There are two basic kinds of Mirage. There is a hatchback and a sedan. The sedan has a huge trunk (My wife is 5’-9", I’m 6’-0", and we can both fit in the trunk) and a decent amount of rear legroom.
My wife and I have a 2017 “G4” Mirage, which is the sedan. Ours is a 5 speed manual, the only “option” we got is bluetooth which we never use. It does have power windows and locks standard. It has a steel oil pan, not an aluminum one, so it doesn’t strip out as easily. The only problem we have had with ours is a gas guage that started acting up last month. Other than that it’s a solid car that gets us 45+ mpg highway.
Is it light enough that the car can get out of its own way, despite the low horsepower engine?
It’s actually frustrating to drive with it’s 78 horsepower and 2,000 pounds. But not for the reason you might think.
The problem is, most of the time, It’s the fastest car on the road. Every time we drive it somewhere, our 78 horsepower car is unable to go more than 30 miles per hour, because there is someome with a twin-turbo F150, or a Hemi Challenger, or literally any car that should be faster, and they are in the way. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve followed some allegedly much faster vehicle down an onramp at 40 mph, wishing they would go faster so I (and those behind me) could merge. The 1.2 liter under the hood hasn’t ever been an impediment. It is always held back by another car that should be faster.
The only car I have had that was worse about this was an old Metro. (1 liter 3 cylinder, 55 hp, 1600-ish pounds) The problem with that car was people knew what it was, and they would blow their engines or cause an accident trying to get in front of it just so they could pull their phone out and scroll facebook while going under the speed limit. I noticed a bridge I used to drive over always had a speed trap. I also noticed that the easiest type of vehicle to “trigger” were the fancy lifted diesel 4x4 trucks. So I started to bait them near that bridge, so they could show me how their big expensive truck was faster than a car I literally rebuilt in my driveway, and they woukd inevitably blow by a cop at 60+ in a 45.
Haha, baiting people into a speeding ticket when they try to prove something must be very satisfying.
The only car I’ve had that was just too slow was a 2006 Hyundai Elantra. Cheap to buy, cheap to fix, cheap little tires. But so so slow. Whenever I’d borrow another car, I would inevitably chirp the tires trying to accelerate normally.
