Junkyard Find, Cold Blasted Edition: 1991 Mitsubishi Galant

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin
junkyard find cold blasted edition 1991 mitsubishi galant

I’m always on the lookout for weird Mitsubishi products when I’m visiting wrecking yards, but the dawn of the 1990s brought less distinctive styling to Mitsubishis and they tend to hide in the background as I’m walking the rows of cast-off machines. The bullet holes in this 21-year-old Galant, however, caught my eye. We’ll return to the cars of the Brain Melting Vintage Junkyard soon, but today we’re going back to the “traditional” Colorado self-service yard.

I’m pretty sure that Galant sales figures didn’t have Toyota or Honda execs losing any sleep back in the day, and my recent experience with a rented ’11 Galant convinced me that the Camry and Accord still have nothing to fear.

This one didn’t make it to 200,000 miles, though 150,000 seems respectable for a Mitsubishi.

As for the bullet holes, it appears that someone went all gangsta-style on this car and fired a bunch of handgun rounds (I’m sure there’s a reader who can identify the year, make, and model of the firearm just by looking at the holes) through the windshield into the front seats. The holes in the seats are at heart level, but the lack of blood and/or police-impound stickers indicate that the car was unoccupied during the shooting.

The slugs passed through the windshield, front and rear seats, and the sheet metal behind the seat before coming to a halt in the trunk.

I used to see this sort of thing all the time in Oakland junkyards during the crack wars of the early 1990s, and you still see the occasional bullet hole in junked California cars. This is the first I’ve seen in a Denver yard.

Will Galants of this era ever have any collector value? As Chou En-Lai (perhaps) said about the significance of the French Revolution, it’s too early to tell.









Comments
Join the conversation
2 of 18 comments
  • MRF 95 T-Bird MRF 95 T-Bird on Jul 18, 2012

    The really strange one was the Galant Sigma. An upscale version of the Galant that competed with Maxima, 929 and Cressida.

  • MK MK on Jan 30, 2013

    A little hard to tell due to no real reference scale but I'm going with 7.62 x 25 Tokarev. Probably fired out of a CZ 52, they were dirt cheap for quite a while with a lot of surplus soviet ammo out there. Very popular with the urban thug on a budget.

  • Sayahh Is it 1974 or 1794? The article is inconsistent.
  • Laura I just buy a Hyndai Elantra SEL, and My car started to have issues with the AC dont work the air sometimes is really hot and later cold and also I heard a noice in the engine so I went to the dealer for the first service and explain what was hapenning to the AC they told me that the car was getting hot because the vent is not working I didnt know that the car was getting hot because it doesnt show nothing no sign no beep nothing I was surprise and also I notice that it needed engine oil, I think that something is wrong with this car because is a model 23 and I just got it on April only 5 months use. is this normal ? Also my daughter bought the same model and she went for a trip and the car also got hot and it didnt show up in the system she called them and they said to take the car to the dealer for a check up I think that if the cars are new they shouldnt be having this problems.
  • JamesGarfield What charging network does the Polestar use?
  • JamesGarfield Re: Getting away from union plantsAbout a dozen years or so ago, Caterpillar built a huge new engine plant, just down the road here in Seguin TX. Story has it, Caterpillar came to Seguin City council in advance, and told them their plans. Then they asked for no advanced publicity from Seguin, until announcement day. This new plant was gonna be a non-union replacement for a couple of union plants in IL and SC, and Cat didn't want to stir up union problems until the plan was set. They told Seguin, If you about blab this in advance, we'll walk. Well, Seguin kept quiet as instructed, and the plan went through, with all the usual expected tax abatements given.Plant construction began, but the Caterpillar name was conspicuously absent from anywhere on the site. Instead, the plant was described as being a collective of various contractors and suppliers for Caterpillar. Which in fact, it was. Then comes the day, with the big new plant fully operationa!, that Caterpillar comes in and announces, Hey, Yeah it's our plant, and the Caterpillar name boldly goes up on the front. All you contractor folks, welcome aboard, you're now Caterpillar employees. Then, Cat turns and announces they are closing those two union plants immediately, and will be transporting all the heavy manufacturing equipment to Seguin. None of the union workers, just the equipment. And today, the Caterpillar plant sits out there, humming away happily, making engines for the industry and good paying jobs for us. I'd call that a winner.
  • Stuki Moi What Subaru taketh away in costs, dealers will no doubt add right back in adjustments.... Fat chance Subaru will offer a sufficient supply of them.
Next