I always worry when the thumb of government gets put on the scale in any marketplace. It was such a pain filtering out all the used EVs when searching: I’m just not interested in spending thousands on a replacement battery someday or having range anxiety. I like Tesla because I think they are engineering marvels, but they are still laughably out of my price range for cars. However, I think the government essentially wants to make thinks so hard for ICE engine production that pretty much all cars might someday start at 35k :/

Anyway here’s hoping that Mitsu continues to see the value in producing affordable, fun small cars.

[7milesout]

roho - I agree with most of that. There's only area, while I don't disagree with, I optimistically hope goes a bit different. While I agree that US automakers are moving exactly in the direction you stated, instead of that putting a squeeze on small inexpensive cars, I optimistically hope that drives a healthy demand for less expensive cars. If I were Mitsubishi, I would take a gamble on that possibility, and keep producing the Mirage as-is. The investment in it's development is now covered, there's very little chance for losing anything by continuing on with it. There could be glory in continuing on with it.

However, bean counters like to raise alarms about losing things they've never had in their grasp. Like what I hear even in my bidness, "Every day we delay production we lose $50k!" I strongly dislike that mindset. How do you LOSE something, you've never had in your grasp? There's too much time, investment and risk involved in getting to where they fantasize to be in order to make that statement. So, if I could make a statement to Mitsubishi and have them actually listen to me, I'd say: Keep on with the Mirage, refine it as has been done over the past 8 or 9 years. It is a gem of a car, and could be some bread n butter if we run into real bad times, when maybe finally idiot dudes will stop buying $80k luxury land barge pickup trucks. That will probably never happen. You know because the young guys (25 - 35) feel the need to impress their buddies and attract a mate. And we all know women are attracted to men that they think have the potential to provide for them. And I know at that age, I wanted to ... do stuff, and I wanted to attract a female in order to get to.