Junkyard Find: 1983 Mitsubishi Cordia

by Murilee Martin

Published: December 7th, 2011

Since December 7 always reminds me of the only Mitsubishi vehicle with a strong reputation for reliability, let’s look at this Late Malaise Era Mitsu I found in a California self-service wrecking yard a few weeks back.

I’ve had an unhealthy obsession with the Cordia/Tredia recently (though the Hyundai Scoupe may have taken its place in my heart). The Cordia was part of Mitsubishi’s big move to sell cars under its own marque, rather than as badge-engineered Dodges and Plymouths, and it wasn’t exactly a success.

You have to love the Cordia’s crazy, near-incomprehensible electronic dashboard.

Why did Japanese automakers abandon the spaceship-style interiors of the early 1980s? They had character!

The 116-horsepower turbocharged engine wasn’t available for the ’83 model Cordia, so this car had only 82 horses. Since this car only weighed 2,101 pounds, it wasn’t quite as slow as the power numbers would suggest… but it was still pretty slow.

I keep thinking I’ll never see another Cordia again, but they keep trickling into the wrecking yards.

#1980s #1983 #1983MitsubishiCordia #DownOnTheJunkyard #Junkyard #JunkyardFind #Malaise #Mitsubishi #MitsubishiCordia

Murilee Martin

Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.

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2 of 33 comments

MRF 95 T-Bird on Dec 08, 2011

It's been years since I have seen these along with it's 4dr twin the Trendia. These actually remind me of a restyled Hyundai Excel which makes sense since Mitsubishi designed many of the earlier imported to the U.S. Hyundai's and even sold a version of the Excel called the Precis.

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Cordiafreak on Dec 19, 2011

Hi, I have been seven years in search of this digital dashboard of the Mitsubishi Cordia you have placed on the site. Do you have the address or e-mail from that company so that I can buy? You can also get it and send to me. You make me very happy. Eef greetings

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