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2020 Mitsubishi Mirage teased: Can it win back sales in the city-car class?

Mitsubishi is giving its Mirage city-car its biggest makeover since this generation went on sale six years ago.


Mitsubishi has released a teaser image of its new Mirage city hatchback ahead of its formal unveiling a week from now.

The arrival of the facelifted Mirage – the cheapest car in Mitsubishi’s range – will complete the company’s design transformation as every model will now have its bold ‘shield’ grille.

The new Mitsubishi Mirage is expected to arrive in Australian showrooms either later this year or early next year, with minor technical changes and (hopefully) Apple Car Play and Android Auto, which the current model lacks.

The Mitsubishi Mirage is the sole remaining passenger car in the company’s line-up in Australia following the company’s new focus on SUVs, utes and vans.

The price-leading model – which currently starts from $15,490 drive-away with manual transmission and $16,990 drive-away with automatic transmission – has halved its sales so far this year amid strong competition from the Kia Picanto.

Indeed, the Kia Picanto now dominates the city-car segment, outselling the former favourite, the Mitsubishi Mirage, by almost 10-to-one. 

The price of the Mitsubishi Mirage has previously limboed – in late 2017 – to as low as $12,990 drive-away for a manual once a $1000 fuel card offer was deducted from the already discounted $13,990 drive-away price. At the time the auto was just $14,990 drive-away.

But Mitsubishi lost money on every one it sold at that price, so the cost went up and then it was overtaken in the sales race by the Kia Picanto.

At its peak, Mitsubishi sold 9500 Mirages in 2013 but sales have slid ever since. So far this year just over 500 have been sold versus almost 5000 Kia Picanto hatchbacks.

In the meantime, we will need to wait a week to see if the update will give the Mitsubishi Mirage the boost it needs.

Here’s the statement sent to media so far: “Mitsubishi will launch a facelifted and updated Mirage hatchback in Thailand on November 18, 2019. The new model will feature sharp and dynamic exterior designs, which embody the Mitsubishi-ness that identifies the company’s compact cars.”

While the teaser image shows a hatch and a sedan, only the hatch is destined for Australia. Due to lower than expected demand, the sedan version of the Mirage was withdrawn in late 2016 after just two years in local showrooms.

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Joshua Dowling

Joshua Dowling has been a motoring journalist for more than 20 years, spending most of that time working for The Sydney Morning Herald (as motoring editor and one of the early members of the Drive team) and News Corp Australia. He joined CarAdvice / Drive in 2018, and has been a World Car of the Year judge for more than 10 years.

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