Minneapolis Street Sighting: Mitsubishi Mirage

A far cry from the dwindling sales of today, Mitsubishi used to be a relatively key player in the early 1990s import wars; hatchback sales were never "great", but in the 1990s, the trend started to really take off. On Honda's side of the camp, the veteran Civic was offered in hatchback guise, and Toyota had just discontinued both the Corolla FX and Tercel hatchbacks, and Nissan had ridded its' showrooms of the slow-selling Sentra hatchback; in the early 1990s, Mitsubishi and Honda duked it out for hatchback sales--and ultimately Honda would win. The Mirage hatcback was not sold in the US after a rather poor 1992 sales year.
This example is a third-generation car, which was sold on our shores from 1989 to 1992. Ironically, this car's last year on our market was the first year sales of the Honda Civic hatchback
really took off. While that Civic would become a cult car for the tuner crowd, Mitsubishi would have to wait three years for its "tuner car" to arrive. Never a real looker by any means, the Mirage--and most of Mitsubishi's stable--would remain largely forgotten for years to come.












I realize this Mirage is in quite sad shape-- but how many Mirages are left? This teal example, seen sitting on a lonely street, is the first one I've seen in quite awhile. Even in my childhood these cars--like their Colt and Summit twins were fairly scarce. To see one twenty years after production stopped is nothing short of a miracle--especially in the rust belt.
Equipped with a bare-bones exterior (with an optional passenger mirror no less), painted steel wheels, and unpainted plastic abound, this teal wonder oozes 1990s anti-luxury. It was supposed to get great gas mileage, too, but the automatic transmission erased that possibility entirely. No doubt the various dents help this poor car achieve the "dirt cheap" look as well.
Aside from the minor rust hole in the rear wheelarch, this little hatchback looked like decent little car--for someone strapped for cash. I'm not sure of its reliability especially since I haven't seen one in ages, but I bet this little car still does its job as a city runabout quite well. Would I drive it? Likely not. But for someone who doesn't care about cars, and wants something cheap, why not? I'm sure the original owner fit that criteria as well.