In Hyundai/Kia’s case, I believe that the warranty lengthening was done in order to overcome their earlier reputation for making “disposable cars”.
Surely you recall the Hyundai Pony & Excel and the Kia Sephia. Most folks who bought those cars vowed to never again own a car of that make, and they told others about their terrible experiences with those makes.
The warranty lengthening was instrumental in changing people’s minds about these cars that are NOW good, but were once…awful.
One thing going for Mitsubishi is that the US is one small part of their market, not everything. Remember it is hard to get back in if you leave. You might be willing to subsidize one market for a bit if you think you have a chance. The US is the world’s largest auto market. You don’t leave this without thinking long and hard.
It seems a lot of the problems that made me at one time basically disregard the brand was the association with Chrysler. It seemed like there were lots of issues around that time period.
The funniest story I heard about a Mitsubishi problem was around this time. IT was back when Al Gore was VP and running for President. A guy I worked with had a Montero. It hadn’t even been a good car for him and had taken to burning LOTS and LOTS of oil.
Well, he was driving home in this one night and the VP motorcade was coming up right behind him. He got on the highway right before they blocked it off. Anyway, they thing decided to throw a rod and all the oil went right onto the hot exhaust, setting the car on fire. He got out and said more rifles were pointed at him than he could count. Obviously they suspected this was a diversion of sorts before realizing it was just a bad place to have car trouble.
He got home and turned on the evening news to see chopper footage of his burning SUV on the side of the road!
Yeah, I remember those. There was also the Mitsubishi Precis which was the same exact car as the Excel. These had good reason to be bashed as junk.
One of my coaches in HS had one of these (Precis). It was a matte gray/silver color and a total beater. You always got a nice puff of smoke upon startup and everything about the car buzzed and rattled so you could hear it coming from a mile away. He didn’t care and would have driven it as long as he could but his wife forced him to get rid of it when it started backfiring and blowing flames out the back. He said he was about to make a service appointment to have it worked on but she wouldn’t hear of it. She got a new car and he took the old one which was much nicer. It was a fullsize boxy style Crown Vic or something along those lines.
One nice thing I really like about Kyundai/Kia is that they are also going away from timing belts, considering they are interference engines. I test drove some of these and they are nice cars for what they cost. There is nothing wrong with them at all these days. Remember some of the older Japanese cars. They weren’t any different. Tin cans that rusted out in short order.
It seems that most are going away from timing belts. I guess it is just too big of a liability if the person who buys the car doesn’t change it. At least the chain should go 200,000 miles+ if the person takes reasonable car of the car, mainly oil changes.
@VDCdriver I agreed with your post but also happen to have a different experience. I was handed down a 90’s Kia Sephia for almost no money because it was supposedly not good. It had 75K miles on it and needed new front brakes, spark plugs and some polishing of the headlights. The car was a manual and actually had a Mazda drivetrain. Ran very well to 140K miles when I gave it to a friend.
I think perception has to do a lot with it. The previous owner assumed this car is going to be a PITA and did not want to put any money in it, even if it was for brakes and spark plugs.
Yeah, in regards to @cwatkin and @VDCdriver 's exchange on the preceding page, that was my understanding of why Kia and Hyundai came out with the 10 year / 100,000 mile warranty. 'Cause the early ones sold here were crappy and they needed to do something dramatic to get folks to take another chance on them.
@FoDaddy quote, "@Ed Frugal Other that new car smell and better fuel economy; what does a new Mirage offer over, say an off-lease Fit, Corolla, or Elantra? "
Well it seems like they want just about as much money for an off-lease Fit or Corolla as they do for a new one. Elantra I don’t know about, it fell off my list a while ago for reasons I don’t recall at this moment.
If it were $15,500 for the Mirage versus $19,000 for the Fit, I’d go for the Fit. Matter of fact, I was going to announce on my ‘curmudgeon’ thread Sunday that I had pretty much boxed my self into a psychological corner whereas anything other than a new Fit would seem like “settling”. Then I saw this thread, I mentioned this ‘deal’ to a co-worker and he was also interested, so we both went up and test drove a Mirage.
What can I say, I LOVE a real bargain. A brand new car, under $11,000 ‘on-the-road’ in this day and age is a very good deal. My daily driver is a 23 year old econobox, so I didn’t notice any lack of power in the Mirage, although I think I could do better with the manual transmission.
I considered perhaps I should keep ‘radio silence’ so to speak on the off chance the salesman should find this thread and figure out who I am and what my thoughts are, but i guess that’s a long shot at worst.
Yeah, it makes me nervous that Mitusbishi might pull out of the US. AND, even if they do stay, the Mirage is a low volume car at best, and I KNOW what its like to own an aging low volume car, it gets increasingly harder to find parts for it, what a hassle. By contrast, Corollas and Fits are all over the place like roaches so there’s a HUGE aftermarket for parts.
Spoke to the salesman on the phone today. Basically, there’s “color” “trim” and “transmission”. I can’t get all 3 what I want. Like pick any two. It’s like that t-shirt, “Fisherman’s Hell” where the devil has bait, tackle, and beer and he’s telling the guy ‘pick only two’.
I offered to split the difference on the price but he wouldn’t budge, said he’d “talk to his manager”. So anyway, I made an appointment with another dealer which is way across town, they’ve got a purple one with a manual transmission, also an SE not a DE. So perhaps I show that salesperson the first guys offer and see if they want to beat it. Or not.
Of course I’m not going to commit or make a dollar offer until I’ve actually driven a manual transmission.
Edit to Add: What the Fit offers that the Mirage doesn’t: better crash test results, cruise control standard, 130 hp vs 74hp, an extra cylinder, and best of all that “magic seat”. I REALLY like that, but its not worth an extra $8,000.
The Mirage ES gets you cruise control, 6 way adjustable drivers seat instead of 4 way, and a bunch of other stuff I don’t care about like alloy wheels, fog lights, . . . according to the printout he gave me, haven’t actually seen it. I think he said the DE has the bluetooth but the ES puts it on the steering wheel.
Mixed feelings about a backup camera. I think it could make one lazy and rely on the camera instead of turning around and actually LOOKING, which one SHOULD do, but on the other hand, these new cars don’t have as good visibility as older cars. Higher beltline and such, heavy sigh…
“Mixed feelings about a backup camera. I think it could make one lazy and rely on the camera instead of turning around and actually LOOKING”
That comment tells me that you haven’t actually used a backup camera on a car where it is well-designed. I can tell you that the backup camera on my Outback has a wide-angle lens that shows what is directly underneath the rear bumper, as well as what is behind and to the rear sides of the vehicle.
Unless you have a neck like a swan, I defy you to turn your head and see what is directly underneath your rear bumper.
I live in a neighborhood where we have short people ( I think their called children ) who can’t be seen by using the mirror or looking out the back window. They also seem to leave toys all over the place. With mirrors and the backup camera it is just better. Of course we also look behind the car before we get in.
True, the only time I ever drove a car with a backup camera was that time I test drove that Honda Fit , and I found it to be a distraction.
I’ve been driving over 25 years & haven’t backed over anything yet.
I suppose its like vcr’s and cassette tapes and microwave ovens, you lived a happy life before you had it but once you get it you won’t want to live without it. Kind of like this #%$& cellphone!
I used to dislike rear view cameras until I had a series of long term rentals with them; all Toyota Vitz (Yaris in the US). It allowed me to park more easily and get out of parking spaces much more easily than I otherwise could. This is for a car with a good view and essentially nothing behind the rear hatch window. Since then, I have had several SUVS and some had rear view cameras. For these vehicles, I gained a lot of maneuverability in parking lots. Sure, I could have moved forward and back 3 times, but with the camera, I rarely needed to do more than back out once and drive away. I never saw anyone in the camera field of view, but you can bet that phone zombies will walk behind your moving vehicle and wonder why you hit them. This scenario is much less likely with the camera. You still have to look around, but the camera is a good addition IMO.
How can it be a distraction it only operates when you are in reverse and if you normally use mirrors or look over your shoulder you might not even notice it.
Agree on the back up camera. With so many trucks and SUVs in the parking lots, when backing out of a stall at the store, you can actually see around the trucks so you don’t back over anyone. True they should watch where they are walking but if you hit one its not a good deal for you either.
People who have the Mirage with the backup camera say it is a good one. They like it. That being said, if you DON’T want one, the 2017 model year will be the last one without it. After that, ALL new cars will be required by law to have one. This means anything from a Mirage to a Mercedes.
You can install a back up camera for less than $50. I have done it on all our cars.
That being said, if you DON'T want one, the 2017 model year will be the last one without it. After that, ALL new cars will be required by law to have one.
Ugh! You had to remind me...not that I dislike back-up cameras; I dislike having them force-fed to me. On top of which, once they are installed, some well-intentioned bureaucrat will see to it that I'm forced to pay to maintain/fix it, to have the privilege of using my car.
“How can it be a distraction it only operates when you are in reverse and if you normally use mirrors or look over your shoulder you might not even notice it.”
@EdFrugal’s comment puzzled me also.
How can something be a “distraction” when it only operates at the exact time that it is needed, and not on a constant basis?
When I back up, I use my mirrors, and also turn my head, but the backup camera is an invaluable aid in the process of backing up. Whether it prevents you from backing over a rake that was accidentally left on your driveway (that actually happened to me), or whether it prevents you from running over a young child who is playing hide & seek behind your car, or whether you merely use it to accurately gauge how much distance you have before you tap the bumper of the vehicle in back of you, these devices–if they are well-designed–should not serve to distract a driver, and can only serve to help him.
I don’t see how it can be a distraction either. It’s not on all the time…only when I back up. I find it very useful when backing into a parking space to see how far back you can go.
The one thing I don’t like about it is when it’s raining or snowing…then the camera is useless…can’t see a thing.
If someone fixates on the camera to the exclusion of any other view, it is a distraction.
Are the Versa s’s that bad ? you see a ton of them around here ,Nissan can produce very cheap cars and they are cheap ,but when the Fit and the Versa were relatively new models I sat in the cars and actually liked the seats better in the Versa ,but that being said ,I would much sooner pay a little extra and get a "Fit " then buying a "Versa Note " .I rank Mitsubishi along side of Suzuki ,you can have them thank you my experience with Suzuki has left a lasting impression ,I think Mitsubishi makes great excavators and Suzuki makes great motorcycles .I learned a long time ago not to put much stake in young internet purveyors .
To clarify my “distraction” comment: in addition to being a “backup” camera, everytime you would put the right turn signal on, it would display a view of alongside the car, which the “plaid panting” salesman would point out to me. Test driving an unfamiliar car, the controls aren’t necessarily where you’re used to them being, the shifter doesn’t feel the same, the salesman’s chattering in your ear. . . it was one more ‘distraction’. I hope that clarifies my comment.
Yes, I see the Nissan Versa EVERYWHERE around here. The are inexpensive and there is a dealer in town. I don’t know about the reliability of the current model but there have been complaints about transmission issues/failures with the CVT, oil consumption, piston slap issues, and the paint/plastics falling apart from UV exposure after a few short years. It seems that the CVT may be improved in recent years as there has only been one failure noted in the Mirage and they use the same transmission. This may also be due to the fact that the Mirage puts out less power to stress the transmission.
The Mirage forum bashes on the Versa as does the Metro forum. As you know these are not fancy cars so that is saying something. Basically one of the complaints is that the mileage is also really not that great for such a basic car and there are better options in terms of quality/reliability.
Yes, Mitsubishi did sell some dogs in the past and am sure that is why they are in the situation they are in right now. The sad part about Suzuki is that a lot of their issues were because of the Daewoo rebranded stuff. The actual cars made by Suzuki were pretty decent and rated well for quality/reliability even if they were pretty simple and basic vehicles. I saw an article that basically said that the Forenza/Reno line killed the brand in the US. My GF had the Reno and I can believe this. I was always replacing some $50 part every couple months. She was always unhappy but realized this was cheaper than a new car payment. The last straw was when the head gasket or similar began leaking, pressurizing the cooling system. I told her it was time to move on. The engine had never been overheated as far as I know.