Faults:

Have nothing to complain about, all repairs were regular maintenance.

General Comments:

Love my Mirage. When I bought it in 2002, I was young and foolish; I did many brake stands, reverse drops, and even took it off roading LOL.

The last 100,000 miles the car been babied, currently it has 210,000 miles. Nothing major has gone bad, the clutch is stock! Never change it, even after beating on it when I first bought it.

Performance is poor, what do you expect out of a 1.5?! Awesome gas mileage though, so it evens out.

Faults:

Occasional leak onto the right hand floor, possibly influenced by the climate controls.

General Comments:

My Mirage has performed perfectly for 9 years. Nothing has ever broken or failed anywhere. I just replace the oil regularly, and drive it with respect. I do not thrash it, and rarely drive above 110km / hr, even through she cruises at up to 130 very nicely.

It have got as good as 5.5litres / 100 km, when driving with a fairly light foot, and plenty of 100km / hr highway speed. It handles freeway speeds well. It is more quiet than say a Hyundai Excel that I drove a bit around 2000, possibly due partly to better gearing.

I had the timing belt replaced at about 150,000 km, and tyres about 4 times now. Absolutely nothing else has been touched, not even spark plugs, not the air-conditioning gas - nothing. Everything seems as per the day I bought it.

I never liked changing up into second gear; it seemed a bit tight, but the dealers contended that this was normal. I doubted it, but it was not serious enough to pursue, and over time it perhaps improved a little, else I got used to it.

Its been outside a lot, but even the paint is still very good.

I put seat covers on when new. I replaced them last month, and the seats looked like new. All the interior is as new, except for a few scuffs.

I put a tow-bar on, and have towed up to its recommended maximum 400kgs quite often for a couple of years. The trailer's weight was checked at the local tip weighbridge. I towed carefully, and while travel was somewhat sedate, it handled it well enough for its size, and I do not believe I wore anything out. I also carried a lot of stuff on the roof, with one front rack and a rear rack attached to a bike-rack off the tow-bar.

When towing, carrying on the roof, and carrying passengers, I take it easy, and the car has then handled it well. Performance is modest with this extra load, plus with the air conditioning on. I can imagine this being a great car with a 1600 engine like what they raced here with, or an 1800 like in the U.S. As it is, it wins big-time on economy.

I have sold it to my daughter now as her first car. I expect that she will get a good year or six, trouble-free out of it.

Faults:

I bought the car with a broken oxygen sensor, but that was only the problem. the rest are recommended 100,000 miles service which is common for very car that has a 100,000 miles.

There no problems with my car after I Changed the oxygen sensor, but just having little problems getting parts for my Mitsubishi Mirage.

General Comments:

The car is easy to drive and you can see the road clearly.

If you install a Fujita Short Ram Intake about $300.00. you will beg for the car to go slow.

It out performs a corvette if you have the right performance parts like spark plugs, spark plug wires, Intake, exhaust and the attitude to drive without the car controlling you.

The acceleration is great for a manual tranny not sure about the boring Automatic, but performance is good on snow and wet roads. A spend $15.00 a week for a full tank on a 12 gallon gas tank.

Perhaps the most exciting part of this car is that everyone thinks that the Mirage is just a slow cheap car. Having a $35,000 car doesn't mean you are faster than me. except for Evo and WRX.