Junkyard Find: 1989 Mitsubishi Sigma

by Murilee Martin

Published: September 6th, 2012

Remember the Mitsubishi Sigma? Nobody does! It was a semi-oddball four-door hardtop version of the Galant that was sold in the United States just for the 1989 and 1990 model years, and I believe this car— which I spotted at a San Francisco Bay Area self-service yard over the weekend— is the first one I’ve ever seen in person.

Four-door hardtops were big in the 1960s, but you didn’t have a lot of choices in that department by 1989. Mitsubishis had only been available in North America with non-Chrysler badging for a half-dozen years when this car was new, and Mitsubishi salesmen must have experienced major bouts of hopelessness when trying to convince Camry and Maxima shoppers to buy the Sigma instead.

I’d thought the Big Nose HVAC Guy was a Cordia-only thing, but it turns out that many Mitsubishis of the 1980s used this graphic.

The forward-stop-backward arrows on the shifter positions were a nice, if somewhat puzzling, Mitsubishi-style touch.

Since a lot of Detroit slushboxes were still three-speeds in 1989, the shifter handle got this bit of bragging.

I’m going to keep my eyes open for more Sigmas now, because they must be out there!

#1980s #1989 #1989MitsubishiSigma #California #DownOnTheJunkyard #Galant #Junkyard #JunkyardFind #Mitsubishi #MitsubishiGalant #Sigma #MitsubishiSigma

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.

More by Murilee Martin

Comments

Join the conversation

3 of 28 comments

Michael_phoenix on Oct 02, 2012

I just bought a 1990 Sigma from a friend. been fun to work on so far but can get a bit frustrating being that's its a bit rare. if anyone sees another one around i could use parts.

Like Reply
- ShoogyBee on Oct 03, 2012
  
  Keep your car as a parts car and pick up this beast instead! http://www.autoblog.com/2012/09/24/ebay-find-of-the-day-1988-mitsubishi-galant-sigma-has-worlds-s/
  
  Like
Capthook1000 on Jul 15, 2016

I inherited my 1989 Sigma from my father in law. It has 38K miles and is in mint condition. Kept in a garage for 12 years.

Like Reply

Recent Comments

Fred I had a 2009 S-line mine was chipped but otherwise stock. I still say it was the best "new" car I ever had. I wanted to get the new A3, but it was too expensive, didn't come with a hatch and no manual.
3-On-The-Tree If Your buying a truck like that your not worried about MPG.
W Conrad I'd gladly get an EV, but I can't even afford anything close to a new car right now. No doubt if EV's get more affordable more people will be buying them. It is a shame so many are stuck in their old ways with ICE vehicles. I realize EV's still have some use cases that don't work, but for many people they would work just fine with a slightly altered mindset.
Master Baiter There are plenty of affordable EVs--in China where they make all the batteries. Tesla is the only auto maker with a reasonably coherent strategy involving manufacturing their own cells in the United States. Tesla's problem now is I think they've run out of customers willing to put up with their goofy ergonomics to have a nice drive train.
Cprescott Doesn't any better in red than it did in white. Looks like an even uglier Honduh Civic 2 door with a hideous front end (and that is saying something about a Honduh).