Hey Ron that is a cool looking camper. I really like that Toyota chassis they were bullet proof. Looks like that camper section is all fiberglass like those Coach House units, but looks better than there toaster design as my wife says..
CLICK HERE to see many pictures of our Mirage, inside and out. The pictures helped sell the RV on eBay as our PC was being built.
Yes, the Mirage body is built like a Coach House....or better stated, the Coach House body is built like a Mirage.
The Mirage was built from 1978 to 1986. The RV-specific Toyota cut-away chassis with a single rear tire axle was most popular, but you could order one built on a SRW Ford or Datsun too. The Toyota chassis in 1978 had a 2.2L-L4 carbureted engine. Ours was built on a 1983 chassis with a 2.4L-L4 carbureted engine that output only 96hp. Every RV chassis was equipped with CA emissions which reduced the HP by 4. In 1984, Toyota went to MFI which increased the HP to 115. I wished we waited one model year to get it. Toyota later had a semi-recall, supplying a true duel rear axle which we took advantage of 12 years later in 1995.
Our practical cruising speed with the 4-speed manual transmission was 57mph. Top speed with the pedal to the metal was 78mph. We were 25 years old when we bought it as new parents, so time spent on the road was critical. With the small fuel tank, we learned going faster did not save time because of excessive fuel consumption requiring much more frequent fuel stops. So we often drove through the night at 57mph to get to our destinations across the USA. Our trip-average fuel economy often exceed 20mpg by a hair.
We ordered ours stripped to the bone, paying $12,255 + sales tax, the price of a nice Buick at the time. The chassis had a basic 4-speed stick, no a/c, no power steering, no cruise control, no radio (I later added one myself) crank-up windows, and a generic vinyl cab floor. It was as basic as could be. The house was no different. It was basically a hard shell tent with organized storage.
We did so much with that little rig, from camping trips with our kids, hauling home lumber, day trips with bicycles, local trips to the grocery store, to helping people move from place-to-place. Our Mirage was Irene's car as a stay-at-home mother for the first 6 years we owned it. It was my mobile tool shed during the construction of our house in 1988.
In 2007 at 49 years old with the kids grown, done taking trips with us, we wanted something a lot more comfortable...a LOT MORE. We put together our wish list and settled for a lot better yet with our PC-2350.
Our boys were so upset when they learned we were selling our Mirage. It sold on eBay for $7,600, a net loss of around $5000 in 24 years....not bad.
