Yahoo Autos The Lightest Car in America Will Shock You
The lightest mass production car for sale in America is not made of carbon fiber. It has no Nurburgring time to its name, no tangible connection to auto racing, and no grand history of performance to build on. Not only does the Toyota 86 outweigh it, even the mighty ND2 Miata is hefty in comparison. It is simply a car, and you can only find it at your local Mitsubishi dealer.
By the process of elimination alone, the Mitsubishi Mirage is one of the most radical cars on the road. In a world where all other manufacturers are moving their products up-market with every refresh, everything about the Mirage stays as low as possible. The weight (2040 lb, in its lightest form), the price (starting at $14,295, beating out last year's cheapest MSRP by $100!), and even the output (a modest 78 hp) are market leaders in their own way. The base Mirage even offers a manual transmission, giving it a feature over Porsche 911 GT3s sold in California this upcoming model year. All of these traits also generally carry over to a sedan called the Mitsubishi Mirage G4, perhaps the most anonymous new car on sale today.
There was a time when this segment, ultra-light hatchbacks that put efficiency and affordability above every other metric at great cost, flourished at the bottom of the American car marketplace. That time has long since past. The current market is dominated by cars growing bigger, more luxurious, and more expensive, but the Mirage went through a 2021 refresh without losing its unwavering econo-box soul.
All of that is admirable, but it does not necessarily make the Mirage good. Our friends at Car and Driver rate the lightest car you can buy today at 2.5 stars out of 10, ranking it sixth of six in its small segment shrinking by the year. Given that the current Mirage can be dated back to the 2012 model year, this is probably not a surprise.
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