Mitsubishi to launch new supermini Mirage

The new 5-door Japanese hatchback prides itself on providing fuel efficient, enjoyable motoring with a particularly youthful appeal.

A new three-model range will arrive with trusted Mitsubishi integrity, reliability and practicality as well as exceptional fuel efficiency and safety. The compact proportions envelop a spacious and manoeuvrable vehicle which is an ideal everyday runabout.

"Mitsubishi is renowned all over the world as one of Japan's foremost automotive brands and we are on a resurgence in the South African market," says Wynand Pretorius, general manager at Mitsubishi Motors South Africa.

"With the new Mirage, the brand will be entering the A-segment for the very first time in South Africa, and with a fun little car at that. We exhibited the new Mirage at last year's Johannesburg International Motor Show, where we received extremely positive responses from show-goers. In these ever-increasingly difficult economic times, it makes all the sense in the world to introduce our new supermini, which will be very competitively priced."

Strong approach

"In this vein, we are taking a very strong approach on the viability of Mirage as an entry-level vehicle, specifically targeting a market where purchase price, fuel efficiency and ownership costs play vital determining roles in the buying process."

All new Mirage derivatives will be powered by Mitsubishi's 1.2 litre, 3-cylinder DOHC petrol engine, mated to a 5-speed manual transmission. Easily able to keep up with the hustle and bustle of busy city streets as well as the open roads so characteristic of South Africa, the Mirage is also exceptionally fuel efficient thanks to MIVEC - Mitsubishi Innovative Valve-timing Electronic Control.

Average fuel economy on the combined cycle is just 4.9 litres/100km, allowing Mirage to punch above its weight on the fuel efficiency front. In fact, Mirage is acclaimed as the most fuel-efficient non-hybrid petrol vehicle available in the United States, a market where it is also sighted as the lightest 5-door, 5-passenger vehicle. This was achieved after an extensive weight-saving engineering process with key benefits linked directly to enhanced fuel efficiency.

The Mirage is fitted as standard with keyless entry and a full complement of safety equipment including ABS, EBD and dual airbags, packaged in a body designed around Mitsubishi's reinforced impact safety evolution impact-absorbing chassis structure.

The new Mitsubishi Mirage will be backed by Mitsubishi Motors's comprehensive 3-year/100,000km warranty.