“I suggest that the haters out there take one of these for a test drive and see how it really drives.” @cwatkin , I HAVE ACCEPTED YOUR CHALLENGE!!! 
Let’s see, I’ll try to keep this brief because its late and I’m tired so I’ll spare the off-topic chitchat; but I actually went to a dealer after work with a co-worker who became interested in the car after I told him about this “deal”. As @ok4450 stated so concisely, "It’s difficult to go wrong on 10 grand for a new car of any make. "
So the salesman actually let me & my co-worker take the car out together without the salesman, and we took turns driving around basically a big loop.
So the long and short of it, I don’t see what all the pooh-poohing is all about. It is what it is, bare-bones basic transportation. As my co-worker said, if you want that 40 - 44 mpg, you’re going to have to make trade-offs. 74hp 3 cyl engine.
Of course they didn’t have any manuals on hand, so we test drove the CVT. I see what all of you are talking about. You press the gas, the engine RPM’s go way up, then the car surges forward, giving one the sense of ‘slippage’. I agree with all the seasoned veterans here, I believe a manual trans is just going to be more hardy, and I have proof positive in my current car that I can get 200+k miles out of a clutch.
My co-worker wanted no parts of a manual transmission. I told him, hey you go to a deserted parking lot early on a Sunday morning to practice, in a week or two you’ll hardly even notice what your arm and leg are doing, but you all know how people are these days.
The ‘Plasma Purple’ is much more pastel in person than it looks in the picture. My co-worker immediately commented on how effeminate the color was, and I thought to myself, “Heeeeyyy, maybe I could score a better price on it because nobody wants an effeminate color. I’m secure enough in my masculinity it wouldn’t bother me. I like to be quirky i.e. eccentric i.e. bat-s**t crazy” but no luck anyway. The salesman said the 'Plasma Purple" sells like hotcakes and there are no more around with manual trans. 
So ANYway, long and short of it is, we each got an “on the road and out the door” price quote. (As I said, they didn’t have any manual transmissions in stock, but the salesman said he can “get one” from another dealer). Problem I had is, to get the color blue, I’d have to get the ES instead of the DE, which comes with alloy wheels, fog lights, push-button start, bluetooth on the steering wheel, none of which I need. My co-worker got a price $50 less than I did for the DE with the CVT transmission. (AND he gets choice of any color except green).
Like I said on my “curmudgeon” thread, sometimes it hardly seems worth the effort to get a manual transmission, but I do believe it’ll be hardier than a CVT, and I base that mostly on my short test drive and all of the input from all of you seasoned veterans here on the Cartalk Bulletin Boards.
So I can get a DE with the 5-speed manual for $600 less, which knocks the “on the road” price under $11,000, BUT, I can only get it in White, Black, or, possibly, Gray. It comes down to priorities I suppose. When you’re buying a car off the clearance rack you can’t be so choosy about color, transmission, options, etc. Maybe, just maybe, I could chisel off a few hundred more. . . some of the cars were sitting under a power line and thus had some bird droppings on them, which the salesman said don’t worry, we have a guy who details the cars before they go off the lot, and I said, hey, knock off another $200 and I’ll take it with the bird poop.
I’m kinda miffed, there’s a $1,000 owner loyalty rebate I of course don’t qualify for. . . well, gee, how about a new owner loyalty rebate, give me the $1,000 off and I’ll buy your car instead of the Honda Fit, hey!
But man, I gotta tell ya, I’m teetering on buying one of these. I think the Mirage is safer by a country mile than a 1993 Festiva, with all the airbags, knee airbags, stability control, anti-lock brakes, heck, I drove my Festiva for 20+ years without getting killed. Maybe the salesman will call me back tomorrow with a lower price? Ya never know, bird in the hand and all that, ya know? And, all the brake lines, tires, sensors, computer boards, brand new, brand new not all rotted out and worn down to nubs like my old car. . . . (heck, in my situation, just being to roll down the interstate at 70 mph and not have to wonder if a wheel is about to fall off is a BIG improvement in safety. . . )
Brand new car, in 2016, for under $11,000 on-the-road. Hard to believe. Versus say $19,000 est. for a new Honda Fit. Take that $8,000 savings and invest it in the Dividend Aristocrat or Dividend King stock of your choice and see what you have to show for it in 10, 15, or 20 years.
The only significant drawback I can see is if one buys the Mirage, one would have to keep it for probably 10 years to realize the savings; in other words, if you buy one and a year from now decide you want to upgrade, you’re not going to get much on a trade in, because even though its a brand new car, technically speaking its already a year, almost two years old.
Well, at least I kept my post brief, huh? (sarcasm). 
Seriously, thank you @cwatkin for posting this thread. You don’t know how close I am to buying one of these right now. IF that dealer had had a blue one with a manual transmission in the DE trim, I probably would have already signed the paperwork. 
Edit to add, I told the salesman that your post sent me @cwatkin , but seeing as how I’m about 800 miles away from Missouri, I doubt if you’re going to get a ‘finders fee’.
