I just picked up some news about a totally uninteresting car today. Uninteresting, primarily because I wouldn’t look at it twice when I were to see it on the roads. But the fact that some carmakers still come up with such models is actually interesting in itself.
In all honesty, the car in question, the Mitsubishi Mirage – why they’ve opted to recycle the name of foregoing generations of Mitsubishi Mirages that were much more car eludes me – is not sold on the European market. Not yet, at least. It’s currently sold solely in Thailand, where it’s also produced. And it seems to be a huge success. The car has been on the market since earlier this year and Mitsu expected to sell about 2,500 each month, but now, they’ve already pocketed over 20,000 orders. It must be very cheap in Thailand.
The Mirage is actually the successor to the Colt, which should sound more familiar to you and as such, Europe will be awarded the doubtful pleasure of seeing it on its roads as well. Mitsubishi has expressed that we’ll have to wait until the end of this year though. Other Asian markets are first in line and the US and Australia will follow once Europe has been supplied.
I’m not sure what moves people to buy such cars, other than the price, which I’m sure will be very low. Nissan went the same way with its Micra not too long ago. They had a fresh looking face with the previous generation – looked a bit like a frog, but at least it was different and I’ve seen it on the streets quite often – and then all of a sudden decided to turn the Micra-name into some kind of geriatric product, lacking any flair or excitement. Consequently, I hardly ever see one drive around, though that could also be because it’s missing any form of attraction.
Perhaps that explains why Mitsubishi took the Mirage name out of the Mothballs. “Hmm, how can we make this poor bugger sell?” “Oh, I know! Let’s name it after a jet fighter!”
