Mitsubishi Mirage

The Mitsubishi Mirage is a compact car, dating from 1978 to 2003. It was sold as the Mitsubishi Colt and Lancer in many markets.

1978

Mitsubishi launched the Mirage as a three-door front wheel drive hatchback in 1978, as a response to the first fuel crisis some years before. It had a distinctive design with large windows and Mitsubishi's 'Supershift' transmission (four speeds, but two modes). A five-door joined the range in 1979. This version of the Mirage was exported to the United States as the Dodge Colt and Plymouth Champ from 1979 and received the highest EPA fuel economy rating that year.

A 1600 cc engine joined the range in 1979.

In 1981, the Lancer Fiore, not to be confused with the regular Mitsubishi Lancer, was launched. The Fiore was a four-door version of the Mirage. At the same time, the range was facelifted.

In 1982, a turbocharged, 105 PS (77 kW) version of the 1400 cc engine was made available.

In many countries, this car was known as the Mitsubishi Colt. In Britain, where Colt was the marque, it was called the Colt 1200 and Colt 1400, after the size of the engines, which it shared with the larger Lancer.

Since most overseas markets did not have the Minica keicar, the Mirage was the entry-level model.

Local CKD assembly of the Mirage took place in New Zealand by the Todd Motor Corp., where there was a sports equivalent called the Mirage Panther in the early 1980s. The replacement Mirage Turbo had the distinction of being that country's first locally assembled turbocharged car from 1982.

The facelifted model was also built by Mitsubishi of Australia, and had an unusually long model life, from 1981 to 1990. The Australians offered the Colt with the 1.4 L engine, and a larger 1.6 L. This model was imported for a short time to New Zealand in the late 1980s, where it was sharing showroom space with the locally assembled third generation models.

1983

Mitsubishi launched a new Colt in 1983, still splitting the range into Mirage (three- and five-door hatchback) and Lancer Fiore (four-door sedan) models, though some export markets did sell the four-door as the Mirage. A station wagon was added in 1985 and a four-wheel-drive wagon in 1986.