on 2040-cars

Auto blog

The last Mitsubishi Evolution in the US sold for $76,400

UPDATE: The final Mitsubishi Evolution, Final Edition number 1,600, sold at auction for $76,400. The proceeds will go straight to Feeding America Riverside | San Bernardino and Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County in celebration of Hunger Action Month. While we're sad to see the Lancer Evolution disappear, we're at least glad to see that the last one on our shores will do some good for those in need. Mitsubishi announced that the very last Lancer Evo X Final Edition for the US, number 1,600, will be auctioned on eBay for charity. The auction starts tomorrow at 9 am Pacific time and runs until Thursday, September 15 at 9 am. Considering the car's collectability and auction availability, the last Evo will probably go for well above MSRP, but that's a good thing. All of the proceeds will be donated to Second Harvest Food Bank in Orange County and Feeding America in Riverside and San Bernardino, so the higher that bidding reaches for this particular car, the better. Aside from the charitable and collectible reasons, the Final Edition Evo is also the best version of the classic sport compact Mitsubishi has built. It has an extra 12 horsepower over standard and comes with the five-speed manual transmission. Plus it gets upgraded Bilstein shocks, Eibach springs and Brembo brakes. So if you want to buy the last, best version of a great car and help people while doing it, log into your eBay account this week and put in your bid. Related Video:

Submit your questions for Autoblog Podcast #321 LIVE!

We're set to record Autoblog Podcast #321 tonight, and you can drop us your questions and comments regarding the rest of the week's news via our Q&A module below. Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes if you haven't already done so, and if you want to take it all in live, tune in to our UStream (audio only) channel at 10:00 PM Eastern tonight.
Discussion Topics for Autoblog Podcast Episode #321
Unibody Ford Ranger replacement

Mitsubishi cheated on Japanese fuel economy test since 1991

Mitsubishi now says that its cheating on Japanese fuel economy tests stretches as far back as 1991. The automaker has hired an independent panel of investigators to get to the bottom of what happened, and the company will give them three months to prepare a report about the deception. Mitsubishi's cheat involves how the company calculated driving resistance to determine fuel economy. In 1991, Japan's Road Transport Vehicle Act established a coasting test to establish the driving resistance, but Mitsubishi's engineers used their own "high-speed coasting test," according to its statement. In 2007, the company decided to only use the country's mandated evaluation, but the employees kept utilizing the high-speed test in the field. In the most recent scandal, workers selected low values for driving resistance from the results, which made the fuel economy look better. Mitsubishi's presented these details in a report to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism. "We are currently investigating the reasoning behind each of the decisions," the company said in a statement. It also hired three former prosecutors to figure out why this happened for so long. At this time, Mitsubishi only confirms the incorrect figures for some of the company's minicars, but this investigation could discover more transgressions. This fiasco started when Nissan discovered fuel economy discrepancies in some of its Mitsubishi-made tiny kei-class cars in Japan. Mitsubishi came clean and admitted the problem affected about 625,000 vehicles in the country. Japanese media have alleged more vehicles have incorrect mileage, including the Outlander. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the US has also requested data from the Japanese automaker to confirm similar deceptions didn't happen for vehicles here. Related Video: Regarding the Report to MLIT Concerning Improper Conduct in Fuel Consumption Testing of Vehicles Manufactured by Mitsubishi Motors Corporation Tokyo, April 26, 2016 The following is a summary of the report submitted by Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) today, pursuant to instructions received from MLIT on April 20 to investigate improper conduct in fuel consumption testing of vehicles manufactured by MMC. Report Summary 1.