Mitsubishi ditches slow-selling Mirage sedan

MITSUBISHI Motors Australia Limited (MMAL) has discontinued its Mirage sedan light car after only two years on the market due to slowing sales.

Only a single new Mirage sedan was sold last month, bringing the 2016 year-to-date total to 161 – an 87 per cent drop in sales over the same period last year.

In 2015, Mitsubishi sold a total of 1272 Mirage sedans and, since its launch in mid-2014, only 2021 booted Mirages have found homes in Australia.

MMAL head of corporate communications Karl Gehling said discontinuing the four-door Mirage was due to changes in the market and confirmed that there is no stock left in the country.

“The Mirage hatch has been far more successful and reflects the overall trend in that segment,” he said. “There are also no longer any sedans in our stock.”

The hatchback version has found 2791 homes so far this year, making it the best-selling model in the dwindling light-car segment, ahead of newer rivals such as the Holden Spark (1603) and Kia Picanto (1526).

Mitsubishi introduced a refreshed Mirage range in March this year, ushering in minor changes, but the sedan body style did not receive the sane visual upgrade that the more popular hatchback received.

Following the discontinuation of four-door versions of the Kia Rio, Toyota Yaris and Holden Barina earlier this year, only the Honda City, Hyundai Accent sedan and Mazda2 sedan remain in the niche light-sedan segment.

By comparison, Honda has sold 1498 City light cars in the first 11 months of the year, while Hyundai and Mazda have each sold more than 2000 units of their respective booted baby cars.

However, the deletion of the Mirage sedan is unlikely to have a major impact on Mitsubishi’s overall sales, with the model accounting for only 0.24 per cent of the Japanese brand’s total sales this year.

The Mirage sedan was Mitsubishi’s second-cheapest model, starting at $14,500 for the entry-level ES – powered by a 57kW/100Nm 1.2-litre three-cylinder engine – and leaves the larger and more powerful $19,500 Lancer as the cheapest sedan in its stable.