[anobserver]

Went shopping for a car after uni in the late 90s. Drove most of them. This was as a time when second hand cars were expensive, and tariff liberalisation was making small new cars affordable.

Ended up buying a CE Mirage, a manual 1.5l four cylinder. Acceleration was adequate, but the car was actually the nicest to drive that i came across.

Most of the rest were noisy, rough, felt and looked cheaply finished. The Mirage felt like a much more solid and reassuring car than its modest 935kgs would suggest.

Shame there was never a roadgoing version using the 1.8l engine from the Lancer. There was a one make Mirage racing series that ran briefly, with the same engines tuned to 130kw. Would have been great fun to drive.