Starting next year, Mitsubishi Motors will sell exclusively crossovers in the US; the last classic passenger car model, the Mirage, will soon leave the market.
The current Mitsubishi Mirage debuted in 2012 as a global model, and now, due to its age, it is slowly leaving the stage. Mirage left its native Japan at the end of 2022, and yesterday the American magazine Car and Driver, citing the local representative office of Mitsubishi, reported that production of Mirage will cease at the end of this year. Mirage is not included in Mitsubishi's product line for the 2025 model year, but it will remain on sale until about the middle of the 2025 calendar year, until stocks are exhausted.
In the U.S., the Mitsubishi Mirage is currently one of two models that can be purchased for less than $20,000, the other being the Nissan Versa sedan, which starts at $17,820 (shipping included). The Mirage is offered in sedan and hatchback body styles, the sedan is called the Mirage G4 and starts at $18,940, while the Mirage hatchback can be purchased for $17,840.
Regardless of the body, the American Mirage is equipped only with a 1.2-liter 3-cylinder naturally aspirated gasoline engine (79 hp, 100 Nm) paired with a CVT. The drive is front-wheel drive only. The rear brakes are drum brakes only. Meanwhile, the basic equipment includes climate control, a full set of airbags (including a knee airbag for the driver), an automatic emergency braking system, a multimedia system with a 7-inch screen (there is support for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto), cruise control, electric windows and other small amenities.
The budget passenger car segment in the US has dissipated for two reasons: on the one hand, the demand for them is objectively small, on the other hand, manufacturers earn practically nothing on such cars, so there will be no direct successor to the Mirage, but its place, in theory, could be taken after some time by a small and relatively affordable crossover (of course, with a price tag well above $ 20,000).
It is curious that at the end of its career, demand for the Mirage in the US increased: in the first half of the year, according to Mitsubishi itself, 9862 units were sold, which is 85.5% more than sales in January-June 2023. This is probably explained by the fact that rental companies, which always need new cheap cars, were notified in advance about the imminent closure of Mirage production and rushed to fill their parks with them. There will probably never be any other new cars for that kind of money — no one will let Chinese automakers with their cheap cars break into the US market.
Let's add that, in general, Mitsubishi has recently re-awakened its interest in the North American market after more than ten years of outright stagnation: several interesting new products have been promised — crossovers, SUVs and, perhaps, even a pickup truck.
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