This is a good question. I am a Master Technician for Toyota, and I will give what history I know in the form that won't throw me under the RV. Pardon the pun. One of the popular small RV's were presented by Winnebego with a Renault drive train and cab, called the Le Sarro. The engines however couldn't handle the size, at least from my experience. There were some class action law suits involved. The next one to come along was Winnebego with the Toyota chassis and cab, called the Minnie Winnie. Two engines and transmissions were offered. V-6 and Four cylinder, with automatic or five speed. As it goes, the rear axles did not hold up to the weight of the camper and all the stuff put into it. You might have noticed that there were also Toyota U-Hauls running around, along with private sector flat beds. I understand that the RV manufacturer and Toyota cannot control what an owner loads into the vehicle, and all the campers I have worked on with broken axles were severly overloaded and suffered from lack of maintenance. Since the Toyota became unavailable with camper conversions, Winnebego started to use VW, called the Rialto. I know of no complaints about these to date. If the question was asked because one is interested in finding a Toyota camper, come to Florida, they are everywhere and still running around under their own steam.

What John von Harmann posted is mostly accurate. The axle issue was solved by recalling earlier models to put an upgraded axle on them. After 1987, Toyota-based motorhomes all had the upgraded axles from the factory. Toyota stopped providing cab-chassis trucks to motorhome makers in 1993. The most common reason given is that Toyota had liability concerns about the motorhomes (and their underinformed owners) overloading the chassis. There is a great deal of information on the Internet about these motorhomes. Try the following URLs: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/toyota-campers/ http://www.toyotamotorhomes.com/ P.S. I own a 1986 National RV Dolphin 500 motorhome (Toyota-based)

Toyota chassis are not any different for a 1/2- ton pickup or a grossly overloaded "1-ton" motorhome . Axle issues were not only costly headaches but downright deathtraps.(imagine loseing an entire pair of dual wheels off one side @ 65-70mph on the interstate !!) Luckily mine sheared the wheel studs off @ 2-3mph pulling into a gas station w/no serious damage.I do love my 1983 Toyota Mirage "toy-hauler",(sleeps 4 and 1 atv) and am planning a serious axle upgrade.

Ok, let's see, I find your question to be a good and valid head-scratcher, as to why they stopped, especially with me being a recent purchaser of a 1983 Dolphin, supplanted atop a Toyota Pick-up Chassis, and I where find the whole shebang to be just superb! Now, as to anything being sub-standard, or it not being able to handle load, well I feel that's kinda poppycockish, in that my older unit happened to be placed atop a half ton model, as they all where before 1986, however, the unit did have a one ton front suspension as well as-6 lug rear end. All right, so we know that a half ton is 1000 pounds, and I'm sure if one weighed the vehicle less the Toyota, it would come in over that, and thus the reason for the 1 ton axle in back. With all that being said, in that if any happenstance has occurred due to broken axles, it has been found that the fault goes with those to whom don't understand or care about what Gross Vehicle Weight limits are, and is just as criminal, just as one that would deliberately overload a pack animal, then end up causing it's death. To answer the question and it seems all gave great information about the vehicle, but as to why their gone, I'd say econimics, and to be honest, keeping up with The American Truck. They continued to innovate, and make the Toyota bigger, larger, and more expensive by doing so, and it no longer was feasible to utilize that familiar platform when it became near triple the cost of just 5 years previous. National RV to whom manufactured all of the Dolphin and Sea Breeze Micro-Mini's left Sylmar,CA and the Toyota based foundations which built their company as well for Perris California to which they now build Class A units of the highest quality using the same names as their baby forerunners. One could design, build, and weld-up a chassis for a Class A cheaper than the 20k Toyota Pick-up being called the Tacoma less the cost for the bed. So, like a great television show that decides to go out on top, and cease production, so goes our little gem's of the RV world, gone from the limelight, but never forgotten. PEACE! .

See Many Detailed Pictures Of My Mirage Here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/37432012@N08/sets/72157621472936441/ To the guy above with the Toyota-Mirage, and anyone else curious about a Mirage. We bought our 1984 Toyota-Mirage in September of 1983 for $12,250 plus tax, and still have it today. It has 107,000 miles today in February of 2007. We keep it in our heated garage since 1988 and it's near mint. It's on the 1983 Toyota chassis as Mirage was using up the last of the old chassis, yet marketing them as 1984 models. We ordered our's special (stripped) with a stick shift manual transmission, no power steering or cruise, no pw, pl, no a/c, no radio, no rear a/c, no heater, no fridge, no bath, no frills back there. Only with cabinetry, a pump sink, dinette etc. BUT, I did order the custom appointed front seats that match the RVs upolstery, the auxilary battery and power converter, and the tack-on dual rear wheels. A year after I bought the RV, the top overhead bunk windows developed perimeter cracking. I was given free replacements which I replaced on my own. It was obvious why there was a problem. The plexiglass had rough sawn edges. I sanded the replacements smooth prior to installation, and they are still fine today. I added back-up lights as the wiring for it was under the rear area. In 1995 I developed handling problems at around 50,000 miles. I had called a shop that handles RV suspensions. They told me of the rear axle upgrade where $3000 in rear-end parts would be given to me free from Toyota. I only had to pay for installation. After some paperwork to fill out with Toyota, a huge crate was delivered to the shop. What came was the whole rear axle, brakes, wheels, lugs...everything except tires. As the new rear end was for a true-dual wheel 1995 Toyota pickup, I also needed a adapter for the drive shaft in back, and a different parking brake cable. The rear tires I had put on are still the same ones today. They wear so very slowly as the Mirage is so light. At the same time as the rear end upgrade, I had the shop add an adjustable rear air suspension with on-board compressor, and Bilstein shocks all around. The RV was then "Perfect", and is still to this day. No handling issues at all. It's a real champ. Over the years, we've added a nice cd stereo in front and cassete in rear, and also did other upgrades inside, like additional cabintery where the porta-potty would go, and extra lighting. My wife and I use the RV as a multi-purpose vehicle. We haul our bikes to the bike trail, 4x8 sheets of plywood standing on it's side, and also 18 foot long deck boards when building my deck. They just hung out the back door. It's a fantastic vehicle for all kinds of use, not just camping. I've moved us in our house with it in 1988, and helped with other family members too. I've opened that huge rear door and put our fridge in there, for Pete's sake. The big rear door was marketed as an awning, but we open it only for getting over-sized items inside. For camping it's the greatest. We raised two boys, and they have the best of memories in there going on family camping trips out west in the mountains. And it does well up in the mountains. I love it's small size so when there are pull-offs for sightseeing, you have no trouble parking it in a regular car spot. All the large rigs just keep going because they have no place to pull over. My wife is 5'-1" tall and 107 lbs....a petite woman. At 49 years old she handles that RV with no trouble, even without power steering. The trick is to get it to roll just a tiny bit, then it turns with ease. The stick shift is extremely forgiving too. It's hard to make a rough engaugement. The ease of the shifter and clutch peddle & the gear ratio are big factors. Now that we are close to 50 years old, we are debating if we should get something with a bathroom as it is common to go to the bathroom during the night now. There is no way a porta-potty and a curtian is going to work for us. It's a tough decision. We know our Mirage will just keep on going, well in our 60's, and the versatility, manuverability, and parking are all big pluses that are hard to ignore. We are going to an RV show this weekend to evaluate. Just maybe we'll be selling our very old friend of 23 years. Our kids know we are thinking about it, and they don't like it. Our older boy is now 23 and I think he was planning on borrowing it for when he gets married and has his own kids, and also for hauling huge things for himself. The RV was bought when he was only a few months old, so it's got a lot of sentimental value to him too. I'm including a picture I took last summer in 2006 in Rocky Mountain National Park. It's a candid shot of my wife, taken with my cell phone, and the Mirage happened to be behind her. Hey, if anyone is interested in my Mirage, email me. Maybe we'll talk more. One question everyone asks me....What's the gas mileage? I kept very close track of gas mileage for an entire vacation about three years ago. That trip was nearly 4000 miles from the Chicago area to the Rocky Mountains and back. We had lighter weight adults with lots of gear & food. Highway speeds did not exceed 62mph. Open interstate highway we got 20.4mpg. Average the entire trip was 18.6mpg. If you go over 60, the wind resistance drops the efficiency way down. If you want to make good time, go a steady 57mph and stop much less often. The Gross Vehicle Weight is 3500 pounds empty. 2500 for the Toyota cab & chassis, and 1000 for the RV portion. The RV body is one piece fiberglass with inner & outer walls. Honey-combing in between for strength and insulation. All cabinets are very light weight as they are only partial fiberglass shells, using the finished floor & wall for the balance of the enclosure, also maximizing their storage ability. Extremely well engineered for strength & weight. If you have a strong head wind, gas mileage drops significantly. If you have a strong tail wind, it goes up nicely. If you have a strong cross wind for days at a time, you'll notice uneven thread wear on the front tires because you compensate in the steering for extended periods. Rear tires are not affected. I hear this is common on many RVs. Ron

Hi All, I have been getting emails from a lot of people concerning my Toyota Mirage motor home. Yes I did sell it. I sold it on eBay on April 25th, 2007 for $7600. I put together a web page for the sake of the eBayers bidding, to provide as much information as possible to help in making a wise and educated bid. The webpage has 70 detailed pictures and much descriptive data at the bottom. Included are a few pictures of the original sales brochure. I welcome you to visit the web page. I will try to keep it active as long as possible for all. Ron's Mirage Web Page Here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/37432012@N08/sets/72157621472936441/ Ron

I recently found a mirage camper on an old 1983 toyota in a junk yard in florida, though I understand it came from Michigan . I own a 1986 and I'm considering mounting it on mine after I do the many fiberglass repairs that it appears to need as well as cosmetic and window repairs. The junk yard offered to sell it to me for $200.00 I'll try to bargain them down though considering how rare is and the potential versatility I'm not sure that it's unreasonable. Fiberglass is pretty easy to repair although a bit messy. I see that the 1987 axle upgrade will be something to be considered as well.