Cheap vehicles are a dying breed. For the 2023 mannequin yr, automakers manufacture simply 5 vehicles with beginning costs underneath the $20,000 line – the Kia Rio, Kia Soul, Hyundai Venue, Mitsubishi Mirage, and Nissan Versa.
Record costs aren’t the costs you pay to drive residence in a brand new automobile. Of these reasonably priced fashions, just one tends to promote for underneath $20,000. In July, the typical Mitsubishi Mirage left the lot for $19,205.
You could possibly purchase 2.5 of them for the price of the typical new automobile that month — $48,334.
However you’d have to do it rapidly. Commerce publication Automotive Information stories that Mitsubishi “will halt U.S. gross sales of the Mirage, obtainable as a four-door hatchback and a sedan, by mid-decade and exit the sedan market altogether.”
A Mitsubishi spokesperson assures us there shall be a 2024 Mirage however says, “I can’t touch upon the hypothesis round the way forward for the automobile.”
Low cost and Cheerful With a Lengthy Guarantee
The previous argument for getting an reasonably priced subcompact automobile nonetheless applies to the 2023 Mirage – its value makes it an alternative choice to shopping for a used automobile. Nevertheless it comes with a brand new automobile guarantee.
That guarantee is perhaps the most important promoting level within the Mirage’s case. Mitsubishi covers the Mirage with a 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain guarantee.
For about 40% of the typical new automobile’s value, you get one with a guaranty longer than something Honda or Ford will promote you.
The powertrain that guarantee protects isn’t a lot to talk of. The Mirage comes with a 1.2-liter inline 3-cylinder engine making 76 horsepower. Sure, 76. The usual mannequin rides on tiny 14-inch wheels.
However you get many fashionable applied sciences, together with normal Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and computerized emergency braking.
Our skilled take a look at driver notes that the Mirage could be an interesting various to a used automobile. However, “all of it is dependent upon what the automobile goes for use for. Getting round a quiet school city or brief commutes are much less demanding than highway journeys. But when the funds permit, one other $2,000 or so can open up a larger variety of arguably extra engaging decisions.”
Some consumers have security issues round such a small automobile, too. A latest insurance coverage trade report discovered the Mirage had the best dying price per million automobile homeowners amongst 2017-2021 model-year vehicles.
The Mirage on seller heaps immediately has computerized emergency braking. The Mirage within the examine lacked that characteristic however in any other case shares nearly the entire present mannequin’s elements.
The Impending Demise of Inexpensive
If it’s true, the top of the Mirage is a symptom of a lot greater developments within the automotive trade.
In December 2017, automakers produced 36 fashions priced at $25,000 or much less. 5 years later, they constructed simply 10.
Sub-$25,000 vehicles made up nearly 13% of latest automobile gross sales on the finish of 2017. Lower than 4% of latest vehicles offered final December fell into that value vary.
Individuals are spending extra on new vehicles than ever, and automakers are shifting their methods to chase greater spenders.
They’re abandoning the low finish of the market within the course of. The Chevy Spark, America’s least-expensive new automobile for a number of years, left the market in 2022. So did the Hyundai Accent.
That’s squeezing out consumers rebuilding their credit score. Subprime and deep subprime consumers – these with credit score scores underneath 620 – made up a few quarter of all new automobile consumers in 2018. Final month, they barely crested 10%.
That leaves automakers unwilling to spend manufacturing facility sources chasing them. Mitsubishi’s future lineup seems heavy on mid-priced SUVs, with the well-regarded Outlander and Outlander Plug-in Hybrid probably powering most gross sales. The corporate has even teased bringing again its high-performance Ralliart division, which peaked with a profitable racing program within the Nineteen Nineties.
