Does anyone else miss the most underdog company?

>Does anyone else miss the most underdog company?

No, the car company was full of corruption as managers would make short term decisions to make themselves look good for bonus awards but those decisions cost the company in the long term. The corruption caught up to the company as it got prosecuted decade after decade in Japan for deceptive practices. So the consumers stopped buying.

That malaise came over in the USA side too. So no wonder it died. Good riddance to corruption.

>They were an automobile and aircraft company long before they made TV's.
MHI only made military vehicles and never made televisions.

you're right thank god we have cars bogged down with all this computer bullshit now

I really wish that they focused on the lancer and other sedans instead of working on their crossover. I genuinely think the lancer would be a great car if they just did some small tweaks with it (handling mostly). for the price point of their GT, you get a decent manual, practical power, and a pretty decent set of options thrown into a pretty simple looking layout. and the car doesn't look that bad as it is either.

I always wanted them to bring back the almighty Starion. It would have made a good Frs/miat/stang competitor.

>good riddance to corruption
Meanwhile, GM and FCA are still alive and well

New Starion would be cool.

what's the deal with the eclipse? they look nice IMO, they can be had dirt cheap in 5 speed manual with

lbs

>Mazda is the most underdog car
>posts a fucking Miata
God there is too many of you in every thread

How long until they disappear from the market? Iirc they only have 3 cars in their lineup and the Lancer is going away.

Old starions and mk3 supras always make me smile

Which Eclipse? The main issue is they were all destroyed by children.
It'll be a long time, globally, but maybe not long for the American market because they never really gave a fuck about us.

noted. that being said, would an eclipse still make a reliable, decent looking shitbox even if it isn't exactly a performance car?

let's just say 3rd gen, seeing as that's what is mostly available in my area

They sold a lot in the US, mostly rebranded as Dodge, but even stuff like the Eclipse was really only sold in the USA

If you can find one that hasn't been molested it'll be a fine shitbox.

>They sold a lot in the US
They really didn't compared to what they sold/sell in the rest of the world, though.
>mostly rebranded as Dodge
Definitely way less of the Dodge rebranded vehicles than the actual Mitsubishi vehicles (1G Montero 3dr vs Raider, GTO vs Stealth, Ram 50 vs Mighty Max). Raiders are actually fairly rare, in fact.

>Saw a stock looking evo 6 drive by my house in Vancouver the other day

goddam I was so excited. Mitsubishi and Subaru were on fucking point in the 90's man.

It's easy to spot someone who doesn't know about cars, when they think the STI is a better car than the Evo

Explain why it isn't. I'm not even a Mazda fanboy, just curious what your reasoning is.

>no wins since the late 90's

because they're on top of the world and everyone knows it? nobody sane talks shit about them

Early WRX's where quite quick and successful, after about 2001-02 they got fat, turned into road cars and never really won much. But anyone that wanted to win consistently, generally got an Evo

why are there so many god damn lancer oz rally for sale

why do i have to be so poor? there is no good mitsu in the sub 3k

>mazda
>on top of the world

Mazda is nothing compared to Honda, Toyota, GM and Ford. And it is against these companies that they are competing against.

They might make great cars, but that doesn't mean they aren't an underdog in the grand scheme of things.

ok

I just bought an Eclipse because I actually really like the styling, and I had a 3g Eclipse that lasted me nearly 200,000 miles of abuse that an 18 year old with their first car could put it through.

So far I'm actually really in love with this car. Maybe it's because I'm been hopping from $500 shit box to $500 shit box everytime something goes wrong with one of them.

And hell, it was only $6k. I'll have it paid off in a year, two tops. The Rockford Fosgate sound system is pretty nice as well.

...

What was the Lancer Evo's best year?

They did it to themselves. Hopping in bed with Chrysler led to a permanent stain on the brand in the Burger market. Also the WRX and STi were cheaper than the Ralliart and Evo.

Also the LS series Mirage sucks compared to the CE series.

t. Ken Blockhead

>benchracing

>why are there so many god damn lancer oz rally for sale
It's a rice trim. The only performance trims for Lancers with exception to the Evo were the CC series GSR and CE series Ralliart.

1999 to 2001. VI a best. They started getting fat from VII onwards.

looks great, man. how's it handle? does it shift smooth? any weird issues?

>4g Eclipse

you poor bastard

Everything on it feels great. Interior is really nice. Roomy af trunk. Comfy and sporty looking bucket seats. Shifts just fine, feels a bit sluggish but it is a 4cyl auto. I didn't really buy it for performance. I bought it because I liked the way it looked and I wanted something I could rely on.

Everything is relative though. My last car was a 17 year old civic with over 200k miles on it when I bought it. So this car feels like driving a dream in comparison.

Don't think they sold the wagon variant in the states, and if they did I've never seen one.

Think these are great looking though

You could get a wagon, but not a VR-4.

I miss the Magna and 380, solid cars. Sad they closed down their aussie plant

>Didn't sell Evos in the US not counting the pigfat last 2 gens
>Didn't sell VR4s in the US

a-atleast the earlier models can be imported here now..

I'm surprised we don't see more people mucking about with the factory AWD VR-X Magnas.

They made the first passenger vehicle in Japan actually.

I wish they made more than riced out fwd shitboxes

Why no cheap rwd shitboxes

Because RWD is inherently more expensive than FWD to design and manufacture for a shitbox company. For BMW, Lexus, Mercedes, etc. it's fine because their entire product lines are based around it, but the opposite is true for Toyota, Mitsubishi, etc. They make primarily FWD to begin with, so it takes a lot of effort to spin up the tooling and logistics to create a RWD vehicle - it just doesn't make a lot of economic sense to the company. That's why the GT86 was such an exciting experiment to people who actually follow the car industry seriously - Toyota and Subaru spent a lot of time, money, and effort to create a cheaper RWD car out of thin air.

It's not quite the same for the likes of Chrysler, GM, and Ford - the Mustang and Camaro have been around forever and already have a very large fan and consumer base. The Challenger and Charger also basically HAVE to exist for Chrysler to maintain a spot among the "American big 3" in the minds of consumers because the Mustang and Camaro.

I don't know. I'm honestly mad that the era of japanese enthusiast cars that are fairly affordable and can do as regular daily drivers is over. No more decent Mitsus, no more sporty Toyotas, no more cool Mazdas or Nissans. Even Honda went to shit and only really offers the Civic Type R which is meh.

The Galant is pretty much my dream car. Looking to buy a clean one in a few years after selling my Carisma.

The L200 and Pajero are still breddy gud.

But the only Mitsubishis Americans seem to care about are the Eclipse and Lancer.

Mitsubishi Motors got fucked hard by Daimler, when they bought most of their stocks in the 2000s.
Then daimler cherrypicked anything they could out of Mitsubishi with little to no investments into the development of new cars and engines.
Finally after 5 years daimler fucked off and sold all the stocks.
Most cars from the year 2000 to 2005 we're mediocre with outdated but reliable engines, also huge quality issues with the cars built in the netherlands for the european market. What also added salt into the wound was the discontinuation of the Space Gear, Space Wagon, Space Runner, L300 and L400, also no new Sigmas, since they simply didn't get the ressources from daimler.

Now they got a good hit with the ASX (Outlander Sport).

The Space star (Mirage) could do better if it had a little bit of a bigger engine and better noise insulation for the passenger cabin. The Lancer Sportback is a good bang for a buck in my country. Beats buying a new dacia for the same price anyday.

I hope since the Nissan and Renault alliance have bought tons of stocks, we will see a reintroduction of discontinued cars by gaymler and maybe a new evo, 3000GT, eclipse, Sigma or Galant.

What i forgot to add was that MItsubishi shouldn't be sticking CVT's into any car bigger than a subcompact like the Mirage.

Daewoo also make all of Koreas service firearms

>tfw there will never be a Mitsu with adjustable air suspension again

They're a good car, the engine makes enough torque down low to scare up some speed, generally nicely balanced, appointed and not any real problems I know of.
But- only in 4spd Auto.
The Ralliart is actually quicker by the way and for what you pay, get a lot of car. Only sad thing about those is that they where supposed to be AWD, but Mitsu-Au ran out of dollaryroos and has to settle for fwd, real pity because they where nice cars.

Years ago a friend bought his AWD Diamante over from NZ and we dropped a GTO driveline in it -which wasn't mechanically much fun, kind of like fucking with chalk as lube. Real sleeper that just looked like another shitbox Magna with peeling clearcoat until given a bootfull and then its bye-bye.

>Having any faith in Renault-Nissan
>Ever

I like being optimistic, better than being pessimistic.

Nissan still got a Nismo trim and the GT-R.
Renault heavily improved on quality control and quality all around by learning from Nissan.

>GT-R
Yeah what a fucking driver's car that is, as shitty as that new NSX pile of fuck

Have you driven one by yourself? I didn't, so i can't say what it's like. It's a miracle that it exists and is still produced, in this world of soccer moms lusting after pick up trucks and SUV's.

Even the Miata is here and a NSX. Instead of eating sour grapes all the time, we should be happy with what we get. Sure it's not the same as it's predecessor but it's something alright or would you rather have a NSX SUV or Miata Minivan?

I want a driver's car
the NSX and GT-R are just laptime machines

In my opinion they fail just as hard as soccer mom trucks and SUV's

>you will never have a 3 door Pajero II with hydraulic adjustable suspension.

My point was that they even get a chance to EXIST. It's a start.

What about the GT86/BRZ, the ND Miata? Isn't that a drivers car?

Some people just can't be pleased, no matter what you give them.

Suit yourself, my man.

Pajeros had that?

>tfw the 2016 LC JUST caught up with the Pajero IV
When are they going to update it and being it back to America? I have money ready.

Yes. Only the 3 door high end models for some reason. You had a normal and off road height. They was a hydraulic pump accessory that pushed two bottle jack looking adjusters that replaced the anchors for the torsion bars and two bladders that sat on top of the coil springs in the rear.

Impressive.

Always thought only the Sigma, 3rd gen Sapporo and higher trim level Galants got such an adjustable suspension.

I work for a Mitsubishi-KIA dealership and I would get a Mitsubishi any day of the week. In fact, I am on my fourth one. Have been leasing, but I drive too much so I bought and outlander. Never had any serious issues with any of them.

We see A LOT of older mitsubishis with over 100k on odometer. One of our employees have a 240k Endeavor, it does have issues but still fucking drives around. Monteros are always nice to see, every owner of a montero says that they will never trade it for anything else. Bunch of 2000s galants and 2004-06 lancers.

People miss the eclipse, endeavors and raiders, but mitsubishi said that they would like to produce only "world" cars which means they want to sell same cars all over the world. The three cars they discontinued were pretty much specific to America.

Mitsubishi is now heading for a shady future though. I hate nissans and therefore i worry. All the electrical and engine problems of nissans are soon to become our reality.

But also, in future plans Mitsubishi have announced a turbo version of a Mirage (sounds ridiculous, I know), possibly bringing Montero (after chicken tax law expires) and maybe the triton (but now that they have access to Titan, who knows?).

Not really digging the new Montero Sport look, but I'll take an older full size Montero any day.

You're an idiot for thinking those two cars existing means the industry isn't broken

>Impressive.
You'd be surprised at the kind of things the NL Pajero had in 1997. 5 speed automatic with manual shift mode, pneumatic locking differential, a full GPS, automatic climate control front and rear, etc.

Damn, never thought to meet anyone else working for mitsu.

Working for a mitsu dealership in yurop. Our dealership sold tons of Outlander Sport this and last year.

We still get old mitsus aswell, like old lancer station wagons from the late 90s with AWD, people cling onto them and are even ready to pay money to fix all the rust spots and holes. Some older galants aswell, lately we had one with 400k km on the clock but the owner had to give it up due to
rust. Engine still ran like a dream and the auto transmission worked fine aswell. Problem is that Mitsubishi has nothing in store for them. No AWD station wagon, no other sedan besides the lancer.

Here's a picture showing the little selection monitor for the adjustable suspension in the tachometer.
My NL has ruined other wagons for me. It's just got everything I could ask for. The new Montero Sport is pretty ugly from the rear, but I'd still drive it if I had no choice of a Montero.

fuck i love this

Wrong. The best years for them were 2000 to 2006

People won't pay for shit and want the cheapest turds out there.
Then there's the government breathing down the manufacturers neck with shittons of regulations.

Industry always goes there where the money lies, while people that want real "drivers" cars won't pay shit for it.

You're an idiot for thinking that it's not the consumers and governments
fault aswell.

Thanks, i appreciate the compliment.

Have another one.

yes desu, L200s were superb.

The L200 still exists.

Yeah, I just had a girl who paid $1500 to fix up her eclipse, not even timing belt, just little stuff plus regular maintenance catch up. Said that it was "her" car, even though she drives an outlander sport for work.

Yeah, there is nothing to replace the older mitsus. The Sports are most popular right now, plus the 16 full size outlander is actually really nice. but 50% of the sports now have a tranny issue, up to the point of where we have to replace it at less than 10k miles. One of my customers also had the first gen mighty max, which they had to get rid of after all, engine ran but rust...

I would also def take a Diamante, that was a true japanese luxury car. V6 four wheel drive heaven.

It's really had to find Montero that is clean, because those that are clean are being kept forever.

Plus, how can we forget the twin turbo 3000GT?

isn't the latest generation a rebadged fiat though?

>It's really had to find Montero that is clean
That's the truth. Very few of the first or second owners gave them the maintenance they needed. I'm lucky to have gotten mine back when they were just pre-owned instead of very pre-owned. I'm looking for more rough examples to do crazy shit to. Like put a 6G74 with 72TT heads into it or SAS with a NT Wagoneer D44.
No, Fiat is rebadging the L200 as the Fullback or something.

Tell me. Which transmission on the sport has the issue?
Let me guess, it's the CVT one isn't it?

Most of the Outlander Sport or ASX as they are called over here, are sold with 6-speed manual transmission. SOmetimes someone orders a six speed auto transmission. We haven't sold a single ASX with the CVT transmission.

Yes, and fourth generation was also built exclusively in Thailand. But, everyone will tell you that 3000GT was better than Stealth, Raider is better than Dakota. Maybe L200 is better than Fullback.

I also recently found that people do picrelated and I secretly want it as well. It is an 89 mirage with a 4G63 2.0 turbo engine swap. Supposedly it takes a quarter drag in 11 some seconds.

What you speak is nonsense.

See Fiat has nothing in store for a pick up truck, so they have to rebadge an L200 for it. They are intended for the middle east and africa.

The L200 won't come to north america due to chickenshit tax.

Yeah, I contemplated buying an older one with a fuel pump issue, but i was too afraid to make a cross-coutry drive.

My mistake, you are right. "the current generation L200 will share the same underpinnings". Fiat fullback is rebadging Triton/L200.

when i used to work for a used car dealer, back in the early 00's, we used to get late 80's to 99 mitsubishi's with utterly shit auto transmissions. even if the car came mint with 55-70k miles, the transmission would be shot.

they got better? kia and hyundai had the same engines in the s-coupe (aka the lets crack a fucking land and throw smoke like a spy car hunk of shit) and the old accents, and that little bitty kia from the late 90's.

My boss told me about that tranny issue.

Supposedly some drive gears had poorly made teeth and it would shear them off when it had to shift from Park or Neutral to Drive.

I don't recall if he told me if mitsubishi offered to fix it with compensation or if the costumer had to carry all the costs.

For clarification, when you say '100k' and '240k' do you mean miles or kilometers?

Miles

Miles

Those must have been transverse vehicles. All the longitudinal vehicles have Aisin transmissions up until 2001.

When Mitsubishi dropped out of WRC they should have replaced the Evo with a FWD ~200hp turbo Lancer as the top model. It'd be MUCH cheaper, more reliable which are the only reasons people buy Japanese cars.

The Lancer Evolution was already reliable.

we would get them for peanuts at auction, and get another tranny from the junkyard, and throw them in, then sell them as-is to some dope dealers or gangbangers for a cheap hooptie.

now the 89 mitsubishi galant we had, that no one else could get to shift, was my baby, and i loved it. it was auto and the tranny was utterly fucked, I'd curse at it like an australian and use it in the middle of the night to go to the grocery store, and back to the shop. when we swapped in a new transmission, we poured the old fluid out, and put a magnet in it. it looked like a sea urchin.

yeah they were all FWD. the engines were solid. nothing special, but they ran well. but the transmissions were lemons.

i liked the old ass galant. it just had that weirdness to it.

Only if you stuck to the ridiculous maintenance schedule.