1992 Mitsubishi 3000gt Vr-4 Coupe 2-door 3.0l No Reserve!! on 2040-cars

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Mitsubishi still wants to bolster US sedan lineup, investigating options

Mitsubishi looked healthy in 2014 with a nice sales boost for the year, but so far 2015 hasn't been quite so pleasant with news of product delays or outright cancelations. The Japanese brand isn't letting the setbacks get it down, though, and is still planning for the future. Perhaps the biggest recent disappointment was that Mitsubishi and the Renault-Nissan Alliance scuttled plans to bring a South Korean-built, midsize sedan to the US under Mitsu's branding. The scheme was first announced in late 2013 and would have given the Japanese automaker a replacement for the long-retired Galant. According to Automotive News, the decision came because high exchange rates with the Korean won and Japanese yen against the US dollar made the Asian-built vehicle too costly. Mitsubishi isn't throwing in the towel on the possibility of a larger four-door in the US, just yet. One solution might be retooling the company's US factory in Normal, IL. According to Automotive News, the plant current exports over half of the Outlander Sport units that it builds. That capacity could switch to a new sedan, some of which could also be for shipment abroad. The Outlander Plug-in Hybrid is also being delayed until the second quarter of 2015 in the US. The electrified crossover has proven popular in other markets but has seen multiple postponements in going on sale here. In the meantime, there are a few new products coming down the line. The Mirage Sedan is eventually launching in the US, and the Lancer is reportedly getting a refresh soon. News Source: Automotive News - sub. req.Image Credit: Koji Sasahara / AP Photo Plants/Manufacturing Mitsubishi Sedan

Ghosn's legacy: one of the auto industry's most effective execs

"Bob Lutz ... estimated that carrying out the Nissan operation would be the equivalent, for Renault, of putting $5 billion in a container ship and sinking it in the middle of the ocean." So wrote Carlos Ghosn in "SHIFT: Inside Nissan's Historic Revival," which was published in the U.S. in late 2004. Two points about that observation: It is in keeping with Lutz's "Often wrong but never in doubt." It shows that Ghosn is a remarkable executive, given that he was able to take Nissan from the edge of financial oblivion to one of the foremost automotive companies (although with alliance partners Renault and, more recently, Mitsubishi). In 1999, Ghosn created what was named the "Nissan Revival Plan." It could have just as well been called the "Nissan Resuscitation Plan." Things were that bad. Now Ghosn is in the midst of legal trouble, accused of financial improprieties of some sort. There is no indication that this is at anything near the scale of what happened at Volkswagen Group. There's malfeasance. And then there's malfeasance. It is likely that this is going to be the end of Ghosn's career, but at age 64, and as a man who has spent nearly the past quarter-century essentially on airplanes, it is probably a good time to leave the stage. What his next act will be — to court or even prison — is an open question. But arguably, Ghosn's performance in the transformation of Nissan and Renault, which also needed some strong medicine to keep it from collapse in the early '00s (although one suspects that the French government would have done its damnedest to keep it propped up), makes him one of the all-time most-notable executives in the auto industry. Ghosn closed plants in both France and Japan and he worked to dismantle the Nissan keiretsu network of interlocked companies, things that were absolutely unthinkable. He established plans with stretch goals in their titles, like the "20 Billion Franc Cost-Reduction Plan," and worked with his people to achieve them, despite the pushback that seemed to come along with the announcement of the plan. As in, as he recalled in SHIFT, "Some people said, 'He's off the deep end. He's raving mad. Doesn't he know that at Renault you set the most conservative goals possible so you can be certain to reach them?' My answer to that sort of thinking was 'You're going to get what you ask for. If you set the bar too low, you'll be a low-level performance.

Mitsubishi Evo tagged with graffiti faster than you can say 'stop!'

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Maggie Stiefvater, professional artist and musician, New York Times best-selling author and Mitsubishi Evo owner. Because, as she writes, "In my latest novel, The Dream Thieves, a character drives a car that looks just like mine. Only there's a knife painted on the side of his," she decided to graffiti a knife on the side of hers.
And that's how you get the time-lapse video below of Stiefvater, a few aerosol cans and a lot of stencils enjoying a sunny day in the park.