Buyer Research

2014 Mitsubishi Mirage — Should You Buy One?

Typical asking price: $4,000–$7,000. There is 1 high-severity known issue you need to know before handing over a check.

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Kestrel Take

Forty-four complaints is a small file for a car sold in these numbers, so read it for shape rather than volume — and the shape is unusual. A third of it is airbags, ten of those fifteen filings come from an actual crash, and the record as a whole carries 19 injuries. Mitsubishi issued three separate campaigns touching airbag deployment on this car: a faulty impact sensor, a wiring connector that corrodes when wet shoes soak the carpet, and an SRS module that can mistake rough-road vibration for a fault and switch the system off. All three fixes are free, and all three are worth confirming by VIN before anything else. A quarter of the record is front brakes wearing out fast or dragging. As a cheap runabout it is honest transport; just buy one whose recall history you have read yourself.

What we checked

Reconciled against public records, 2026-09-25

NHTSA holds 44 owner complaints for the 2014 Mitsubishi Mirage, and 3 recall campaigns.

A big number here usually means a lot of these were sold, not that it is a bad vehicle — popular models collect more complaints for the same rate of trouble. So the total on its own says little. What is worth reading is the shape of it. 34% of them are about one thing — airbags. That much concentration is a genuine pattern rather than background noise, and it is the first thing to check on any example you look at.

3 recall campaigns cover this model year. Recalls are repaired free, for any owner, with no time limit on most safety campaigns — but only if someone books it in. Ask the seller to show it was done, or have any dealer check the VIN; it takes them a couple of minutes and costs nothing.

Counts come from the NHTSA complaint and recall database — free, public, and worth checking yourself.

Known Issues for the 2014 Mitsubishi Mirage

Ranked by wallet impact. These are documented, recurring problems — not freak accidents. How we decide that.

Three separate recalls can leave the airbags not deployingHigh — wallet impact

Fifteen airbag complaints, ten of them filed after a crash, several describing front airbags that stayed shut in a rear-end collision with head and neck injuries. Mitsubishi has three campaigns here and they attack three different causes: 15V594 replaces an impact sensor with too much resistance on cars built July 27 to November 20, 2013; 15V815 covers a wiring connector under the carpet that corrodes when water and road salt soak through from your shoes, delaying deployment, and adds a waterproof sheet over it; 17V686 reprograms the SRS control unit, which can read the vibration of a rough road or a flat tire as a sensor error and disable the system. Free, all of them. Run the VIN, and note that one owner's airbag light stayed on after the reprogramme — a lit SRS light means the system is out, whatever the paperwork says.

Repair cost: $0 with the recall — verify it was performed

Source: NHTSA complaints filed under airbags (15); 3 NHTSA recall campaigns on this model year.

Front brakes wear out fast, grind, and sometimes dragMedium

Eleven complaints, a quarter of the record, and they say more than 'the brakes wore out'. Owners report grinding and squealing from the front within months of a pad change, longer stopping distances, and wheels hot to the touch after normal city driving — which is the signature of a caliper or slide pin that is not releasing, dragging the pad against the disc and cooking it. One owner was told they needed brakes again a month after paying for them. After your test drive, carefully hold the back of your hand near each front wheel: one noticeably hotter than the other is a finding, not a coincidence.

Repair cost (estimate): $300–$900 for front pads and discs; $200–$500 more per caliper if one is sticking

Source: NHTSA complaints filed under the brakes (11).

Screech at start-up, hesitation, and stalls in trafficMedium

Eight engine complaints and they are not one fault. Some describe a screech on start-up that a Mitsubishi campaign was supposed to cure and that owners say came back. Others describe pressing the accelerator and going nowhere, coasting a few feet in traffic, with repeated shop visits and no diagnosis. One car caught fire parked and switched off in a driveway, and another put smoke through the hood on the way to a highway. On the test drive, start it stone cold and listen before touching anything, then pull away hard from a stop sign at least three times and see whether the power arrives when you ask for it.

Repair cost (estimate): $300–$1,400 depending on whether it is a belt and tensioner or a stalling fault that needs diagnosis — about 25% of what this car is typically worth

Source: NHTSA complaints filed under the engine (8).

Walk-Away Red Flags

✗Airbag warning light staying lit after start-up
✗Damp or stained carpet under the front seats or in the driver's footwell
✗One front wheel noticeably hotter than the other after a drive
✗Grinding or squealing from the front brakes on a gentle stop
✗Hesitation when you pull away, or any stall in traffic

Good Signs

✓All three recalls — 15V594, 15V815 and 17V686 — reading closed on NHTSA's free VIN lookup
✓The waterproof sheet fitted over the floor connector, listed on the recall invoice
✓Airbag light going out with the rest of the cluster a few seconds after start-up
✓Front pads and discs replaced with an invoice naming the calipers as inspected
✓Dry carpet and clean, uncorroded connectors under the front seats