New Mitsubishi Galant Revealed– A Bit

by Justin Berkowitz

February 1st, 2008 6:50 AM

The image you are seeing comes from the Washington auto show. A facelifted Mitsubishi Galant has been making the rounds at several of the regional auto shows, and a dealer has even confirmed having a few in stock. But this freshened Galant is not on Mitsubishi's consumer website, press website or any of the press picture databases. A call to the Mitsubishi News Bureau has not been returned (they are probably not in the Berkowitz fan club after my review of the Lancer). As you can see from the horrendous blurry cameraphone picture, the rear end is in fact different and less ugly than before. Unfortunately, the car underneath is likely the same pedestrian and generic machine Americans have been ignoring for the past several years. Mitsubishi has had record sales in 2007, but they have yet to crack serious sales numbers in the Altima-Accord-Camry territory in which they used to be very competitive. So two lessons here. First, when you launch a car, launch the damn car properly. Second… well we'll have to wait until we can see the thing, won't we.

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P.J. McCombs on Feb 01, 2008

Does the refresh include a folding rear seatback? I couldn't believe they ommitted it on the current Galant. I'm also in the "rooting for a comeback" camp, because of a) the Evo and b) an '01 Eclipse GT I owned. Dead reliable for ~65,000 miles, and got within $3K of what I paid for it at trade-in (the original owner ate the first-year depreciation). Mitsubishi does a few niche products quite well, but hasn't figured out how to market itself as a niche company.

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L47_V8 on Feb 01, 2008
210delray : February 1st, 2008 at 10:36 am About the 1994-98 generation Galant, there’s also this. Notice how the A-pillar ends up vertical like that of a ‘55 Chevy! Later generations did much better of course. I'm not at all sure what you were attempting to illustrate with that. It crashed like the vast majority of mid-1990s cars - which is to say badly. By the way, it was designed in the late-1980s and launched outside the US in late 1991, so I'm unsure of what you were expecting. No, it isn't comparable with cars design a decade and a half later (the current Galant is on par with its midsize contenders - nearly perfect scores in the IIHS offset crash test). Why would it be? If you want something really shocking, take a look at the 2003 Chevrolet Blazer 2-Door, the 2002 Chevrolet Astro, or the 2004/5 Pontiac Grand Am 2-door and their GMC/Oldsmobile equivalents.

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Dean on Feb 01, 2008

I know convergence is the big buzzword, but what the heck are you doing going to an auto show without a half-decent digicam? I know you weren't expecting to se much, but as a TTAC contributor you should always be prepared!

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IronEagle on Feb 03, 2008

Looks like the ass of a Maxima. Bring back the 91 Galant VR-4 and the 2nd gen DSM turbo and all will be well Mitsu..

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