I still think GM a/c is terrific. Our 2003 Silhouette a/c is as good as in 2003. The 1998 Regal had ice cold a/c right up to the end 13 years later.
Another vote for GM a/c. 1965 Olds 98, 1987 Olds Ciera, 2007 Chevy Impala; all three had a/c that blew icicles in a hurry.
“interesting that Spellcheck doesn’t know what freon is”
This is a bit off-topic, but it does relate–sort of…
Back in the late '90s, my school district finally decided to buy some computers for staff members to use. They weren’t connected to the internet, but they were useful for word processing and for compiling/storing records.
One day, while writing a letter of recommendation (on the computer that I shared with 7 other staff members), I wanted to comment on something that a student had accomplished via the internet, and the computer’s Spellcheck informed me that “Internet is not a word”.
Those computers were undoubtedly already obsolete when they were purchased, but that was pretty-much the norm for that district.
My parents had GM as well as Honda and Mazda products while I was growing up. There was no comparison to the GM AC. The rice burners got taken in by my parents because they thought there was a problem with the AC. Nope, that is just how they were.
As for Mitsubishi, the Mirage actually has decent AC and it doesn’t completely sap the small engine of power. I was worried about this but it isn’t a problem. Sure, you can tell when it is on but it isn’t a big issue.
This is interesting about Nissan buying a large stake in Mitsubishi. Hopefully they will keep them going for a while. The good news is that the company will likely never go away completely and that parts will still be available.
It sounds like the Mirage has been a good seller although I don’t see a lot where I am at. I see quite a few of the older models as well as the new Outlander and Outlander Sport models. I actually think the Outlander Sport is a decent looking car. The Outlander is a take it or leave it for me. It is just another SUV on the road like so many. They are meant for UTILITY and not looks if you ask me. I suspect that Nissan will keep the good selling models such as the Mirage and Outlander variants, maybe even rebranding them as their own, and not bothering to sell the rest here? I have no idea but we will see.
Yes, the poor people around here have the nicest cars to. There is an old saying along the lines of “Poor people have poor ways”. One of my friends manages a grocery store. I pulled in the parking lot with my beatup Geo Metro and it was just about the nicest car in the lot. I asked him in the back if this was food stamp day since all the cars in the lot were complete beaters. His response was “No, the people driving the junk pay cash. The people driving the nice cars are on food stamps.” I see this with being in business for myself. People will have nice cars, the latest fashion, and an iPhone 6 but are not able to pay for my services! Yes, you see a lot of crappy trailers around here with a nice big pickup truck and fishing boat parked outside. You must have priorities. Then go to the hood and it is Escalades and such.
As for the school district and computers, don’t even get me started on mine when I was growing up. The paid for outdated junk and paid a HUGE premium to do so. It was configured poorly too and never worked correctly. Part of that was the union IT people making sure they had continuous work. They never fixed it right so it would break again. I fixed a very simple problem for a teacher once and then felt the wrath of the union since I was taking their work away their work and doing it for free. They tried to accuse me of malicious intent and get me suspended, expelled, etc. but the teacher I did this for came to my rescue. It was still a big mess. The crap they purchased was purchased through a friend or family member of one of the high-up administrators. I don’t know how they got away with this crap but they did.
I saw one today!
Yes, I actually saw one new-ish Mirage.
However, that has to be coupled with the fact that I also spied one new-ish Maserati Quattroporte.
In a drive of about 20 minutes, along with the masses of Hondas, Toyotas, Hyundais, Nissans, Chevies, Fords, Dodges, Subarus and Kias, I saw the same paltry number of Mirages as I saw Maseratis.
As I said previously, when a company’s profit margin per car is as razor-thin as it is with a very inexpensive car like the Mirage, this lack of market penetration can’t bode well.
Not to go off target again but I agree its culture not money. I’ve known and worked with people that have come from the wrong side of the tracks and were making a lot of money. They just still lived the old way like they had no money. Old trucks, dilapidated house, etc. I liked them but I’d never feel sorry for them. They live and spend the way they want and so do I.
Well, I accept it was just MY experience. As a child, I swear I knew when a vacation was coming up because my dad would get the a/c fixed on his car. I distinctly remember a mechanic telling him to NEVER put a Ford a/c on “high” because it would blow the compressor, this was sometime before he bought his new car in 1984. So the a/c had 3 speeds, low, medium, and blow-the-compressor. My mom’s Maverick was the same way, although she really never drove far enough to use the a/c much. By way of comparison, my new Mirage has 8 fan speeds, so, yes, I consider that luxury, and yes, I am extremely hesitant to use the top 3 speeds.
My mom got a 1985 Nissan 200sx (had 4 cylinders but 8 spark plugs). Her job was at the bottom of a very long and steep hill, hence she had to drive up that hill coming home. She swore the car wouldn’t make it up that hill with the a/c on, so she generally didn’t use it. By the time I was old enough to drive her car the a/c no longer worked.
Both my parents were children of the Great Depression, so car a/c was seen as kind of a frivolous luxury, especially when it was something that had to be fixed year after year.
Perhaps there’s something I don’t understand now. I always hear about people, the car a/c doesn’t work, so they “re-charge” the refrigerant, in other words add more refrigerant. If the old refrigerant leaked out to the point where the a/c doesn’t work, won’t the new refrigerant leak out as well? Isn’t adding refrigerant just a temporary band-aid? Don’t you need to fix wherever and however the refrigerant leaked out in the first place?
I’ll tell you how the public schools ruined me on technology from day one. In 7th grade, they took us to the computer lab, full of Apple computers. First thing they told us, these are Apple computers, the school system buys Apple because they get a special deal on them, when you go out into the real world you won’t encounter any Apple computers, you’ll find IBM (PC) computers in the “real world”. So I shut my brain off. Why bother learning something I won’t ever encounter in the real world? That was my 13 year old attitude. I had the same attitude regarding algebra, by way. . .
Yes, my parents’ experience did influence my own car buying decisions. I never bought cars with a/c because I always thought, why bother, it just breaks all the time anyway and when it does work, you pay a heavy penalty in fuel economy. Now I’m getting old(er) and I don’t want to suffer without any more. I have a very low heat tolerance.
In regards to my own Mitsubishi Mirage, I’m glad to know they sell these all over the world, that means parts will be around, even if they become special order in the USA. I intend to get 20 years out of mine, BUT, if I get to 15, 16 years and it’s nickle-and-diming me to death, I’ll pull the plug, I won’t make the same mistake I made with the Festiva, trying to squeeze out the last little bit of useful life out of it.
I’ve already stated I believe my Mirage will be the last manual transmission car I ever own. Reading these boards, I just hope that in 15 - 20 years I’ll still be allowed to buy a car that I can actually drive myself!
@EdFrugal Most A?C systems leak a very small amount. My 1988 Caprice had a very good system but after 9 years I needed a $50 recharge. That did me till I sold the car. A major leak needs to be fixed of course.
As for closing your mind to certain techniques and technologies. You do so at your own risk, as long as you excel in other things that allow you to earn a living.
I once worked in a bilingual environment and had an old school boss who bragged he only spoke English. If he had been a recent graduate there his upward mobility would have been severely limited. Most of my colleagues in Texas speak Spanish.
@Docnick “Most a?c systems leak a very small amount.” Oh. No wonder we almost lost the ozone layer. So its a normal thing to have to recharge a vehicle a/c every so many years.
In regards to closing my mind to techniques and technologies, I contend it was the presentation that was faulty. It was presented in terms of, we’re going to teach you this stuff you won’t ever find in the business world.
In HINDSIGHT, it should have been presented in terms of, say, Apple is like Chevrolet, IBM is like Ford, the controls may be located in different places, but you’re still learning to drive a car.
I WISH I could speak Spanish. In high school, they had me on the college track, so they said we needed at least 2 years of a foreign language, the school only offered French and Latin. I had 3 years of French, couldn’t speak it today though. Nobody around to speak French with. Of course back when I was in high school, Japanese was the language we all thought we’d need to learn. The Japanese seemed to be buying up EVERYTHING back in the 1980’s
"You do so at your own risk, as long as you excel in other things that allow you to earn a living. " I wish I’d clearly understood the implications of that 25 years ago, I wouldn’t be in the position I find myself in today. I’m looking forward now to getting my CDL, so I can have a marketable job skill. Hopefully by the time the computers take over, I’ll be old enough to retire.
Help me out here. How could changing the fan speed to high blow a compressor out? Even changing the temperature lever would only control the flapper wouldn’t it? Just wondering.
When I was 15 I worked in the greenhouse. My boss happened to be the mayor at the time. I told him I was taking German and he said why do you want to do that, half the world speaks Spanish. I guess he was right but I thought he was nuts at the time. Half the town was German and I don’t think there was one Spanish person. Of course now half the town, or at least a quarter is Spanish and another quarter Somalian. I refuse to learn Somalian though so just stick to English. The only time I’ve used German was in Germany and they didn’t really understand me. Thought I was renting a car but I got a car and driver.
“How could changing the fan speed to high blow a compressor out?”
Like you, I don’t believe that the fan speed would have any effect on the compressor.
I think that the mechanic used by Ed Frugal’s Dad blamed compressor problems on the fan speed because he didn’t know how to properly diagnose/fix the problem.
The higher the fan speed the greater the heat load on the system. In the north you may normally see 200-250 PSI on the high side. In the desert with the fan speed set to high on a 110F day pressures can be between 300 and 350 PSI. Modern cars can handle this.
“Modern cars can handle this.”
…but in my experience, even cars from the '70s could handle it.
None of my air-conditioned cars, including a '71 Charger, a '74 Volvo, an '81 Citation, an '86 Taurus, a '92 Accord, or any of my three Subarus, ever suffered an A/C compressor self-destructing, and I do tend to run the HVAC fan at the highest speed for at least a few minutes when first getting into the car on a hot summer day.
Your sample size is too small. During the 1990’s I worker at a dealer that sold between 1200 and 1500 cars a year (to get an idea how many cars were under warranty in the area). We replaced 100 or more compressors each year. I also replaced Taurus and Honda compressors while at that Dodge dealer, used car sales. It has been about 12 years since working on a vehicle model with compressor problems.
I'm looking forward now to getting my CDL, so I can have a marketable job skill.
Too late…
Google “self-driving semi.”
;-]
@Ed Frugal
What job are you thinking of getting that requires a CDL . . . ?
And exactly which CDL are you thinking of getting?
Ed is going to be a transport driver shipping those popular Mitsubishi models from rail head to dealer.
"I suspect that Nissan will keep the good selling models such as the Mirage and Outlander variants…"
There may be some gIobal advantage in Nissan’s control of Mitsubishi motors but I don’t think the United States is the focus in this transaction. Much of Nissan’s fleet is SUV’s so the Outlander is not needed. The Mirage will compete with the Versa, the fuel economy advantage won’t sell in the US until gasoline doubles in price.
I see late model Mirages several times a week but I don’t consider them as good selling. Mitsubishi is still offering a $3000 discount on left-over 2015 Mirages, a $2500 discount on the 2015 Lancer and a $2000 discount on the 2015 Outlander. They have had no problem keeping up with the demand of the good selling models.
I read recently that the Mirage was outselling other popular small cars. http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2015/03/youre-not-just-seeing-things-mitsubishi-breaks-u-s-mirage-sales-record-february-2015/ Like the others, I don’t see them on the road to validate this. Every other car around here seems to be a Versa. I also see lots of Sparks, Sonics, Rios, Fiestas, and Darts. Lots of people in this area have to drive a considerable distance for work so you see a little car parked next to a big truck at their place. I am the same way.
I agree you cannot sell a small number of a low-margin car and make it. Apparently those who have driven both seem to think that the Mirage is a MUCH better car than the Versa. I didn’t even bother to test drive a Versa. I read too many horror stories about the engines getting piston slap and consuming large amounts of oil, among other little issues. The Mirage seems to hold up from the reports of those here who have driven them a lot of miles as well as other countries where this car under other names has been around a lot longer. Maybe they should get rid of the Versa and use this instead. My guess is this won’t happen but you never know.
I saw an old Dodge Colt on the road today which I found interesting. I also saw some other Mitsubishi models out and about.
Remember that inflation adjusted, just about ANY car in this price range is a real gem compared to what used to be offered. How about the old Hyundai Excel which was the same car as a Mitsubishi Precis. I know someone who had one of these and it was a total tin can. His wife forced him to get rid of it when it started blowing flames out the back. He would have fixed it but she wouldn’t hear of it.
Again, they don’t build things like they used to and that is a GOOD thing in many ways. It isn’t always good but you pretty much cannot blow up an AC system by running the fan on high. I also remember hearing stories about the AC system actually freezing up from getting so cold back in the day. My grandpa had one of these as a rental car. He was driving it pretty fast as a rental car and am sure the higher RPMs helped the compressor really work hard and move lots of refrigerant. The evaporator completely plugged with ice until the car was turned off and left to sit overnight.
I also remember hearing stories about the AC system actually freezing up from getting so cold back in the day. My grandpa had one of these as a rental car. He was driving it pretty fast as a rental car and am sure the higher RPMs helped the compressor really work hard and move lots of refrigerant. The evaporator completely plugged with ice until the car was turned off and left to sit overnight.
I owned a 1985 Mitsubishi, the evaporator temperature sensor was inaccurate, the evaporator would freeze solid on the highway, never in the city. Switching the compressor off for 5 minutes thawed the evaporator. It must be cold where you live to require an overnight wait to thaw an evaporator.