Zastava_101

http://blog.caranddriver.com/mitsubi...-inline-three/

You should like three-cylinder engines. They’re cool. They’re different. They make thrummy little sounds. And come September, Mitsubishi will become the third automaker currently offering one in the U.S. After picking up some forms from the California Air Resources Board, we spoke to a Mitsubishi staffer, who confirmed that a 1.2-liter three will power the new “Global Small Car”—that’s the generic name for the Mirage—when it goes on sale this fall. Although Mitsu is being coy about the car’s name until its debut at the New York auto show in April, the CARB document also lists the name as Mirage. We don’t expect a change there.

If the engine isn’t changed from its naturally aspirated European setup, it’ll give the U.S. Mirage just 79 horsepower. And so the company that once shocked the world by squeezing as much as 400 hp from a turbocharged 2.0-liter engine will have the second-least-powerful car on the American market. The only car the Mirage will outgun is one of its three-cylinder brethren, the 70-hp Smart.

StangMahn

wow that's awful looking.

Zastava_101

Too bad there aren't more smaller cars available in the USA ...

Flagstang

mitsu has really let me down over the past 10 years. They went from having some of my fav cars to making ugly junk that no one wants. The mid to late 90s eclispe is one of the best looking cars of the 1990s. The Evo was amazing.. The 3000 GT also amazing(vr4 even). Even the VR4 galant awd was cool.

Flagstang

dont we have enough smaller cars? I would like to see some fun little cars, but I think we eco box covered.

Getportfolio

79 hp? Will it be able to merge with on coming traffic? No joking here. I'd be scared of getting plowed down in it.

Zastava_101

With the exception of Fiesta, Fit, 500 and maybe Mazda2, we don't have many good small cars ...

Zastava_101

I drove many under 100 hp cars, including the 54 hp Volkswagen Golf and Skoda Felicia and the 55 hp Yugo Koral.

Skoda was a crappy car, but both the VW and the Yugo felt pretty stable.

Flagstang

fit, fiat, fiesta, versa, IQ, yaris, mini, rabbit, smart cars, mazda 2, kia soul, Veloster,
1 series, TT, miata, spark and more.

Zastava_101

Fit, Fiesta, 500 and Mazda2 - no arguments there.

I never drove the iQ, but I read it was very unstable and noisy at the higher speeds.
Mini is a typical German engineering crap that falls apart as soon as the warranty is up.
Yaris is ok I guess, although its ridiculous what they charge you for. I test drove one and they wanted me to pay $25.00 for fish nets in the trunk ...
Smart is a joke and so is Spark.

Rabbit, Veloster, 1-Series and similar cars are compact (same as Focus) and I don't consider them small.

This is what I consider to be a great small car ...

Flagstang

I would agree with most of that. But I also think small cars will sell in the usa unelss they bring out more fun sporty models.

Zastava_101

Unless streets get smaller all of the sudden, I highly doubt Americans will start buying smaller cars.

Its a completely different story in Europe. This is my favorite place to drive in Belgrade, Serbia, but my Golf (a.k.a. Rabbit) just feels too big for Belgrade city driving ...



Last summer, my wife and I went to the Rhodes, which is one of the Greek islands. And 90% of the cars there are Fiat 500's size because streets are so small (see pic).
But some guy decided to import a Dodge Ram 4 door 4x4 to Rhodes.
And he kept it really close to our hotel and he couldn't find parking and two tires were always on the sidewalk ...

Flagstang

I think its more about fuel costs and wasting less then city and street size. I find it silly that a 5 foot women or man with a child in the car needs a full size crew cab truck or a three SUV. I think if America is going to step into the future we need to stop buyign what we dont need. I would say 90% of the people I know that own full size truck never use them for anythign more then a daily driver. They never move or lad anything into the bed of the truck. They are simply 3 or 4 ton baby blankets or small wiener trucks. Most of the women that drive those things(huge trucks, suv's) always say "I feel safer" and crap like that. The problem is they make the road less safe because they drive these huge *** vehicles and most(guys and girls) cant even park them. I get pissed when I see these untrained morons that wreck these other sized leviathans because they could not control them or they simply did not have enough respect for the other peoples saftey on the road.

rhumb

Well, there's a forgetable little lump that's a rolling embodiment of the econobox as ascetic penalty box fairly screaming your lack of means to the world.

Getportfolio

My mom used to be a portly lady years ago and at the time, only had the means to drive a ford Festiva.

To this day, she curses the thought of it. She said she always felt like she was riding in a shoe.

I felt the same way about my Carolla. I swear I could hear clown music every time I stepped out of it.

I'm all for saving gas, and Eco friendly cars but they are so dang small!

Zastava_101

Too small for what?

My Honda Fit is one of those "small" subcompacts (although it does have a huge interior).
It gets me everywhere where F-150 gets me too, excepts it uses about 4 times less gas to do the same job.

Getportfolio

Yes but the fit doesnt have a truck bed in back to carry your fishing gear.

Flagstang

that just meas you werent going anywhere in the woods or the country with the f150.

Zastava_101

Unless you're towing a boat for fishing, I'm sure you can fit all finishing gear in Fit's trunk. Because of the boxy body, Fit actually has a huge trunk, especially with seats down.

Zastava_101

I go camping every once in a while, but 99% of the time day-to-day basis, Fit gets the job done. And unlike the F-150, it doesn't cost me $120 to fill up the gas tank.

I understand that people working on farms or constructions need a truck, but you said it yourself - most of the people who have trucks use them just for daily driving.