Thank You, Mitsubishi Canada

A funny thing has happened on Canada’s Atlantic Coast — and maybe in Canada as a whole.

You see, we have a fairly small automotive press corps on Canada’s eastern coast (and I say we because I just moved from Atlantic Canada). As such, we have an equally small press fleet.

Each week, a very nice man moves all the press cars around for us journalists as if we’re important in some way. This very nice man probably logs somewhere near 500 kilometers each week moving cars around for us. It’s a ton of driving — specifically, a ton of driving that Tim and I and other journalists don’t need to do, making this a pretty sweet deal for us. We sit on our respective buttocks (buttockses?) and the very nice man shows up at our home with a brand new car. In return, we do basically nothing and give the very nice man the keys to the previous car, which we are thoroughly bored of by that time anyway.

However, when the Mitsubishi Mirage G4 came to our fleet, it stopped neither at Tim’s house nor mine.

The Mirage hatchback debuted to enormous praise profound condemnation for the 2014 model year. It’s the only vehicle in recent memory that’s been compared to a bus pass or hitchhiking — and not just by one reviewer.

For its part, Mitsubishi USA took all the criticism on the chin like the good sport it is; it didn’t retaliate against journalists for telling the truth.

However, north of the border, those criticisms landed time after time against Mitsubishi Canada’s glass jaw.

Since then, Mitsubishi Canada’s public relations department has gone out of its way in attempts to control any negative message about its Mirage in a manner that’s far beyond what’s deemed acceptable. We are not above correction. If we as journalists make a factual mistake, we have a duty to correct that mistake and tell you about it as openly and honestly as possible. However, Mitsubishi Canada has multiple times attempted to amend the content of Mitsubishi stories post-facto so as to completely change the tone of those stories to shed better light on Mitsubishi in general and the Mirage in particular.

Most of this happened in 2013 and 2014 during and after the launch of the Mirage hatchback. Since then, the drama has quieted down a fair bit. That is until this summer.

This year, Mitsubishi doubled down and decided the Mirage hatchback needed a sedan sibling. The Mirage G4 was born.

Over the last few months, I’ve heard multiple rumors regarding Mitsubishi Canada being very selective about who it’s granted access to the Mirage G4. And, to be honest, I thought the rumors were highly exaggerated. However, there’s always a kernel of truth in a rumor, and Tim and I are now proven examples of that.

The Mirage G4 drove right by our houses. It had no intention of dropping in to say hello. We have reason to suspect — erm, reasons to suspect — Mitsubishi Canada told our very nice man fleet manager not to book us in the Mirage G4.

Let me say this, just to make it a bit clearer: Mitsubishi Canada is being picky about the journalists that it allows to cover its product. The product, in this case, is a three-cylinder sub-compact sedan that retails for $16,048 CAD plus taxes. The G4 is no Roller, only to be handled with white-gloved hands. It’s an entry-level consumer product.

So, because of Mitsubishi Canada effectively blocking our access to the car, TTAC was resigned to not publish a Mirage G4 review.

But then fate happened.

In the near future, we will have a review of the Mirage G4 sedan, whether Mitsubishi Canada wants us to review it or not. And it will be a treat, too.

Thank you, Mitsubishi Canada, for providing the car.

(Sorry. Not sorry.)