2002 Mitsubishi Montero Xls Sport Utility 4-door 3.5l on 2040-cars

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Junkyard Gem: 1987 Mitsubishi Mirage L Hatchback

  Chrysler Corporation began selling Mitsubishi Colt Galants with Dodge Colt badging in North America all the way back in the 1971 model year, with many more rebadged Mitsubishis to follow in later decades. Soon after Mitsubishi developed the new front-wheel-drive Mirage for the home market in 1978, this car received Dodge Colt and Plymouth Champ badging on these shores. Sales were brisk, despite internal competition from the Simca-derived Dodge Omni/Plymouth Horizon. Starting in the 1983 model year, Mitsubishi began selling vehicles under its own badging here; at first, Americans could buy the Starion, Tredia, Cordia, and Mighty Max. For the 1985 through 1987 model years, the second-generation Mirage rolled out of North American Mitsubishi showrooms, doing sales battle with its near-identical Colt twins at the Dodge and Plymouth dealers. Here's one of those cars, found in battered condition in a Denver self-service car graveyard. This car didn't get much beyond 150,000 miles during its career, but those miles must have been hard ones. More likely, it spent long periods (maybe decades) sitting outdoors after being parked for the last time. Presumably, the driver's side was facing south and bore the brunt of many years of mile-high solar radiation. While the 1985-1987 Dodge and Plymouth Colts sold in huge numbers here, this generation of Mirage didn't catch on nearly as well with car shoppers. I hadn't seen an early Mirage in a junkyard for many years when I found this one. The "Big Nose Guy" icons on the HVAC controls appeared in all Mitsubishi-built cars sold here during the 1980s. Mitsubishi was (and is) a consumer-electronics behemoth, and so the high-end factory AM/FM/cassette rig in this car bears the same nameplates as the car itself. I couldn't get the hood open, but this car was almost certainly powered by an ordinary 4G Orion engine. The transmission is the five-speed manual, which was easier to use than the dual-range Twin-Stick four-speed but not nearly as cool. Starting in the 1989 model year, the Mitsubishi Mirage had to compete with three different badge-engineered siblings for sales: the Dodge Colt, the Plymouth Colt, and the Eagle Summit. On top of that, the first-generation Hyundai Excel and its Mitsubishi Precis twin were close cousins to the Mirage. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. The 1980s really were the Golden Age of JDM Car Advertising.

Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV's US debut pushed back yet again [UPDATE]

UPDATE: The story's been updated to include a response from Mitsubishi. Better late than never, the saying goes, and when it comes to the US debut of the Mitsubishi Outlander Plug-in Hybrid, the key words are "better" and "late." The crossover's debut in the US has already been the subject of a number of delays, and it is will once again having its stateside debut pushed back by a few months, according to Green Car Reports. Instead of a springtime arrival, we're now looking at late summer. We already know that the first US Outlander is an updated model compared to the one currently sold in Europe and Japan, but the Japanese automaker is apparently still tweaking the model to make it better suited for US driving. That means an improved interior and better sound insulation for what will be the 2017 model-year Outlander PHEV, and will likely involve better performance for both drivetrain power and fuel efficiency. "We decided to bring in the Outlander PHEV along with the 2017 Outlander launch," Mitsubishi spokesman Alex Fedorak wrote in an e-mail to Autoblog. "Doing so will allow us to better equip the vehicle for the US market." We doubt major changes are in store, so it still looks like the plug-in Outlander will pair a 2.0-liter gas engine with two electric motors. The crossover PHEV can go about 32 miles on electricity alone, at least, it can on the more lenient European driving cycle. The Outlander PHEV was first slated for a 2014 US debut, but that was pushed back to 2015 because of a battery shortage. More recently, Mitsubishi said this past January that the US debut would take place in April 2016. Overseas, the model continues to make headway when it comes to global market share of plug-in vehicles. Through November, Mitsubishi moved more than 36,000 units of the Outlander Plug-in Hybrid worldwide. That puts it third among plug-in vehicles, trailing only the sales of the Tesla Model S and the Nissan Leaf electric vehicles, according to EV Sales. Featured Gallery Plug In 2014: Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV View 12 Photos News Source: Green Car ReportsImage Credit: Copyright 2015 Sebastian Blanco / AOL Green Mitsubishi Hybrid

US expands probe into ZF-TRW airbag failure-to-deploy to 12.3 million vehicles

DETROIT — U.S. auto safety regulators have expanded an investigation into malfunctioning airbag controls to include 12.3 million vehicles because the bags may not inflate in a crash. The problem could be responsible for as many as eight deaths. Vehicles made by Toyota, Honda, Kia, Hyundai, Mitsubishi and Fiat Chrysler from the 2010 through 2019 model years are included in the probe, which was revealed Tuesday in documents posted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. It involves airbag control units made by ZF-TRW that were installed in the vehicles. The control units can fail in a crash, possibly because of unwanted electrical signals produced by the crash itself that can disable an air bag control circuit housed in the passenger compartment, according to NHTSA documents. The electrical signals can damage the control circuit, the documents say. ZF, a German auto parts maker which acquired TRW Automotive in 2015, said in a statement that it's committed to safety and is cooperating with NHTSA and automakers in the investigation. The case is another in a long list of problems with auto industry airbags, including faulty and potentially deadly Takata airbag inflators. At least 24 people have been killed worldwide and more than 200 injured by the inflators, which can explode with too much force and hurl dangerous shrapnel into the passenger cabin. The inflators touched off the largest series of automotive recalls in U.S. history involving with as many as 70 million inflators to be recalled by the end of next year. About 100 million inflators are to be recalled worldwide. On April 19, NHTSA upgraded the ZF-TRW probe from a preliminary evaluation to an engineering analysis, which is a step closer toward seeking recalls. So far, only Hyundai and Kia and Fiat Chrysler have issued recalls in the case. Four deaths that may have been caused by the problem were reported in Hyundai-Kia vehicles and three in Fiat Chrysler automobiles. NHTSA opened an investigation in March of 2017 involving the TRW parts in Hyundais and Kias. The upgrade came after investigators found two recent serious crashes involving 2018 and 2019 Toyota Corollas in which the airbags did not inflate. One person was killed. Jason Levine, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, a nonprofit consumer group, said the ZF-TRW case shows the auto industry thus far has learned very little from Takata.