2015 Mitsubishi Mirage Review

CARS - Mitsubishi Mirage 2012 - Sydney 16/10/12 ph. Andrea Francolini
Giving this car a wrap one way or the other is a little difficult for us. Whilst the car comes from a semi reputable manufacturer, we don’t feel the new Mirage has anything on its predecessor. However, before we go too harsh on the criticising of it, we have to take into account the price of the vehicle. The new Mirage is almost the cheapest of cars you can buy these days, with the cheapest option available costing you around twelve grand.
If you take this into account and we start accessing its options and features we have to compare this fairly against cars of it’s own class. Apples must be compared to apples. So comparing a Mirage to a Honda Civic or a Toyota Corolla is hardly fair as the Mirage is half the price.
Mitsubishi Mirage common problemsSo what do we think of the little car? It feels like your driving a go-cart. It’s small, compact and close to the ground. The Mirage runs a three cylinder engine which means that whilst it’s capable of reaching normal driving speeds around town and on highways it takes a lot more work for this little engine to get there. Lots of foo
t flat to the ground and pushing the little motor fairly hard to get it there.
The automatics in the Mirage are what’s called a CVT transmission. The CVT has been around for quite a few years now and is used in some Hondas, Nissans and other Mitsubishis. The CVT was troublesome when it was first introduced, in the same way any new technology is. It needed to get through its teething issues and consumers became the guinea-pigs who had to pay for this test and re-access development. Whilst the CVT technology is now more than ten years old, we feel it is not yet perfected and has a long way to go yet.
mirage problemsAdd the price of the car into the equation and I dare say the CVT in these cars are going to be troublesome. We would advise you avoid buying a car this cheap with an automatic CVT fitted to it.
On the up side, the cars look great and have a 5 star ANCAP safety rating. For such as small, compact car with a cheap price tag we would have forgiven Mitsubishi for skimping on the safety features but they have not.
Overall this car is perfect for mega city environments like Tokyo or New York. Small, compact, cheap, nippy and easy to park. It’s a car Tokyo residents would love. For Australian city we feel it is probably less than ideal.
Having said that, the amount of car you get for a minimal amount of coin is better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick,  these are not bad value for money. Yet, we live in a era where you get what you pay for. Generally we would advise against buying the Mirage and recommend you look at a Civic, Swift or a Corolla but if the budget you have is to limited or you simply can not do without a Mirage they are not a horrendous car.

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