The Mitsubishi Mirage and Nissan Versa are the last two mainstream, affordable subcompact cars—heck, last inexpensive cars of any kind—left on the North American market. And guess what? They're recently selling pretty darn well. How well and for how long?
I've long had a soft spot for the Chevrolet Spark. When I reviewed the 2013 Spark 2LT over 11 years ago I said, "... it’s an impressive inexpensive car with lots of personality. In fact, I’m quite smitten with the Spark." A couple years later, my mother-in-law purchased a 2015 Spark LS, aka Sparky. Things have changed since then and she no longer needs it. So, we recently drove it back from Wisconsin to our home in Oregon, some 2,170 miles, and will sell it. So what's it like to drive an A-segment car halfway across the U.S.?
On August 15, 2023, Automotive News (paywalled site) reported Mitsubishi may be discontinuing its thrifty Mirage model after MY2024. This really isn't that much of a surprise since automakers have been abandoning the subcompact market for years now in North America. (Mitsubishi Japan already killed off the Mirage, FYI.) Then today, I heard word via Carscoops Kia is going to stop selling its Rio in the U.S. This leaves just the MINI brand and its small cars and the Nissan Versa as the sole subcompact car offerings in the U.S. I'm not surprised.
Today was a big day. Today we sold our 2007 Toyota Yaris. This marks a lot of milestones. This marks the end of an era.
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| Suzuki Ignis in Mexico |
New subcompact car sales are nearly nonexistent right now in the USA. There are only a couple new tiny cars even available for purchase anymore. However, if you want to see a ton of new and different small cars, all you have to do is cross our southern border. I just got back from a week in Manzanillo, Colima, and found small cars are alive and well in Mexico.
In what can only be described as "completely unsurprising," the subcompact Chevrolet Spark will be discontinued. There had been reports out of Korea that GM Korea was going to halt production months ago, but Chevrolet's U.S. representatives would not confirm its discontinuation for the North American market at that time. Well, now it's official.
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| Photo via C.Y. Lee |
Over eight years ago, I ran into one of the most badass Suzuki SX4s I'd ever seen. This lifted Suzuki SX4 had big knobby tires, a flat-black paint job, and a custom front bumper among other things. I actually got to know the owner, C.Y. Lee, a bit because of it. Ironically, I had just been talking to C.Y. about this car on October 15, 2021, and then, next thing we knew it, it was totaled by someone who went on a rampage in stolen school bus. Yes, you read that right.
Hey SCC readers. I know it's been a while. We've still been here, still been doing things, but just not as active on the website. For what it's worth, we still have a very active Subcompact Culture Facebook Group. Please join! So what've we been up to lately?
