The Mitsubishi Mirage is dead. The Nissan Versa is now the only new car in America that costs below $20,000. But there was a time when the economy compact was one of the hottest, most competitive segments in the market. Hailing from that era was the fourth-gen Mitsubishi Mirage, the car that was the foundation for the legendary Lancer Evolution. But as it turns out, the base car was pretty neat too.
In fact, the fourth-gen Mirage was technically based on the Japanese-market Lancer. This is not to be confused with the Japanese-market Mirage, which shared a chassis but had different styling. To make it even more confounding, Japanese Mirages were sold at Mitsubishi’s Car Plaza dealerships, while Japanese Lancers were sold at Galant dealerships. The Japanese Mirage, which had smoother lines and three windows per side on the sedan (one for each door plus a fixed piece in the C-pillar), was sold in the US as the Eagle Summit (right). Got it?
We got only sedans and coupes, but Japan had all sorts of variations, including the Cyborg hatchback, Libero wagon, one with a 1.6-liter V6 engine, and even one specially made for driving schools.
It was a time when Mitsubishi Motors was still firing on all cylinders. The Mirage looked sort of like a baby Galant of the era, dignified but sleek. Like all carmakers Mitsubishi had adopted 90s bar-of-soap styling, but details like a smoothed out grille and integrated decklid lip added a dash of sportiness to the compact sedan. The surprising interior design offered simple, Honda-level ergonomics, plus plenty of space for people and cargo.
Mitsubishi offered two engines with the Mirage, a base 12-valve 1.5-liter four-cylinder making 92 horsepower, or the “sport” 16-valve 1.8-liter generating 113 horsepower. The top-spec model even had 4-wheel disc and anti-lock brakes, though no airbags and track shoulder belts instead. Motorweek tested the top-spec model, which received an impressive EPA rating of 27 city, 34 highway mpg.
Motorweek reported a notchy shifter and slipping clutch, which probably scrubbed off a few seconds from its still-respectable 0-60 time of 8.7 seconds and quarter-mile time of 16.8 seconds at 85 mph. They also remarked on its vague steering, though it was still fun to sling around had good grip through the slalom. It probably could have performed even better if it hadn’t been saddled with 13-inch wheels (these were the upgraded alloys, too).
Perhaps what was most compelling about the Mirage is that it started at just $7,649 for the coupe, $9,439 for the sedan. A similar Honda Civic would have cost $10,750 for the coupe and $11,280 for the sedan. As tested, Motorweek’s Mirage LS cost $14,146.
History will show that the Mirage couldn’t compete with the Toyota Corolla’s excellent reliability or Honda’s sportiness. But the real performance was saved up for the Lancer Evolution, which wouldn’t arrive stateside for another decade. However, 4G63 swaps into Mirages can be done easily enough to be scary considering the how much power could be unleashed into a decades-old front-wheel-drive box. The important thing to remember is that the Mirage name had some good times. We’re sad to see the model come to an end.
Gone are those days of cheap cars. The fact the Versa can be had for sub $20k is a miracle. On the flip side it stereotypes the car, as well as the Nissan brand as “cheap,” which is pretty unfortunate.