PennSilverTaco's non-Toyota Japanese (and Korean) vehicle Rant/Rave MegaThread!

@6 gearT444E
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@wilcam47

I am not going lie; I used to think that the Mitsubishi Mirage was a piece of shit. It still mediocre at best compared to other vehicles, but I saw this 2023 Ralliart Edition at the SteelStacks Cars & Coffee a little over a week ago and got to thinking...

Lower it, add some Lancer Evo-inspired suspension, bring back the manual transmission, give it AWD, and ratchet up the horsepower by about 150hp!



I didn't even know there was such a thing as a Mirage Ralliart until I saw this one, and even then I thought that the owner had modified it. It appears to have been for MY2023 only, but in my opinion this is a sharp-looking little car. Even if they didn't add AWD, this car could be on par with a Ford Fiesta ST if done right! Unfortunately, it only has 78 horsepower on tap, even with the turbo; Toyota proved that you could really extract some serious horsepower out of a 3-banger!

I can't help but wonder if a Lancer Evolution motor or even one out of a regular Lancer would fit under the hood of a Mirage, because this little thing would scream with one more cylinder 140-150hp! I'm sure that a Lancer 4-banger could be shoehorned into the engine compartment of a Mirage, but probably not without removing the air-conditioning; A/C is one of those things that I am NOT willing to go without!

The level of respect that I have for the Mirage went up a lot a few years ago when I read an article about a Minnesota couple who put 414K miles on their 2014 Mirage in six years of ownership. They primarily used the car as a courier vehicle for a medical sample delivery company, which is how they managed to rack up an average of almost 70K miles! By comparison, my Taco has high miles for its age, but it took about 31⁄2 to put the last 70K miles on it.

I don't think this proves that the Mirage is a particularly great vehicle, but rather that any manufactured in the last 25 years or so will last several hundred thousand miles if properly maintained. The confirmed highest-mileage vehicles I've seen in person, that wasn't a big rig, was a 2003 Toyota Sequoia with over 500K miles; I saw it at the Carlisle Import Nationals in May 2022. Prior to that, coming in at a close second was a 2002 Chevy Malibu belonging to the husband of an employee at the gym I used to go to, which made it to 341K miles with minimal issues before the head gasket blew (if I remember correctly). This was back in 2012, and the woman's husband had a sales job that required him to drive a lot, which is how he put over 340K miles on a vehicle that he bought new in roughly a decade. This was not some poverty-spec Hertzmobile either, but rather a well-equipped Malibu with power everything, a CD/cassette stereo, a snazzy rear spoiler, and I believe even a sunroof! The car was in perfect condition and you would not know the mileage until you looked at the odometer. The A/C blew cold, the cruise control worked, etc...

Anyway, scroll on down to see pictures of the Mirage!

 

2023 Mitsubishi Mirage Ralliart


September 17th, 2023:

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

 

1990 Acura Legend LS 5-speed


October 13th, 2023:

Warrington, Pennsylvania

 

@6 gearT444E
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@TnShooter

I saw the 2024 Nissan Frontier from a distance and initially thought that it was a mint early 1990s Pathfinder...


January 13th, 2024:

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

 

This is why I thought it was a Pathfinder...

 

There is actually a "Hardbody Appearance Package"!

And nearly 46,000 reasons why I will not own one of these anytime soon, all them dollars...

I would rather have a 310hp V6 of almost four liters, than a turbocharged 4-banger making less than 280 (Yes, I am talking about you, '24 Taco)!

 

Sitting in the new Frontier, I honestly felt like I was cheating on my beloved 2010 Taco, and I like the '24 Frontier better than the '24 Tacoma...

 

I told @Stitchgirl90 that if I won the lottery, I would buy this truck on a whim and give her my Tacoma...

 

Sucks that the Hardbody Package only comes on the shortbed model, but I would still buy it!

 

This should be a crime

It’s an automatic! At least make it a manual!!

 

@6 gearT444E
@ABA180
@ColoradoTJ
@Just_A_Guy
@shakerhood
@steelcity2
@TnShooter

1999 Nissan Pathfinder SE


January 18th, 2024:

Horsham, Pennsylvania

 

That's my favorite model.
Always liked the look.

 

My mom had one of those for a little bit, good little beater.

 

My dad bought a Pathfinder SE brand new in 1996 (first year for this generation). We had it for 13 years and it was the first vehicle my parents bought new that we hit 100K miles. My dad traded the Pathfinder for the Tacoma in September 2009, with about 113K miles.

 

If it weren't for my uncle who owned a farm and used Toyota trucks for years, I would have bought a Nissan.
He used his 1995 Toyota Pickup for everything. He even had a custom gooseneck hitch made for the bed.
And bought a light weight aluminum small cattle trailer. He had Toyotas and a few Nissans. He told me the Toyotas didn't nickel and dime him like the Nissans.
He said, the Nissans were good trucks, but after 100k or so it was always little stuff. Alternators, starters, pulleys.....

After using the 1996 Tacoma to haul square bales one summer, I bought my 1st Tacoma. It was a 1996 2.7 4x4.
Then upgraded to a 199 3.4 4x4, then to a 2005 PreRunner, and then to my current truck.

Never owned a Nissan. But my friends have, and they were all older hardbodies.
They seem to be great trucks too.