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I am writing this after someone tried to “lecture” me. As a car enthusiast, there is one common phrase you often hear:
“A good quality used car is better than a shitty new car like a Mitsubishi Mirage.”
Recently, someone – who is also a car enthusiast – said to me “A Mirage may be shitty to YOU, but it may not be shitty to someone who owns one and that person can take offense to what you’re saying.”
Ok, first off, you know that political correctness has gone too far when it even hits car culture.
The thing is…. the Mirage is a shitty car even by objective normal people standards. I mean come on, even a Hyundai Accent in base trim feels like a luxury car in comparison. People who own a Mirage know what they have and even they know it’s shitty. So why do people buy it?
As a car enthusiast, you have to understand the target audience of *all cars* even if you would never buy such a car yourself. That does not mean you're insulting owners of said car.
Allow me to explain....
Car enthusiasts are not the Mirage’s target audience and Mitsubishi knows that. The target audiences for the Mirage are people who work at the kind of job where their employment hangs by a thread, are paycheck-to-paycheck, do not have much disposable income and simply cannot afford the risk of a used car.
A quick search on Autotrader shows that a typical Mirage has a list price of around $16,000. Many dealers are desperate to get this thing off their lots and are selling them for fewer than 10 grand.
Searching Autotrader shows you can find plenty of pre-owned – some even factory certified – last-gen Honda Accords or Toyota Camrys for 16 grand or less with low mileage, many still with with the balance of the original warranty. Sweet! For the Mirage’s list price, you’ll get a much more substantial car.
Now try to find a Honda Accord or Toyota Camry for what Mirage’s are actually selling for. Most in this price range are much older, have a lot of miles on them and by this time are way out of warranty. For a person who lives on a shoestring budget, adding the cost of possible expensive repairs can be a backbreaker.
The Mirage is a new car that gives you a full 5 year bumper-to-bumper warranty for 10 grand. For people who don’t care about driving experience, style, performance or features and just want a car they know will start when you turn the key and move when you shift into drive it’s worth the price of admission.
The other thing to consider is financing. You can get financing on a new car much easier than on a used car. Also, being that Mitsubishi dealers are desperate they are willing to finance to people with bad credit with interest rates that are still decent. For many used cars in the Mirage’s actual selling price, the only dealers willing to finance to someone with bad credit are the “buy here pay here” places, you know…. The ones that covertly place GPS trackers on their cars so they know where to send the repo agent once the owner defaults. Assuming the car doesn’t break down first.
So before you are afraid to possibly offend someone by calling a car “shitty,” please understand that we are not insulting the owners of these cars. We just know the target audience.
“A good quality used car is better than a shitty new car like a Mitsubishi Mirage.”
Recently, someone – who is also a car enthusiast – said to me “A Mirage may be shitty to YOU, but it may not be shitty to someone who owns one and that person can take offense to what you’re saying.”
Ok, first off, you know that political correctness has gone too far when it even hits car culture.
The thing is…. the Mirage is a shitty car even by objective normal people standards. I mean come on, even a Hyundai Accent in base trim feels like a luxury car in comparison. People who own a Mirage know what they have and even they know it’s shitty. So why do people buy it?
As a car enthusiast, you have to understand the target audience of *all cars* even if you would never buy such a car yourself. That does not mean you're insulting owners of said car.
Allow me to explain....
Car enthusiasts are not the Mirage’s target audience and Mitsubishi knows that. The target audiences for the Mirage are people who work at the kind of job where their employment hangs by a thread, are paycheck-to-paycheck, do not have much disposable income and simply cannot afford the risk of a used car.
A quick search on Autotrader shows that a typical Mirage has a list price of around $16,000. Many dealers are desperate to get this thing off their lots and are selling them for fewer than 10 grand.
Searching Autotrader shows you can find plenty of pre-owned – some even factory certified – last-gen Honda Accords or Toyota Camrys for 16 grand or less with low mileage, many still with with the balance of the original warranty. Sweet! For the Mirage’s list price, you’ll get a much more substantial car.
Now try to find a Honda Accord or Toyota Camry for what Mirage’s are actually selling for. Most in this price range are much older, have a lot of miles on them and by this time are way out of warranty. For a person who lives on a shoestring budget, adding the cost of possible expensive repairs can be a backbreaker.
The Mirage is a new car that gives you a full 5 year bumper-to-bumper warranty for 10 grand. For people who don’t care about driving experience, style, performance or features and just want a car they know will start when you turn the key and move when you shift into drive it’s worth the price of admission.
The other thing to consider is financing. You can get financing on a new car much easier than on a used car. Also, being that Mitsubishi dealers are desperate they are willing to finance to people with bad credit with interest rates that are still decent. For many used cars in the Mirage’s actual selling price, the only dealers willing to finance to someone with bad credit are the “buy here pay here” places, you know…. The ones that covertly place GPS trackers on their cars so they know where to send the repo agent once the owner defaults. Assuming the car doesn’t break down first.
So before you are afraid to possibly offend someone by calling a car “shitty,” please understand that we are not insulting the owners of these cars. We just know the target audience.
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