Rare Rides: The Sporty and Very Rare 1991 Mitsubishi Debonair, by AMG (Part III)
Today marks the final installment in our Mitsubishi Debonair saga, which began a couple of days ago. We talked origins and its eventual demise, and today we’ll cover the little AMG part in the middle.
Unlike its present Mercedes-owned state, prior to 1990 tuning house AMG was an independent entity. And though they did projects in conjunction with Mercedes-Benz often, the company was free to partner with other firms and do work as they pleased. So amongst the company’s Eighties projects with Mercedes, they were contacted by Mitsubishi. Someone at the company wanted to add some excitement to the Debonair sedan as it flagged in sales against the competition. Surely AMG could come to the rescue, and lend European sports tuner credibility to the Debonair.
It’s important to remember some context here, that the elusive “European sports sedan buyer” idea was all the rage amongst MBAs at every car company. The sports sedan buyers were young, affluent, still had their hair, and purchased BMWs. Naturally, every company which sold a sedan and wanted to appear premium chased said customer to the ends of the earth for a piece of the pie. It’s what led to cars like the Cadillac STS, and the Touring version of the Lincoln Town Car. And this Debonair.
After AMG’s work was finished, several changes were applied to turn the Debonair into Debonair AMG for 1987. The model’s full name on PR was the Debonair V 3000 Royal AMG. Unfortunately, the alterations were not mechanical in nature. Underhood was the same naturally aspirated 3.0-liter V6 from the Dynasty, still paired to the four-speed automatic and driving the front wheels (all-wheel drive would’ve been a big boon here).
Exterior styling was revised, as the AMG sprouted a sharply angled body kit, monochromatic trim, and prominent AMG badges all around the exterior. Wheels were swapped with a sawblade color-keyed design unique to the version, along with a new horizontal grille treatment to replace the stodgy vertical one on the standard car. There was also a rear deck spoiler to press the back toward the earth.
Inside, changes included a new four-spoke AMG wheel (a key marketing feature). Buyers could choose a more traditional seating look of overstuffed and ruched velour or more sporty velour chairs sans ruching. Tan leather was also available for the more vulgar buyer. The AMG trim was offered on standard and longer Royal 150 versions of the Debonair, with the longer version introduced in 1990.
Overall, the appeal of the Debonair’s AMG variant was enough to keep it in production from 1987 through 1991 (end date is a bit unclear). But it was overall a very rare vehicle. After a search, I found none for sale, only this one in iffy condition on a car registry site. Mitsubishi collaborated with AMG once more on a Galant, but that’s a Rare Ride for another day.
[Images: Mitsubishi]
Interested in lots of cars and their various historical contexts. Started writing articles for TTAC in late 2016, when my first posts were QOTDs. From there I started a few new series like Rare Rides, Buy/Drive/Burn, Abandoned History, and most recently Rare Rides Icons. Operating from a home base in Cincinnati, Ohio, a relative auto journalist dead zone. Many of my articles are prompted by something I'll see on social media that sparks my interest and causes me to research. Finding articles and information from the early days of the internet and beyond that covers the little details lost to time: trim packages, color and wheel choices, interior fabrics. Beyond those, I'm fascinated by automotive industry experiments, both failures and successes. Lately I've taken an interest in AI, and generating "what if" type images for car models long dead. Reincarnating a modern Toyota Paseo, Lincoln Mark IX, or Isuzu Trooper through a text prompt is fun. Fun to post them on Twitter too, and watch people overreact. To that end, the social media I use most is Twitter, @CoreyLewis86. I also contribute pieces for Forbes Wheels and Forbes Home.
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Makes the Volvo 740 look like Joi Lansing.
The side badge would look better to my eye if it was centered between the gas door and taillight. Above the wheel well just looks awkward/wrong (probably due to me being used to seeing it placed in a more 'traditional' position). Thanks for the write up, Corey.