Cheap vehicles are a dying breed. For the 2023 mannequin yr, automakers manufacture simply 5 vehicles with beginning costs underneath the $20,000 line – the Kia Rio, Kia Soul, Hyundai Venue, Mitsubishi Mirage, and Nissan Versa.

Listing costs aren’t the costs you pay to drive house in a brand new automotive. Of these inexpensive fashions, just one tends to promote for underneath $20,000. In July, the typical Mitsubishi Mirage left the lot for $19,205.

You might purchase 2.5 of them for the price of the typical new automotive that month — $48,334.

However you’d have to do it rapidly. Commerce publication Automotive Information experiences that Mitsubishi “will halt U.S. gross sales of the Mirage, accessible as a four-door hatchback and a sedan, by mid-decade and exit the sedan market altogether.”

A Mitsubishi spokesperson assures us there shall be a 2024 Mirage however says, “I can’t touch upon the hypothesis round the way forward for the automobile.”

Low-cost and Cheerful With a Lengthy Guarantee

The outdated argument for purchasing an inexpensive subcompact automotive nonetheless applies to the 2023 Mirage – its value makes it a substitute for shopping for a used automotive. Nevertheless it comes with a brand new automotive guarantee.

That guarantee is perhaps the largest promoting level within the Mirage’s case. Mitsubishi covers the Mirage with a 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain guarantee.

For about 40% of the typical new automotive’s value, you get one with a guaranty longer than something Honda or Ford will promote you.

The powertrain that guarantee protects isn’t a lot to talk of. The Mirage comes with a 1.2-liter inline 3-cylinder engine making 76 horsepower. Sure, 76. The usual mannequin rides on tiny 14-inch wheels.

However you get many trendy applied sciences, together with customary Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and computerized emergency braking.

Our professional check driver notes that the Mirage will be an interesting different to a used automotive. However, “all of it depends upon what the automotive goes for use for. Getting round a quiet faculty city or brief commutes are much less demanding than highway journeys. But when the funds permit, one other $2,000 or so can open up a better variety of arguably extra engaging selections.”

Some buyers have security issues round such a small automotive, too. A latest insurance coverage trade report discovered the Mirage had the very best loss of life fee per million automobile house owners amongst 2017-2021 model-year vehicles.

The Mirage on supplier heaps at the moment has computerized emergency braking. The Mirage within the examine lacked that characteristic however in any other case shares virtually the entire present mannequin’s components.

The Impending Loss of life of Inexpensive

If it’s true, the top of the Mirage is a symptom of a lot larger tendencies within the automotive trade.

In December 2017, automakers produced 36 fashions priced at $25,000 or much less. 5 years later, they constructed simply 10.

Sub-$25,000 vehicles made up virtually 13% of recent automotive gross sales on the finish of 2017. Lower than 4% of recent vehicles offered final December fell into that value vary.

People are spending extra on new vehicles than ever, and automakers are shifting their methods to chase larger spenders.

They’re abandoning the low finish of the market within the course of. The Chevy Spark, America’s least-expensive new automotive for a number of years, left the market in 2022. So did the Hyundai Accent.

That’s squeezing out patrons rebuilding their credit score. Subprime and deep subprime patrons – these with credit score scores underneath 620 – made up a few quarter of all new automotive patrons in 2018. Final month, they barely crested 10%.

That leaves automakers unwilling to spend manufacturing facility assets chasing them. Mitsubishi’s future lineup seems heavy on mid-priced SUVs, with the well-regarded Outlander and Outlander Plug-in Hybrid probably powering most gross sales. The corporate has even teased bringing again its high-performance Ralliart division, which peaked with a profitable racing program within the Nineteen Nineties.