Twin Review: Mitsubishi Mirage

I used to joke to my friends at Mitsubishi that the only thing they lacked, the single chink in their armor, was a small car able to take on the likes of the Toyota Vios/Yaris and Honda City/Jazz. Well, it seems like they’ve been listening because right now, the Mirage onslaught is here.

 

Honestly speaking, the Mirage isn’t the last word in driving fun, nor does it possess amazing street cred from an enthusiast’s point of view. It isn’t revolutionary in design, and it won’t be winning any major technological awards.

 

Rather, the Mirage’s aim is to start a revolution.

 

Motoring for the masses has been a rather fickle topic to deal with. People want convenience when they travel. They want to leave here and now. They want that small bit of exclusivity, as opposed to cramming themselves in public utility vehicles. And they want technology crammed inside of it, too. The Mirage is the solution.

 

It’s affordable. The Mirage five-door hatchback starts at a low of P503,000 and the top-spec G4 sedan model, with all the bells and whistles, retails for P718,000. That’s a huge spread and assures that it fits the most cost-conscious of buyers. The Mirage also makes for a perfect candidate for fleet car duties and (gasps!) taxis.

 

It’s roomy inside. In Thailand, we tried cramming into the Mirage’s tight space and, miraculously, four adults fit decently, thanks to clever engineering of sufficient knee and legroom for passengers out back. Sure performance suffers when it’s crammed inside, the 1.2-liter, three-cylinder Mivec-equipped engine delivering a modest 76 horsepower and 100 Newton-meters of torque. But it still allows you to move freely, to go wherever you want. Mobility is freedom after all.

 

The top-spec Mirage variants get climate control and a multimedia option which means you can cram/jam your MP3 devices with Bluetooth telephony to boot so that answers the need for techno-toys. You also get bigger 15-inch alloy wheels while lower-end variants get smaller 14-inch wheels.

 

To drive the Mirage is an abject lesson in simplicity: Get in, start the car (lower-end models get the traditional twist-key action whereas top-model variants get a nice round PUSH START button), find your ideal driving position, switch on the aircon and get moving. Off the line, the five-speed manuals deliver noticeably better performance compared to the laggy CVT transmission. If you’re the impatient/aggressive driver type, the five-speed, though not rifle-bolt precise, is much improved over older Mitsubishi gearshifts, having tight spacing and decent motion, not like you’re rowing a gearshift attached to nothing.

 

Performance is surprisingly brisk when the Mirage is unladen: It finds gusto at 3,000 revolutions per minute but tapers off towards redline. You don’t need to rev the nuts of the Mivec engine though to get a decent pace as the lightweight chassis, weighing in at a modest 820 kilogram and 850 kg (hatchback and Mirage G4 sedan, respectively), a 50-kg penalty versus the hatchback ranging from 870 kg to 905 kg, easily overcomes static inertia and zooms off confidently. To put that in perspective, other vehicles which the Mirage duo are being pitted against all weigh over 1000 kg. That’s almost two normal-sized adults (or li’l ol’ me) less inside your car at all times. This aids performance, as well as fuel efficiency, along with reducing wear, tear and strain on the suspension, brakes, tires and of course the engine.

 

Despite the deficit in engine abilities, the Mirage was specifically benchmarked against the Toyota Vios for the G4 sedan and the Toyota Yaris for the Mirage hatchback. Thanks to this, there’s far more cargo space in the boot for the Mirage duo, and comparable seat space inside. You do feel the lack in power, but once moving, it’s hard to note that you’re in a slightly smaller—exterior-wise—lighter car because the refinement is excellent for a car of this size.

 

About the only factor that alerts you that the Mirage is different is the engine noise. The 1.2-liter Mivec engine is far less smooth than a traditional four-cylinder because the firing pattern won’t be as smooth: A typical four-cylinder engine has two cylinders firing at a time whereas the three-cylinder fires two cylinders at the same time, followed by a single one. The result is a droning noise. It’s not loud by all means but very distinct, something most people, reared in four-cylinder cars won’t be used to. But indeed the engine loves to rev freely at redline, even when power tapers off and accelerative thrust decreases. It was this somewhat enticing characteristic that helped me enjoy driving the Mirage and Mirage G4 at two different race tracks on separate occasions with much enjoyment. Get the Mirage into third gear (in the manual of course) and the speeds (though not quite silly yet) get your attention. You can fling the Mirage duo through the “esses,” and despite large amounts of roll from the front Macpherson and rear torsion-bar axle, the Mirage holds onto grip surprisingly well. Do it a couple of times and you can confidently navigate the nose of the Mirage through a series of bends, fast and slow, with tight corners being its specialty.

 

The Mirage is a revolution because, finally, it means that the motoring masses can now buy a well-built, well-engineered, roomy sedan or hatchback made by a reputable Japanese manufacturer that has excellent aftersales service thanks to an extensive dealership network. It is decently enjoyable to drive especially once you’ve lowered your expectations and played to the Mirage’s strongest suit (Lightness is its trump card). So you can avoid those OTHER questionable, nonmainstream brands which, when bought, make you feel like you’re undergoing some noble social experiment to see the limits of you and the car—that is the car’s reliability and your patience and sanity.

 

Just get the manual, and you will love it.