#Mitsubishi

|Reader Josh Howard relates the story of why he recommended a Mitsubishi to a co-worker…he’s a brave soul

After reading Derek’s excellent piece on Mitsubishi and their irrelevance in the American marketplace, I began thinking about the brand, and their history in the United States. A few months ago, I went against my better instincts and actually recommended one to a coworker despite knowing what Mitsubishi turned into in the early 2000’s…not to mention a turbocharged DSM car some years prior.

More bad news for Suzuki fans; the marque won’t have any new product for the Untied States until at least 2015.

I don’t know why people buy a Mitsubishi. That is a simple question, difficult answer that I have to think about for the next three or four months. What is the benefit?

The above quote is attributed to Mutsuhiro Oshikiri, head of Mitsubishi Australia. While hearing any company head speak so disparagingly about their product would be shocking, Mitsubishi used to be a serious player down under, with local manufacturing facilities and best-selling cars.

In 2010, when everybody was going ecstatic about EVs, PSA Peugeot Citroen said to Mitsubishi: “send us some of your i-Mievs, with our badges. Say, 100,000 for starters.”

PSA sold them (as much as they could) as the Peugeot iOn and Citroen C-Zero, the first car that sounds like sugar-free soda-pop. Now, PSA picked up the phone, called Japan, and said: “Hold the i-Mievs! We have enough!”

Mitsubishi is still alive and well in Japan, for the rest of the world, it is hoping for a Mirage. Just to make sure, Mitsubishi built one. Produced in Thailand, the Mitsubishi Mirage is a global compact car. Today, it goes on sale in Japan.

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.

BMW did not buy Mitsubishi’s Nedcar plant , a Dutch busmaker did. Mitsubishi today said it signed a principal agreement on the sale of its Dutch Nedcar plant to local bus maker VDL Groep. The busmaker gets a deal: The plant with a book value of 493 million Euro ($605 million) goes for exactly one euro.

Mitsubishi dubbed their flagship, the Dignity, to denote

“…the English to describe the peerless grandeur and majestic stateliness of the model…”

at least they’ve got a good starting point – the China-only Infiniti M35h LWB.

Reuters is reporting that BMW is discussing a possible arrangement with the soon-to-be dormant NedCar plant that once built the Volvo S40 and various Mitsubishi cars.

A rear-wheel-drive four-door hatchback with staggered wheels and a mere 2,579 pounds distributed 45/55. From the folks who gave us the Evo. Sounds awesome, doesn’t it? But the Mitsubishi i-MiEV (conversationally referred to as either the “i” OR the “meev”) isn’t that sort of car. Its focus is just as narrow as the Evo’s but could hardly be more different: the cheapest, most energy-efficient electric car you can buy in the United States. How cheap? The i-MiEV’s low-20s price (after a $7,500 tax credit) isn’t much higher than that of a Toyota Prius c, the cheapest, most energy-efficient hybrid.

The Mitsubishi Starion and its badge-engineered Dodge Conquest TSi twin were more quintessentially 1980s than neon-colored leg warmers and regulatory fiascos, combined. You had your gloriously ridiculous Japanese-macho lines, bright red interior, and TURBO emblems everywhere you looked. The Starion/Conquest was quick, too, with a big turbocharged Astron four-cylinder engine. Only problem was, the Starion/Conquest was a finicky, fragile machine, best known for maddeningly undiagnosable fuel-system problems, weird electrical-system woes, and general flakiness. Many are tempted by Starion projects, but eventually most of those MitsuDodges sitting under tarps in driveways will end up in The Crusher’s waiting room, as this Denver example has done.

Once a year, there are people who compete for who gets fastest up a mountain. The mountain is Pike’s Peak, and the occasion is the International Hill Climb. It will happen on July 3-8, as it did every year since 1916, only interrupted by the occasional world war. This year, one of the most interesting races could take place on battery power.

When Chrysler took over the tattered remnants of AMC in 1987, they created the “Jeep-Eagle” division in order to sell Kenosha-ized Renaults such as the Medallion and the Premier. Chrysler back then wasn’t content unless Mitsubishi got involved, and so they slapped Eagle badges on a Mitsubishi Mirage built by DSM in Illinois. This was very similar to the Geo-ization GM applied to Toyota, Isuzu, Suzuki, and Daewoo products sold in North America. You don’t see many Summits these days (you also didn’t see many of them 20 years ago) so this find in a Denver junkyard was a rare event.

Could BMW be acquiring the soon-to-be-shuttered Nedcar plant, which formerly built the Volvo S40 and Mitsubishi Colt? Dutch website Nu.nl seems to think so.

Looks like I have my work cut out for me yet again; the new Mitsubishi Mirage will be coming to Canada, but Mitsubishi may not bring their new small car to the United States. Yes, I’ll take time to review it.