Looking at photos of Nissan throughout the years yesterday brought me back to the late ’90s when Japanese car companies were solidifying their careful ascent into the mainstream. This was a great era of cars from Honda, Toyota, Nissan, and Mitsubishi. The first three companies in that list still command a large market share in the United States, but Mitsubishi has been sent down to the bus leagues. Let’s take a trip back to a time when Mitsubishi had a truly remarkable product portfolio.
The year was 1999 and Mitsubishi had mostly survived Japan’s lost decade, though not without some major scars. In many ways, Mitsubishi was doomed, it just wasn’t clear to everyone yet. At 263,464 vehicles sold, it wasn’t Mitsubishi’s biggest year, but it saw Mitsubishi’s biggest year of growth since the early ’80s at a remarkable 36.7% year-over-year (you can see all their historical sales here).
What made the cars so popular? Let’s look at the lineup, starting with the cheapest car and working our way up.
Mitsubishi Mirage ($11,150)
They made great appliance cars in the 1990s. Yes, this is meant as a cheap entry-level car for people who wanted something reliable and relatively fuel efficient. I think even today it looks great, with those twisty alloys and subtle ground effects. It was available as a coupe or a sedan, but the coupes were the ones to have. A buddy of mine in high school drove a pink-ish one and that car was as much fun as a night of Mario Golf and a 12-pack of Josta soda. It was a burned CD-ROM of Limewire-sourced Trip Hop in car form.
1999 Mitsubishi Eclipse ($15,750)
A hangover from the DSM era of Mitsubishi when the company was partially owned by Chrysler, the second generation Eclipse is maybe the best car Mitsubishi ever made? It’s also probably the best example of a car being completed ruined in one generation. The second-to-third generation Eclipse progression is like when Oasis went from “(What’s The Story) Morning Glory” to “Be Here Now.”
Available in either FWD or AWD configuration, the Eclipse was a handsome and capable sports coupe that was better than anything that anyone else had at the time. If subsequent owners hadn’t completely modded everyone of these into the ground we’d probably remember them like we do the Integra.
The best version was the AWD GSX which had the brand’s rightly famous 4G63 turbo four, good for 210 horsepower and 214 lb-ft of torque and available with a five-speed manual. The FWD GS-T version is almost as good, though.
1999 Mitsubishi Galant ($16,990)
Probably the weakest car in the lineup, the Mitsubishi Galant was en entirely fine midsize sedan that was not as good as the Camry or Honda Accord or even the Nissan Altima. It’s worth noting that the mom of my friend with the Mirage (Hey Mrs. McQ!) had a Camry. The mildly hotted up GTZ model was apparently nice, but still not as capable as an equivalent Accord with the V6.
1999 Mitsubishi Montero Sport ($18,310)
The third car that family had (Hi Mr. McQ!) was a green-on-tan Mitsubishi Montero Sport. Actually based on the global Triton truck platform and not just a chopped Montero as I thought at the time, the Montero Sport was an attractive family wagon. Basically everyone makes a car roughly this size now though few of them are this good looking.
1999 Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder ($21,710)
I briefly dated a girl in high school named Heather who was way out of my league. How did I pull it off? She was a year older but she went to a different school and we met in one of those rare moments in high school where I blundered into a tiny amount of game*. We’d meet at a Starbucks between our houses where one of Heather’s classmates, also out of my league, worked.
The classmate/barista had a moment where she thought I was cute, or at least assumed I must have something going for me if I was dating Heather. She drove a white 1999 Eclipse convertible I thought was most excellent and when Heather came to her senses and broke it off I contemplated trying to get some seat time in the Eclipse convertible but could never make it work.
1999 Mitsubishi 3000 GT ($25,450)
Definitely a hangover from Bubble Era Mitsubishi, the 3000 GT was a world-beating GT. Or at least it was intended to be. The big car was ahead of its time by offering a twin-turbo V6, all-wheel-drive, and a retractable hard top. All of that’s fairly common now for sports.
Unfortunately, the aging platform wasn’t that big of a hit anymore and 1999 represents the last year you could get one in the United States. It wouldn’t be replaced. You can distinguish the 1999 model by the giant spoiler out back.
I’d still rock one of these and I remember at the time thinking they were cool.
1999 Mitsubishi Diamante ($27,189)
For whatever reason, Mitsubishi never gave us a Lexus, Infinti, or Acura. Even Mazda tried with the ill-fated Millenia project. Much like the Galant, this iteration of the Diamante isn’t anything particularly special. I’d love to hear from someone who owned one.
While the price of these was low and all came with a V6 engine (which was a big deal in the 1990s) it was a hard argument to make when compared to, say, a similar generation Infiniti i30 or Lexus ES300.
1999 Mitsubishi Montero ($31,370)
Of all the cars on this list the 1999 Montero is the one most having its moment right now. Not everyone can drive a Landcruiser and the Montero offers a similar level of capability without the premium you’d pay for the Toyota.
In 1999, you were a year away from the fourth generation model, but that’s a good thing. No disrespect to the later Monteros, but this is the one to have. An evolution of a truck that Mitsubishi had been selling since the early ’90s, the Montero is ruggedly handsome and relatively simple.
In this last iteration you got pretty much everything you needed for your dollar: A V6 engine, four-wheel drive, cruise control, and an option CD player.
So What Happened?
No one thing killed Mitsubishi, but a combination of inertia and self-inflicted wounds doomed the brand. The new generation of products mostly suffered from a lack of imagination and reduced budgets that a new CEO demanded.
To try and attract new buyers they put into place a “0-0-0” plan that meant you could walk into a Mitsubishi dealership and get a new car with 0% down, 0% financing, and 0 payments for 12 months. You can imagine how that went. From Autoweek:
But a growing chorus of Mitsubishi dealers worries about the franchise’s future. Since much of Mitsubishi’s retail gains came from deal-of-the-week shoppers, dealers worry that the automaker’s reputation is stuck, unable to lure better-heeled customers now that the finance deals are fading.
As sales have fallen, inventories have piled up.
“They artificially took future sales with ‘0-0-0’ financing and pulled them forward,” says dealer Gary Roundy, who owns Mitsubishi and Suzuki franchises in El Cajon, Calif. “I have 110 cars in stock, and I sell 25 a month. I’ve got enough cars for five months. But we’re getting rammed and crammed with more inventory.”
Yikes.
It was a good run. Not everyone gets a good run. Some of us live lives of enduring mediocrity. Do you have any fond memories of Mitsubishi? Do you disagree that 1999 was the best year? Let me know in the comments.
*The short version is that I was competing in a speech and debate tourney at this other school and I knew the guy running the tournament who realized quickly he’d gotten everything wrong. I dropped out of the tournament, asked for a schedule, a walkie talkie and someone to help. The “someone to help” I randomly chose was a lovely young actress on loan from the drama department. I can’t think of many other situations where extreme organizational skills can lead to a date.
All Photos: Mitsubishi via Edmunds/KBB except for the correct Montero, which is courtesy of Andrew Collins
They still make some good stuff but you can’t buy it here.
Er, you really need to find a good example of a Diamante to try out.
There’s simply no comparison with the bargain-basement, bottom-shelf Ugh that was the i30.
Really.
Mitsu spent the money on the actual car and materials, not forcing the dealers to build new showrooms for a new, fake-y brand.
“You wouldn’t know her. She goes to a different school.”
Suuuuuuure she does
Yeah – Mitsubishi is a sad story. When I met my wife she had a ‘97 mirage hatch 1.3 auto (it was her first car) and it was pretty dull, but no more so than a nissan pulsar or Honda Civic really. Maybe not built with the same quality of either of those, but it was ok, my mother in law had a lancer of the same shape, maybe a bit newer, but at least had a 1.8. Dynamically it was horrible though, the 1.8 and 4 speed auto were passable. Other than that I have no experience of ‘90s era Mitsubishis, I’m sure a couple of guys in high school had mirages, lancers and galants but they were nothing spectacular (apart from the dude who had a Lancer GSR that he told everyone was just an automatic Evo 5… mmmhmm sure dude, still a cool car at high school though). The diamanté was designed to compete with the commodore and falcon – fun fact North American Diamantés are built in Australia!
I was never a Mitsubishi fan, although as a Mopar fan I wouldn’t mind a twin turbo Stealth RT or Eagle Talon TSI. That said, what I really came to comment on us Josta Soda!! Just the other day I was trying to remember the name of that weird soda with the big cat on the can I used to drink in the late 90s, and there’s my answer.
Mitsubishi cars weren’t well represented in my area growing up but we had a lot of other dsm products. Eagle talons, Plymouth lasers etc. About 10 years ago I had a tt Stealth, it was fantastic. Felt like a heavy car, but it was just a blast to drive.
Because we didn’t see the actual Mitsubishi products much they always had more mystique than their siblings, and even other brands that were more common.
Years ago several people swore to me that Mitsubishi assembled engines for other companies. Urban legend? The 3000GT (and Dodge Stealth) were very good looking but that’s all I know about them. I remember that 0-0-0 finance fiasco. I was gobsmacked that they would do something that silly. I’m sure nobody drove a free car for a year and let it get repoed. Right?
Chrysler used a number of Mitsubishi engines (I’m certain of a 3.0L V6 ending up in several generations of minivan, along with some of the other bigger K-car derivatives), which might be what they’re thinking of.
We had a bright red 98 de mirage, 5 speed with the small motor. We bought it already on 17s lowered with adjustable shocks, I added an Evo body kit and we always talk about how we never should of sold it. It handled like it was glued to the road, and although it barely had enough power to get out of its own way, it did get 40 mpg.
I’m very disappointed in Mitsubishi for two reasons. First, because they used to be great and the travesty that is the 3rd-gen Eclipse is unforgivable. And second, because Mitsubishi caused me to lose a bet with my wife.
There is a Mitsubishi dealer near my in-laws so we travel by it frequently. We got married spring 2015 and right around the wedding, I recall they got a whole truckload of pink Mirages delivered. I commented to her something along the lines of , “man, Mitsubishi used to make some great cars. I bet they’ll be out of the US in 5 years.” Sadly, I lost that bet, and Mitsubishi is still throwing out a portfolio of half-assed mediocrity. For shame.
Dave Chappelle pooped on them. They died.
They decided to beat the WRX or die trying…
There was no problem they couldn’t solve with a new, sperate electronic system. I remember a deep dive into some (could have been a gallant) automatic transmission control….
They came up short and instead of cutting overhead, finding a partner, or borrowing, they decided to cheat the customers. Decontented cars, refused warranty’s, it’s all selling light bags. It’s a one way trip to the grave.
As a proud owner of a first gen ’89 SWB with a V6 and manual, knowing that the 1.5 body style was in produciton through 1999 is really just… fantastic news to me. By the time that is importable… I probably won’t be in the market for an off roader that isn’t at least hybrid, but damn. It is tempting.
I need to fix the body up on mine, it has 300k miles and some fender cancer but nothing scary.
That particular era of Galant was a decent hit, one of those cases where a car was more popular with buyers than with auto journalists. It was certainly better looking in every way compared to the Camry of the same era. (That generation of Camry is still the ugliest by far IMO.)
Otherwise, I liked Mitsubishi’s SUVs of that era. I happen to prefer the following generation of Montero, although around that time my mom bought a dark green Isuzu Trooper, which was by then a very nice-looking truck in its own right.
My current car is a 2018 Outlander GT that I purchased new, and which has given me zero problems. At the time, it came with a slew of features that no competitor could match, especially for the price. The interior styling is dull but durable — closing the doors makes your ears pop a little (like the VWs of old), and four years in there are no squeaks or broken/worn trim. People (especially the press) really liked to crap on this car at the time, but fortunately my purchase decisions are driven by more practical measures.
This headline is, indeed, misleading. In 1998 or so, a good friend of mine went out and bought his first new car: an Eclipse Spyder. He was thrilled with it, and babied it constantly. Being from Sheffield, England, I think he fell in love with the idea of America’s open roads and having a convertible to explore them on. At about 30,000 miles the engine blew up. He never raced it, he had done all the proper maintenance, and if I recall correctly, it was still under warranty. He had it towed to the dealer and requested they fix it under that warranty; they refused. He bumped it up to Corporate and they refused. Nothing he could say or do would get them to budge; they claimed he blew it up racing. He sold it for a loss and had to pay off the loan to get out from under it.
I swore I would never consider a Mitsubishi after hearing that nightmare story. Good riddance to a crap company.
Hang on. “All of that’s (3000 GT features) fairly common now for sports.” Show me a car I can buy like a 3000 GT today for less than $100K and I’ll gladly take one.
You mean period. Because you can’t.
There’s maybe three or four dozen people left in the world who can fully do electrical diagnosis on the 3000GT VR4, because we know the unpublished errata, the quirks, and the random oddities.
Because it’s not just an active spoiler.
– rear active aero
– front active aero
– ECS (Electronically Controlled Suspension)
– multi-layer anti-theft security system (very annoying)
– separate cruise control computer (intended to support automatic distance keeping from the Diamante)
– dynamic automatic HVAC which factored in humidity, barometric pressure, etc.
– combined ABS/traction/stability control system
The thing I remember most about those Mirages is that the base trim level was DE, and for some reason they felt the need to put “COUPE” on the back of the coupes, so it said “DE COUPE.” Every time a friend of mine saw one, he launched into a Herve Villachaize impression: “Look boss! De Coupe! De Coupe!”
I was just typing this!!
And they were weirdly close together, so at a glance, it really did seem like that was the car’s name.
My meta enjoyment came from the headscratcher of needing to emblazon “coupe” on a two-door vehicle.
Daily drove a ’99 Galant (I am pretty sure these came exclusively in metallic beige) for a couple of years in the late 2000s. Over 180,000 on the clock by the time I got my hands on it, I added another 40,000. Possibly the dullest appliance car I have ever owned, but I grew to appreciate the bulletproof reliability.
My only ‘breakdown’ came while driving up an icy hill in Vermont in the middle of an epic blizzard; scraping along (on admittedly fairly well worn snow tires) I eventually lost traction on a particularly steep section and slowly slid sideways into a snowbank on the shoulder. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts to dig out, I was bracing for a long, cold, miserable walk to find help (rural VT was not known for widespread cell coverage). I decided to give it one last shot, went to crank the engine, and heard absolutely nothing.
I popped the hood, pretending I would be able to tell if there was anything amiss, and gave the battery terminals a poke to see if something had worked loose. I could barely see through the ice pellets sticking to my eyelids, so climbed back in to wait for help and/or hypothermia to put me out of my misery. What the hell I figured – I cranked the key again. It fired straight up and I slammed it into reverse and hit the gas. I miraculously managed to squirm out of the snow and back onto the highway, sliding backwards/sideways down the hill to a flattish spot near the bottom. After a nifty and entirely accidental J-turn, I was facing back the way I came so I popped it into drive and crawled the 5 miles or so back into town. Checked into the first hotel I could find and worked my way through the minibar while waiting out the storm. Good times.
My boss in the mid-to-late ’90s had a Eclipse GSX and it was an absolute screamer to drive. “Go get us some Taco Bell! Take my car!” “You got it!”
And as someone who was a kid in the ’80s, the Diamond-Star partnership allowing Chrysler to FINALLY have some good stuff by the ’90s made me happy too. Though at this point, I do prefer the 3000GT to the Stealth.
You can distinguish the 1999 model by the giant spoiler out back.
Just last night on my commute home I saw one exactly like this picture. Red 3000GT with the giant spoiler. It was in immaculate shape.
…when Heather came to her senses and broke it off
Whoa, bud, cmon now. The negative self-talk really shows in this paragraph. She chose to spend her time with you, probably because you’re a cool human with the inherent value any one of us humans has. Don’t put yourself down in your own good memories dawg.
…this iteration of the Diamante isn’t anything particularly special
The sedan yes. The wagon is neat and firmly on my bucket list.
A friend of mine has a 1994 or 1995 Diamante wagon she bought as a college commuter. Despite having been built in Australia it continues to run.
Things are built better when they’re built upside down.
Hey! Our domestic cars weren’t THAT MUCH shittier built than your domestic cars.
“Much like the Galant, this iteration of the Diamante isn’t anything particularly special. I’d love to hear from someone who owned one.”
WHAT?!!?!!
MATT! I AM LIVID WITH YOU!
… oh wait. Sorry. I forgot. You only know the US version. It was actually a really goddamn nice car but the only thing special about it was that holy shit was the Diamante a nice car. Way nicer than a Cadillac. Seriously.
But in the rest of the world (or if you knew how to game Mitsu’s parts lookups)? Motherfuckers, if you even knew half of it.
The 1999 MMC Diamante was an automotive titan. It took Cadillac, Lexus, and Infiniti out back and buried them in a shallow grave before defecating on it.
Let’s talk highlights.
– the world’s FIRST direct injected engine, a variant of the 6G72 3.0 producing over 270HP
– the Diamante VR-4 with the 6A13 which, you guessed it, was twin turbo AWD
– … AND AVAILABLE IN A WAGON! Why? Because Mitsubishi says fuck you that’s why.
– multi-link front and rear suspension with double A-arms because we take no prisoners
– the most advanced traction control system on the planet, by far and away
– satellite navigation motherfuckers. Oh yeah. Actual GPS nav.
– AUTOMATIC. DISTANCE. KEEPING. CRUISE. CONTROL. Oh yes, this very much was a thing, and it worked very well. (Real bitch to code on a US car and also kinda illegal.)
– an actually useful and easy to read heads up display, because why the hell not
– world’s first 5 speed automatic in a transverse, with INVECS-II, and their new Tiptronic.
– what, you thought Porsche invented that? Fuck no. Mitsubishi invented Tiptronic. For the 1990 Diamante. Porsche licensed it from them, no joke.
– pressed steel front cross-members, which was a HUGE deal for both crash safety AND repairability
But Mitsubishi USA’s marketing was, well… they’re the idiots behind 0-0-0.
Which is what truly killed Mitsubishi. They were selling thousands of Eclipses to 16-17 year old kids with zero credit history and iffy summer jobs. Kids who very obviously could not afford a $22k Eclipse. (For reference: a Neon was about $10k brand new. You could get lightly used Neons in excellent shape for less than $5k.) And because they were selling so many cars with 0-0-0, manufacturing was cutting corners to keep up on some models. But not the Diamante. Kids didn’t want the luxobarge.
And who financed these kids?
Mitsubishi Motors Credit Acceptance.
Necessitating a ¥540-billion rescue executed by the Mitsubishi zaibatsu (MMC was divorced from it years before) in 2000.
Because all those 0-0-0 sales? Payments were 12 months deferred. Kids drove the car into the ground with zero maintenance, it got repo’d by Mitsubishi themselves (they wrote the loans,) and they had a shitload of cars that had depreciated over 30% before the flooded market drove the prices down even further.
I’d LOVE to have gotten the VR4 wagon here!
Wow. Things I didn’t know. I know the article was a summary of these models, but this is crazy! I learned like 6 new facts here that A) have vastly obsessed my respect for the brand in it’s golden era, and B) I will inevitably mouth-vomit to car nerd friends, as well as anyone near me when I see any moderately interesting Mitsubishi.
Incredible that it all comes to marketing.
In Australia they were called the Magna. The top-of-the range was called the Verada.
The V6’s were absolute rocketships. Mitsubishi never advertised them as ‘performance’ vehicles, but boy they could move. They could beat most V8’s at the traffic light drags, and they were lighter and had better suspension so they could out-handle them too. I had a rented V6 station wagon for work for about a year, and I drove the shit out of it. Best sleeper I’ve ever driven, and could take anything you could dish out at them. I mean it. I had it up to the windscreen in water, been offroad in it, it even hit a roo without it taking a scratch (well the bonnet was a little difficult to open afterwards, you just had to know where to thump it).
“holy shit was the Diamante a nice car. Way nicer than a Cadillac. Seriously.”
If so only 2 years to go till its 25.
You don’t need to wait 2 years. All years of the Diamante sedan are fully federalized. The portion that isn’t federalized is the automatic distance keeping and select engines. If you have the tooling and know how to order the parts, you can code the NAM cars.
IIRC, you can up-option a 1995 6G72 24v with Preview Distance Control, ASTC, and 4WS but you do need the 4WS axle. (Did I not mention they have 4WS?)
The problem is finding a clean Diamante – they depreciated brutally and by owner 4 they tend to be abused to hell.
“– the world’s FIRST direct injected engine, a variant of the 6G72 3.0 producing over 270HP”
Actually it was more like 240HP… and here is Mitsubishi’s own press release that says that:
https://www.mitsubishi-motors.com/en/corporate/pressrelease/products/detail486.html
The biggest selling point of the engine wasn’t additional power… it was the combo of a bit more power and much better fuel economy compared to the port-injected equivalent.
The only versions of the 6G72 that make well over 270hp are the turbocharged versions.
“– the Diamante VR-4 with the 6A13 which, you guessed it, was twin turbo AWD”
There was no Diamante Vr-4. You’re thinking of the Galant VR-4… but that had a turbocharged 4 cyl/AWD setup. However there was a Diamante VR-X, but it didn’t have the turbocharged engine.
“Actually it was more like 240HP… and here is Mitsubishi’s own press release that says that”
I mixed the DI and the MIVEC. DI is 240HP, MIVEC is 270HP, 224ft/lbs.
And yes, the big selling point was incredibly good fuel economy for the time. Though the power certainly didn’t hurt.
It is a falsehood to claim only the 6G7 turbos make over 250HP. Injected MIVECs got the Gentleman’s Agreement treatment. By that point the engine was extremely mature and highly developed, mostly held back by emissions and segmentation.
“There was no Diamante Vr-4. You’re thinking of the Galant VR-4… but that had a turbocharged 4 cyl/AWD setup. However there was a Diamante VR-X, but it didn’t have the turbocharged engine.”
No, I’m not. You should not try to be an Internet Smart Guy. Especially not with someone who has the tooling to recode Galant VR-4’s and knows how to retrofit PDC to a USDM car.
Doubly so when you don’t know that the Diamante and Verada are not the same unibody.
I use VR-4 designation because that’s what NA knows. E-F27A. Tuned version of the 6G72 DOHC producing ~220HP, permanent AWD from the GTO, AWC, Preview Distance Control, navigation, steering wheel controls, and ASTC. In 1991. The second gen F47A was only ever manufactured in Japan and unlike the GTO, received upgraded AWC with the AWD, coupled to the 270HP MIVECs engine.
It would have been marketed as VR-4 over here, but because the Diamante was luxury segment, they emphasized the electronic goodies and badged it as the 30R-SE in Japan. Over here, idiots would claim “30R-SE” meant it was a Nissan (contemporary to the Sentra SE-R,) so it would have been marketed over here as a VR-4 due to brand confusion and trademarks.
Somebody basically stole one from C&B at $6400 two weeks ago.
And no, the shit you read on Wikipedia is not authoritative or correct. I’ve not only seen the factory parts sheets, I’ve seen the parts, and I’ve had the existence of the F47A confirmed by someone actually putting hands on one. I have photos of one including the VIN and body tags. There is such a thing as a 270HP+, 4WD, 4WS second gen Diamante.
Good fucking luck finding one though. The most generous estimates are under 2,000 built.
“Described as ‘revolutionary’ by Porsche at the time, the Tiptronic gearbox first introduced in 1988 was a four-speed electro-hydraulically controlled unit that was developed in conjunction with ZF and Bosch. A conventional torque convertor transmission, it appeared to offer the best of both worlds: left in ‘Drive’ it would shift ratios by itself like any other automatic, but flicking the selector lever to one side allowed the driver to indulge in manual shifting by pushing the lever forward to change up or backward for down-changes.”
Source: https://www.total911.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-tiptronic/
Mitsubishi made a wide range of great vehicles. Maybe the US just didn’t get to see them.
GTO (3000)
FTO
Lancer/EVOs (in new zealand you could easily spot 10+ of these in any mall car park)
Galant VR4/Legnums
Pajero EVO
and even the L300. forget pick ups. Every painter, builder, electrician and gardener had one of these.
Sadly seemingly always true. The Lancer in particular came/went kinda regularly in the States, and in fact, “Lancer” was actually the name of a forgettable Chrysler product here back in the ’80s.
When it comes to my interest in Mitsubishi, it’s Zero. Although I do hear they still make some good air conditioners and ships.
I never thought of the Eclipse as a ‘Heathers’ car, but I guess I missed that association. 😉
Didn’t they have some massive corporate scandal a couple decades back. I don’t remember the details, but I thought that is what sunk them.
Also, if you really want to geek out, check out the AMG Gallant.
“When it comes to my interest in Mitsubishi, it’s Zero”
Not a surprise. That was probably the most famous product they ever made.
It’s surprising they never made a sports car by that name, to complete the set of Ford Mustang, Triumph Spitfire and Messerschmitt Tiger.
Well done.
“When it comes to my interest in Mitsubishi, it’s Zero”. Clever reference.
My dad owned a black ’92 Galant VR4. That was a seriously cool car. Actually he had a bunch of cool Japanese cars including one of the first Integras sold in the USA, the Civic Si hatchback from the early ’00s that was built in England, and a Mazdaspeed 6.
I disagree oh so much about this column and I can explain why with less erudition. First Mitsubishi wasn’t at the quality level of other Japanese car manufacturers. Of course the US manufacturers were playing whose car can implode faster so they were okay but were lifted up on the Japanese quality band wagon. The designs were fine some quite good. But the US Manufacturers were being fed their lunch by the Japanese and the greedy Japanese wanted to capitalize on the US market. So each US manufacturer teamed up with Japanese manufacturer to make small cars under the US brand and that allowed the Japanese to expand from their small dealer market into the US market big time. Of course this deal gave the US manufacturers a controlling interest in yhe Japanese Companies as far as the US market was concerned. The US manufacturers who were idiots but sold on their genius torpedoed the good small cars so the American Market decided the cars weren’t that good. Isuzu is known worldwide as a quality producer of vehicles of every type. They willingly gave up the US market just to dump GM as a partner. But to recap Mitsubishi an also ran manufacturer paired up with Dodge a second tier US Manufacturer with a Siamese cousin Plymouth so poor manufacturer splitting sales 3 ways so no profit.
Weren’t Isuzu having major issues with oil-burning in their V6s which is partly why Honda dropped them as a supplier for the Acura SLX/Honda Passport? I definitely recall gasoline-powered Isuzus not being known for Toyota/Honda level reliability though part of that may just have been anecdotal. Obviously their diesel powerplants are bulletproof and power most of the smaller logistics world.
A friend of my older brother had a white Eclipse Spyder for a summer the year they graduated from high school (2002). I still remember their group of friends referring to that summer as “summer of the Spyder”. Seeing as this was only a year after the original F&F was released, you can imagine how much attention that car got, especially cruising to the beach and back with the top down.
I’d kill for an unmolested GSX.
This was a good era for Mitsubishi, probably their best. The Eclipse GSX and GS-T were both fun to drive, especially on rural, gravel back roads where I spent my younger years. Ah, the 90s. A simpler time without cheap cameras everywhere…
Never liked the Galant sedan we got here, but a friend in NZ had a fun VR4 wagon when I lived down there mid-00s. I thought it was way better looking and engaging than the Subaru options.
I think a Mr. Collins may have some responsibility for the current Montero/Sport resurrection. That and the overlanding aesthetic or hashtag or something.
Even base Lancers were long one of the best rally cars you could get at the rental counter.
And the very same year, they introduced the ST22 based Eclipse. Only available with a 2.4L 154HP and automatic, or a 200HP 6G72. It was absolute shit. In every regard. Chrysler smartly used the platform for sedans because it had far too much flex and far too little suspension to have any sporting pretensions.
What did you think of the 4th gen version, when (I think) they went back to a Mitsubishi platform? I never got to drive one.
I did drive a 3rd gen convertible once and it reminded me a lot of a Sebring but with Pontiac styling.
The 3rd gen convertible, no fucking joke here at all, is a Sebring convertible. They used the engineering from the JR convertible to make the ST22 convertible, basically. I think there’s even some parts interchange.
Honest answer though is that I have never driven the PS platform Eclipse. However, I’ve driven the PS-based Galant. A Galant Ralliart, no less, the one with the most sporting pretensions. 258HP, strut bar, rear anti-roll, stiffer suspension.
The SEMA example showed the PS platform had real potential. But it suffered from GTO-itis, AKA, “way too fucking heavy.” (GTO/3000GTs are ridiculously heavy – VR-4 Spyders weigh as much as a Grand Cherokee!) End result was moderate but controllable torque steer with the Tiptronic, but body roll and roll control was about nil.
To be clear, when it was new, it was very favorably compared to the competition. And it certainly wasn’t a terrible car. But it definitely had serious weaknesses and the material quality by that point was, uh… it was materials.
With the Eclipse also being one hell of a pig (the V6 coupe weighs as much as a Buick Regal,) I would expect similar behavior out of the box. And Mitsubishi never got their torque steer under control so I would expect Saab levels of wrist-breaking with the manual V6.
It’s a platform with very obvious potential – the PS-based Galant SEMA car did the R&T slalom at a staggering 69MPH (nice,) standing quarter in 14.4, and despite no LSD beat out the 350Z, RX8, and 911 40th. It cornered faster. It out-braked everything but the Porsche.
That’s not what we got. Not even close to what we got.
But it’s definitely something that could be built.