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Mechanic bagged by red light camera at 3AM driving customer car

This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. An Oregon woman took her 2001 Mitsubishi Montero to Steve's Imports in Portland to have the emissions system fixed; the business, however, is a repair and body shop that doesn't appear to specialize in emissions. After paying $2,299.05 for the fix she got a call from the shop informing her that a repairman had been caught on camera running a red light, so she should expect a ticket. When the ticket came, the image with it was the one above, taken at 2:59 AM. The shop's owner, Steve Spinnett, said the man in the car is his son, Tommy Spinnett, who is the shop foreman. The woman is a "family friend" that Tommy was picking up from a concert. Steve told KVAL news that his son had the car all weekend to put it through a drive cycle, and that the shop doesn't charge for drive cycles done after hours. Even if all of that is true, drive cycles don't take a whole weekend - a thorough emissions-test drive cycle can be done in a couple of hours. And then there's this: the owner needed to pass the emissions test to get new license plates; the ones on the vehicle that Tommy drove over the weekend were expired. We've written about some egregious instances of customer abuse at the hands of dealership and repair shops, but this isn't one of them. But it looks bad and it's suspicious, and everyone involved might want to be more careful next time. You'll find more details on the incident in the video.

Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Mercedes also under diesel emissions scrutiny

The controversy over Volkswagen's diesel emissions scandal isn't limited to the US. In Europe, where diesel engines are far more popular, the issue is shining a harsh light on the NEDC emissions test. As already known, the evaluation does a poor job of reflecting real-world production of NOx, and it appears a significant number of automakers are affected. The Guardian in the UK has been reporting on real-world test results from a company called Emissions Analytics. After the latest round of checks, vehicles from Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Mazda and Mitsubishi were found to generate far more NOx than they should. The newspaper also published similar results for Renault, Nissan, Hyundai, Fiat, Volvo, Jeep, Citroen, VW, and Audi. On average, the figures are about four times over the limit of producing the pollutant. Unlike VW and its defeat device, these automakers aren't actually breaking the rules. The vehicles perform up to the NEDC lab test for emissions, but those results simply aren't translated to the street. "The VW issue in the US was purely the trigger which threw light on a slightly different problem in the EU - widespread legal over-emissions," Nick Molden from Emissions Analytics said to The Guardian. A big fight to decide the future of this issue appears to be on the horizon. Automakers claim that they can't meet the next round of tightening emissions regulations and are asking for compromises. Although, spokespeople for Mercedes and Honda told The Guardian that the brands would be in favor of the stricter rules. Meanwhile, some European governments began backtracking their support of diesels well before this scandal came to light. The added scrutiny certain hasn't helped the future of the oil-burner. Related Video:

2017 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV will debut in New York

Mitsubishi is betting big on crossovers and EVs, and some promising stuff is in store for the end of this decade. But in the very near future, the first product in Mitsubishi's EV/CUV strategy will launch in the US: the 2017 Outlander PHEV will finally bow at the New York Auto Show in March. I say "finally" because Mitsubishi already offers a plug-in Outlander in other markets, and overseas the PHEV crossover is off to a great start. Mitsubishi is seeing "great success in Europe," according to Ken Konieczka, the company's VP of sales operations. And when the Outlander PHEV launches in the US later this year, Konieczka thinks it'll attract a lot of new buyers to the Mitsubishi brand. I got to see the 2017 Outlander PHEV at a small event in Detroit on Thursday. It's the only one in the country, and still has to undergo some more testing and development before the CUV ready for the spotlight. Perhaps that's why Mitsubishi parked it in a dark corner of Detroit's Garden Theater. Compared to the regular Outlander you see pictured here, the PHEV doesn't look all that different save some badges on the tailgate and front fenders and, of course, the charging port. But that's not all Mitsubishi has in store for New York. The Mirage G4 sedan will also bow at that show, after its Canadian introduction at the Toronto Auto Show in February. Like the Outlander PHEV, the Mirage G4 already exists in other markets, and Mitsubishi says it has the largest interior volume of any sedan in its class. More information about both models – including pricing and specifications – will be available when both cars hit the Javits Center stage in March.