Mitsubishi Mirage
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The Mitsubishi Mirage is a compact car, dating from 1978 to 2003. It was sold as the Mitsubishi Colt and Lancer in many markets.
1978
Mitsubishi launched the Mirage as a three-door front wheel drive hatchback in 1978, as a response to the first fuel crisis some years before. It had a distinctive design with large windows and Mitsubishi's 'Supershift' transmission (four speeds, but two modes). A five-door joined the range in 1979. This version of the Mirage was exported to the United States as the Dodge Colt and Plymouth Champ from 1979 and received the highest EPA fuel economy rating that year.A 1600 cc engine joined the range in 1979.
In 1981, the Lancer Fiore, not to be confused with the regular Mitsubishi Lancer, was launched. The Fiore was a four-door version of the Mirage. At the same time, the range was facelifted.
In 1982, a turbocharged, 105 PS (77 kW) version of the 1400 cc engine was made available.
In many countries, this car was known as the Mitsubishi Colt. In Britain, where Colt was the marque, it was called the Colt 1200 and Colt 1400, after the size of the engines, which it shared with the larger Lancer.
Since most overseas markets did not have the Minica keicar, the Mirage was the entry-level model.
Local CKD assembly of the Mirage took place in New Zealand by the Todd Motor Corp., where there was a sports equivalent called the Mirage Panther in the early 1980s. The replacement Mirage Turbo had the distinction of being that country's first locally assembled turbocharged car from 1982.
The facelifted model was also built by Mitsubishi of Australia, and had an unusually long model life, from 1981 to 1990. The Australians offered the Colt with the 1.4 L engine, and a larger 1.6 L. This model was imported for a short time to New Zealand in the late 1980s, where it was sharing showroom space with the locally assembled third generation models.
1983
Mitsubishi launched a new Colt in 1983, still splitting the range into Mirage (three- and five-door hatchback) and Lancer Fiore (four-door sedan) models, though some export markets did sell the four-door as the Mirage. A station wagon was added in 1985 and a four-wheel-drive wagon in 1986.
Many export markets sold the hatchbacks as the Mirage or Colt, and the sedan and station wagon as the Lancer.
A commercial version of the wagon was sold in New Zealand as the Mitsubishi Express, replacing an earlier model based on the Mitsubishi Galant Sigma.
New engines were added: the 1300 and 1500 cc engines replaced the 1200 and 1400; a 1800 cc diesel was also added.
The Mirage was not sold in the United States by Mitsubishi until 1985, and it was this version that made the marque's début there.
The four-door model formed the basis of the Proton Saga, Malaysia's first locally built car. Proton would spin the Saga off into a five-door hatchback (styled differently from Mitsubishi's own five-door hatch version) called the Saga Aeroback in 1987.
1987
The 1987 third-generation Mirage was stylistically distinct: Mitsubishi had scored well with its revamped Galant and transferred its styling to the smaller cars. The basic model was a three-door with an upright tailgate. The top Mirages in Japan were called the Mirage Cyborg, featuring a turbocharged 1600 cc engine developing 145 PS (107 kW).
Four-door models were usually called Lancer overseas, but Mirage (usually Mirage Vie Saloon) inside Japan. In Australia, all the models in this range were badged Mitsubishi Lancer.
The 1989–92 model year Mirage was also sold as the Dodge/Plymouth Colt and the Eagle Summit in the US.
The Mirage Turbo was on Car and Driver's Ten Best list for 1989.
The five-door hatchback and station wagon were carried over, though a five-door liftback was launched not long after the rest of the range on the new platform.
1991
The 1991 Mirage three-door was more rounded and sportier than its predecessor, and the range of engines grew to include a 1600 cc 24-valve V6. The standard engine was a 1600 cc 16-valve DOHC four-cylinder unit, but a 1400 cc engine was still available. This model launched in North America for the 1993 model year. Because of the relatively late launch of the 1987 third generation, and the on-time launch in most markets of the fourth, the third appeared to have had a short model life.
The four-door Mirage, with a six-window greenhouse and different sheetmetal to the Lancer, was sold as the Eagle Summit in the US. It was generally not offered in countries other than Japan, Canada and the United States. The Japanese models saw the Vie Saloon tag continue.
A two-door coupe was introduced based on the Mirage (the Mirage Asti in Japan) and usually sold outside Japan as the Lancer.
As with previous generations, there was a split between Mirage (three-door) and Lancer (four-door and station wagon) in most markets.
Proton also licensed this design for its range and it is still offered in some countries as the Satria (three-door) and Wira (four and five-door), or 200 and 400 series. Not only is the car still being built by Proton, they also developed a pickup variant, the Jumbuck
1995
A new Mirage was launched in 1995. The range was rationalized to a two-door coupe (still called Mirage Asti in Japan), three-door hatchback and a four-door sedan, all but the three-door being called Lancer in export markets. A station wagon on this platform was offered but never as a Mirage, in either Japan or overseas. In Japan it had Libero badges. It is usually considered part of the Lancer lineage, not the Mirage one.
By 2003, the only Mirage sold in Japan was the coupé, without the Asti designation.
Due to Mitsubishi's financial troubles, this version of the Mirage stayed in production to 2003, with minor facelifts along the way. Despite a new Lancer (the Lancer Cedia) in 2000, many countries (including Thailand and New Zealand) still sold this generation as late as 2003. The United States, which sold the range as the Mirage from 1997 to 2002, replaced it with the Lancer Cedia (called plain Lancer there and in all other export markets) from 2002.
1999
From this point, the Mirage's history became less clear. With the rising popularity of boxy compact and subcompact SUVs in Japan, the Mirage nameplate was used on a domestic market-only model called the Mirage Dingo (later Dingo), from 1999. The Dingo was facelifted in 2001 and cancelled in 2003.
However, New Zealand sold a very different Mirage in 2002: a rebadged, Dutch-made Mitsubishi Space Star. The vehicle was not very popular and was soon discontinued.
Most countries replaced the Mirage with the Mitsubishi Colt, sharing a platform with the Smart Forfour, in 2004.
Mirages sold in the United States
- Prior 1988 No data
- 3rd Gen (US) Mirage (1989-1993) Mirage was available as a sedan and hatchback in five different trim levels with 2 or 4 doors.
- The base engine was the 82 horsepower 1.5L I4 (4G15), and the GS sedan came with the 121 HP 1.6L I4 (4G61) engine. In 1989, there was also a 135 HP 1.6L I4 (4G61T) Turbocharged engine that was available on the 3-door hatchback's top model. This model became a non-turbocharged variant using the same engine from the GS sedan in 1990.
- 4th Gen (US) Mirage (1993-97) was available in 6 different trim levels either as a 2-door coupe or a 4-door sedan.
- 5th Gen (US) Mirage (1997-2003) was still available both in coupe (4G15 engine) and sedan (4G93) versions.
Notes and references
- Mirage Performance Forums on the Internet [link]
- [Mitsubishi Mirage Specs 1978-1999]
- [Mitsubishi Dingo Specifications]
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