Ha! The Mirage is the pick-up. People would see it from the front quarter, yet not realize it had a pick-up bed. They’d think it was a coupe, hence the name Mirage. The year after we ended production, Mitsubishi contacted us to ask permission to use the name. We told them we had no copyright on the name, so they used it for the Mitsubishi Mirage starting in 1988.

If you were in the car design business, you’d realize the difference between a wagon and a hearse. The hearse has a large, squared off back section with a huge, side-opening door. They normally had landau bars on the pillar posts. Station Wagons were still common in those days, so the difference was obvious during that era. To you young whipper-snappers accustomed to mini-vans and SUV’s, it probably would look like a hearse.

The rear seats also folded down to make a large cargo area and there was an area of the rear floor that opened to expose a secure storage area, including jack and spare tire.

There were competitors making similar wagons, but they simply cut the rear off of GM wagons from a salvage yard and welded it on. The roof lines, window shapes/lines didn’t match and really looked like crap to anybody who knew what they were looking at. Ours were all hand made parts and the body lines flowed like a custom designed unit, instead of a Frankenstein unit cobbled together with existing, non-matching parts.

There were also competitors making the Caddie trucks with El Camino type beds. Again, ill-fitting to the trained eye. Our “trucks” were also hand-made with no salvaged parts. We were the only builder authorized to be sold through Cadillac dealers and were fully warranted by the dealer.


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