2014 Mitsubishi Mirage 3-cyl coming to U.S. & Canada this year - 40 MPG (US) combined

[mechman600]

Considering that any newer car I will own will be driven mostly by my wife (automatic-only and please don't tell me how to drive!), I welcome the CVTs with open arms.

Early ones (read: Nissan) were unreliable - have they improved over the years? It's not like there is much to them....

[niky]

Haven't heard much about the Mirage CVT. Though there is a worrying quality issue with a few batches out of Thailand. Parts supplier borked up the flywheel assembly on some CVTs, so sometimes the starter motor's gear teeth don't catch properly.

Some of the owners are irate... Mitsubishi is promising to honor the warranty on the recall, but is taking time to deliver new flywheels... they're backlogged.

Oh, just wanted to interject:

Originally Posted by Miller88

But it's still priced way too high. It needed to be cheaper than Versa and Spark.

Cheaper than Versa? Likely. The Versa is huge for its price. Cheaper than a Spark? What? The Mirage has the Spark spanked in interior room, curb weight, acceleration (Spark has more on-paper power, but really, it's a dog because of the weight) and fuel economy... and it needs to be cheaper than the Spark? No. Just... no.

[MetroMPG]

There are several CVT owners on MirageForum who are experiencing the "grinding starter" flywheel problem. And some who have already had warranty replacements.

Not a CVT problem, strictly speaking. But it sure does not help their image.

[niky]

Still... points in favor of the stick.

[UltArc]

I went to a Mitsubishi dealership in Sheffield Ohio yesterday.

Mirage Knowledge:
They will have their first one on October 13th (having no shipping delays).
Very first one in on 10/13 is a red standard "ES."
They are going to get educated on October 23rd.
They are expecting to have a decent selection by mid November. They are fully loaded at 17k, invoice is 12,963, MSRP is 12,995.
He said 48 MPG, but did not specify City/Hwy/Avg.

The gentleman, Sam, seemed like he knew quite a bit and acted enthusiastic, but if that is him being passionate, I feel bad for his wife. He definitely knew a lot and said he was excited, but he sure didn't look it. Anyway, that's my local area information, just wanted to update on the US situation in Northern Ohio.

[ProDarwin]

Originally Posted by niky

Cheaper than Versa? Likely.

Last I checked, the Versa MSRP is $1000 less than the Mirage...

[UltArc]

Originally Posted by ProDarwin

Last I checked, the Versa MSRP is $1000 less than the Mirage...

I just reviewed the three here: 2014 Mitsubishi Mirage vs. 2014 Nissan Versa vs. 2014 Chevrolet Spark

From the whole page, Mirage is the way to go. Yes, 1k more, than the Versa, but cheaper than the Spark, but a lot of nice little touches to it, power feature wise. The only thing I didn't like compared to the other is that the rear seats aren't split, and that it doesn't come with rubber flooring.

It's lighter, way more features, much better mileage, for not much more. For the price, the Spark doesn't seem that bad, it seems like GM did a good job making a little car.

[hondaguy72]

I can verify that the auto versas get relatively poor city mileage. The fleet vehicles get 24 on average. I would expect the mitsus to get at least 28 to 30 driven pretty hard. One of my fleetcars came with quality issues. Dash indicator lights and signals did not work.

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by niky

Still... points in favor of the stick.

For sure!

I'd love to compare the sub/urban economy of each -- head to head. I'm confident the stick would prevail despite the CVT's better rating (without resorting to P&G).

The problem for me is Mitsu's limited dealer network. I can't just drop in for a test; the closest one to me is 100 km away (60 mi).

Originally Posted by UltArc

The only thing I didn't like compared to the other is that the rear seats aren't split, and that it doesn't come with rubber flooring.

I'm reasonably sure they are 60/40 split in the Mirage.

For the price, the Spark doesn't seem that bad, it seems like GM did a good job making a little car.

I really wanted to like the Spark, but its underwhelming mileage turned me off. And its slushbox automatic gets particularly horrid mileage. (GM knows this and is switching to a CVT next year, I believe... but that won't cure its portly curb weight.) The CVT Mirage is the way to go in a small/cheap car if you must have an automatic (which ~95% of U.S. buyers seem to need/want).

It'll be interesting to see how Mirage does vs. Spark -- it's really the closest U.S. competitor. But GM has an enormous U.S. dealer network (~7000 before the financial crisis/bankruptcy); Mitsu has ~400 dealers. That contributes to GM being able to sell ~34k Sparks in the last 12 months, vs. Mitsu's modest prediction of just 7k Mirages/year.

[UltArc]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

...

I'm reasonably sure they are 60/40 split in the Mirage.

I really wanted to like the Spark, but its underwhelming mileage turned me off. And its slushbox automatic gets particularly horrid mileage. (GM knows this and is switching to a CVT next year, I believe... but that won't cure its portly curb weight.) The CVT Mirage is the way to go in a small/cheap car if you must have an automatic (which ~95% of U.S. buyers seem to need/want).

...

I don't mean that they don't fold down, rather the way the site describes it, the seats are not split when they fold down. Like in the Mustang, the left seat folds down, and the right seat folds down. In the Mirage it seems like the rear seat folds down as one big chunk. Not a huge deal, but I often find myself in a group of three that needs trunk access, but it wouldn't matter much as one could reach over, unless one wanted to haul something with three people.

I've only been around the standards, and the numbers I've seen have only been for them also, the 2014 shows 31/39 for the Spark, compared to the Versa at 27/36, and Mirage at 34/42.

As for the automatics and real life, I could only speculate. One nice thing was that the Mirage has 14s...RE92s, anyone?

Oh, by the by, the curb weight did seem a bit ridiculous, but the mileage and weight it still better than the Versa.