mitsu historic perspective

[haypops]

click here

Interesting cvomments on Mitsubushi and also other captive imports. Flint (the son) also mentions the twin stick transmission but fails to mention American Motors use of a similar idea.

[Hudson]

The concepts in the article are good..but his memory is bad. The Colt went front-wheel drive and debuted the "Twin Stick" at the same time. The Dodge D50 (later "Ram 50") and Plymouth Arrow pickup were introduced at the same time. The Plymouth "Fire Arrow" was just a package on the Plymouth Arrow and not a new nameplate. The 2.6L Mitsubishi engine was replaced by the 2.5L Chrysler four-cylinder engine in most products. The Montero started out life in the early 1980s with the 2.6L four that the author spends much of his time discussing...but never mentions it in the Montero (or Dodge Raider version).

The comments about Mazda, Isuzu, and Mitsubishi using rebadged trucks misses the point on that one...there's a 25% tariff on imported pickups while domestically produced pickups have no additional taxing. It makes more sense to use GM, Ford, or Chrysler pickups in the US...even though Isuzu, Mazda, and Mitsubishi have their own more than adequate pickups produced in other countries.

Mr. Flint should do more research before writing such a piece. But, then again, The Car Connection's readers (and writers) don't usually care about getting the facts straight.

By the way, Haypops...what AMC had a "twin stick" style shifter?

Edited August 8, 2006 by Hudson

[haypops]

]

By the way, Haypops...what AMC had a "twin stick" style shifter?

177508[/snapback]

<<Also, a sporty new floor-shift overdrive transmission, featuring a center console with "Twin-Stick" shifting (one lever for the 3-speed and one for the overdrive), was introduced this year. >>

It was also used on the American too I believe. click here for article

Edited August 8, 2006 by haypops

[haypops]

http://www.marlin-car.us/twin.html

this one has picture and detail

[Hudson]

That's interesting....provided five ratios. Mitsubishi's transmission allowed for different ratios in all four gears.

Edited August 8, 2006 by Hudson

[Drew Dowdell]

while interesting, he seems to have written the article mostly from memory, adds a bit of his own speculation and as such gets a lot of it wrong.

The high-end variant sported an ominous bubble in the hood to make room for the cams on the DOHC 2.0-liter engine.

the hood bubble is for the turbo, there was also a non-turbo 2.0 dohc that was available and that *didn't* come with the hood bubble.

Later a kind of mini-minivan was built on the Colt platform called the Colt Vista. It really could have been a breakthrough vehicle but the engine was never quite enough for it. Honda did a similar vehicle off the Civic, and Nissan off the Stanza platform. The timing must have been wrong because none became big sellers.

The failure of these vehicles had more to do with the fact that they were freakin ugly. The Colt Vista was only a dog if you ordered it that way. It was available in a turbo charged 4wd model. While it wouldn't win drag races it wasn't terrible either. This was the car my parents had when I was a kid. 34mpg highway was the norm. Not too bad for a 7 passenger car.

But the automotive world is better for Mitsubishi's presence. They provided economical four-cylinders, demonstrated that a powerful four-cylinder engine was possible

I think this would have been more acurate if he had stated "Mitsubishi showed the world how not to make a powerful 4 cylinder".

Yes, mitsubishi turbo-4s have balls. But every time I hear the words 4cylinder and mitsubishi in the same sentence, all I can picture is an old Caravan or K-Car blowing blue smoke out the back.

I give the article a D- as it is mostly the idle ramblings and musings with very little fact to back it up.

[MyerShift]

After that fiasco, Daimler sunk a couple billion of its bought-on-the-cheap Chrysler money into Mitsubishi hoping that Mitsubishis would become the platforms for all future Chrysler cars, which didn't happen

Uh-huh. I've heard items eerily similar to this over at Allpar.

[Hudson]

The failure of these vehicles had more to do with the fact that they were freakin ugly.  The Colt Vista was only a dog if you ordered it that way.  It was available in a turbo charged 4wd model. While it wouldn't win drag races it wasn't terrible either.  This was the car my parents had when I was a kid. 34mpg highway was the norm.  Not too bad for a 7 passenger car.

I don't believe the Colt Vista was offered with the turbo engine...probably the only Mitsubishi model NOT offered with it. There was a 4wd model. And the Colt, Conquest (Dodge, Plymouth, and Chrysler), Ram 50, Stealth, Talon/Laser, Starion, Tredia, Cordia, 3000GT, Galant, and Mighty Max were all offered with turbocharged engines...but I don't believe the Colta Vista/Summit Wagon were ever offered turbocharged.