Have to remember Mitsubishi heavy industries is a huge company , it builds , planes, ships , power stations , weapons, space stations , etc. It was said that there car division was around 1percent of there business, so it says to me that they never really cared to much for there car division.
as a mitsubishi mechanic, the part about mitsu showrooms being unrecognizable really struck. the days of rally dominance and a manufacturer who truly cared about performance vehicles are long gone. ralliart has become just a regular name. any mirage, eclipse cross, or outlander with the ralliart trim is just that, an aesthetic trim. the only remnants of mitsubishi’s past life here are a couple evo’s owned by the family running the dealership and the owners personal evo race car that once saw greatness, but is now condemned to sitting idle in the showroom of a company that abandoned it
I feel your pain..each year when i bring my Lancer to the dealer for its annual checkup i walk across the showroom floor an seeing al these boring cars hurts my heart. Knowing they sure as hell know that there still is a market for a sports car.
This mentality is exactly why Mitsubishi failed... I am also a mechanic aka dealer technician for 15yrs, and I wish Mitsubishi would have catered to the actual market that spends money and the few who are enthusiasts like Us, they actually did try but it was too late. And that's what you guys are witnessing. BMW revised or replaced their engines every 7yrs, mandatory. This forces engineers to keep fixing defects, or build up on a good engine. And keeps the company on the forefront of technology. What if Mitsubishi actually did that to the 4G, or their outdated cars... The X was the best model for the street market, but the decision to build it was years too late, for the company to bounce back. I believe if the X came out after the 6.5, and a newer model was out beyond the X, this business mentality across the entire company would have probably saved Mitsubishi. Instead of living in the past. Eg. The e30 M3 was BMW's worst business decision, that is seen now as an iconic car . Yet on the other hand, the e36 M3 was the model that saved them, and now isn't really seen as much as an iconic car of the M cars before or after it. The hard decisions were correctly made and the company is thriving.....
The fall of Mitsubishi was 100% Nissan's doing. They betrayed Mitsubishi (who was and is still manufacturing probably half of their cars for them) with the supposed 'faking of emissions data' exposure, orchestrated the whole thing with the media and authorites with the end goal of a hostile takeover, which they successfully did. It was a very long and savage process with much of it televised here in Japan pretty much daily. They then immediately canned a majority of what Mitsubishi Engineering was working on, stopped manufacture of spare parts for models over 5 years old, and transferred much of the tech (especially electric) over to Nissan. Nissan is well know in the industry for being corrupt and very dirty.
@@bluemethetys9267 In Japanese there were loads at the time, at it's peak it dominated the News for weeks. I haven't seen articles in English that really go into detail, there may be some out there but it'd require some digging I guess. It's going back a few years now and old News articles don't tend to stay online that long these days. If you have a specific question I may be able to answer, I had strong ties with Mitsubishi for about 20 years until shortly after this all went down, a lot of what I heard also came directly from Sales and engineering employees. Many people left, myself included. It was very sad TBH.
@@Motorsportsinjapan I see. (I am japanese, I can read japanese, so if there are any japanese articles that jump to your mind that you can namedrop, I would appreciate it 🙏)
@@bluemethetys9267 after the ceo of nissan tried to sneak out of the country? I think that guy became wanted worldwide for a bit lol. Nissan was in big trouble but they never stopped producing vehicles
My son's third, current and final car is his Evo VIII GSR and he'll never depart with it. I must say, the day he bought it he asked me to drive it home (he was afraid he'd get too excited and crash it) and just that short run was enough to guarantee it will never leave this family (while I'm still above ground).
@@gomahklawm4446there are licensed manufacturers for spares, and there is still the aftermarket and tuning sector if you are looking for some upgrades.
@@albonfilms as someone who just painted over an acre of rust in the frame rails of his Toyota FJ, I approve of this method. The rust is the primer for the primer. carry on.
Every year as a kid I stood in the forests of Finland watching the Evo's flying in the hands of Tommi. It was magic. As an adult I watch the oversized Mitsubishi vacuum cleaner cars standing on the parking lots of grocery stores. It's tragic.
This hurts my heart. I know Mitsubishi is just another "evil megacorp," but you *know* there were a LOT of good people who poured their heart and soul into that racing division.
I don't see the entire organization as "evil" but only a few key players and shot callers at the top who put personal greed ahead of the livelihoods of those who make it possible to live the way they do. They become detached from the true root of their success, which is the people who work for them. They often forget that without all the talented people below them, they would still be on the ground floor themselves. That's what happens when you stay in your office and never make contact with those who make your life possible.
The Lancer and Eclipse were my favorite cars growing up. I adored those cars but when i got old enough to buy one, they stopped selling both. What a fall from grace
To all the hardworking engineers at Mitsubishi Evo project, thank you for one of the best cars to ever grace the rally. You all went out fighting, like true heroes !! 😢 🙏 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
@@cherrypepsi2815I don’t see how it being Chinese is an issue as they more the capable of making good products. Heck Volvo is owned by the Chinese and they still do well
I had an Evo VIII MR FQ330, 2003. It was a 330 bhp beast out of the box and I had some work done, to take it up to 400bhp. Owned the car until 2016 and sold it, as I was moving to another country. The FQ evo was built by Ralliart UK. The FQ stood for F@cking Quick, and it was. I used to race Lamborghini Gallardo's off the lights and could out drag them up to 150mph. O-60 was around 3.8 seconds and 0-100 was 9.8 seconds. Had Kevlar brake pads for stopping. It was an absolute tool for blasting around the tight country roads of the UK with all the pops, bangs and wooshes. I actually went to buy an Evo 6 TME, which I absolutely love, but I saw the VIII next to it and loved it more, even though it was more expensive at the time. Absolutely no regrets on my choice of car. I had an absolute blast with it.
My Evo 9 was the most “driver is one with my car” vehicle I have ever owned. A truly one of a kind experience, raw performance that let you squeeze out every drop of blood the car could produce. Have owned many sports cars, will forever miss my Evo, that car still has my heart to this day! Have pondered purchasing another several times, but I’ve aged beyond the car and the group of kids mostly involved in that scene. The Evo will forever be a legend, absolutely sad how it all came crashing down 🤦🏻♂️
For me the car that melded with me the best was an NG Saab 900 SE. Not exactly a sports car, less power from the factory and about the same weight as the EVO 8 (though as actual car guys have shown there's a lot of potential in the Saab H engine series), but everything about it just felt right.
Mine was a '72 Charger with aftermarket swaybars. Still have it, but can't afford the restoration yet after a wiring harness fire while driving it to college years ago. It feels heavy as a truck (heavier than my Dakota, actually), but it lets you know exactly which wheels the load is on, as long as you're paying attention.
it's sad to see mitsubishi die. i wasn't even around during the golden era of mitsubishi but i still feel sad. my dad owns a pajero Type 2 2.5 from 1999, he bought it new and it's still going strong, with absolutly no problems in 240.000km. it still has the original cluch, head and alternator. just some oil, a timing belt, filters and literally 3 fuses mitsubishi didn't made great cars, they made tanks that gave you joy.
He was very bias on his view. Mitsubishi might not make fun cars in the US but they are still out there racing. Might not be the lancer evo. But they still doing good in other countries.
The biggest shock of all was the Pajero was still in development when it won the dakar in its first production year! it was entered only to see if it would even finish the rally and the fucking thing didn't just finish it won it!
@@robbalinski1606 , yep, it its 1985 win, it was basically what you can buy off the showroom floor. From 2001 to 2007 it had consecutive Dakar wins in its Production-based T2 form. That is quite impressive given the type of event and that no other car maker could dethrone them until 2009 (2008 was cancelled due to terrorists) when the category was changed to the now purpose built off-road/rally-raid form and moved to South America.
nobody wants an xpander for fun car purpose because they're boring as shit, even if they rally them (using Evo parts too lol) the pajero is also dead, and the pajero sport looks like dogshit along with the l200, and both are pretty dull vs their competition @@kurtleonce6221
RIP Evo, I'll never forget the fantastic times I've had with your incarnations in racing games, gushing over you at car shows and being blown away by your performance in ralleys. Truly a sad story...
@@dynamo1796 both were deliberate acts to kill the beauty of cars in general . Look at all those abominations of today's market...i think time will come that public will demand that beauty back...
I ❤ Mitsubishi. I had 3 in the past and I still have one Outlander v6, 240 hp from 2010, 50.000 km, which is my favorite for long and short trips, go out, go shopping, etc. it is a very loyal friend.
I think it's important to note here that the WRC04 and WRC05 cars were based on the ordinary Lancer, not the Lancer Evolution. That was the turning point for the Lancer Evolution, it wasn't a homologation car anymore.
True, but there were also no homologation requirements for WRC cars, and Mitusbishi had the opportunity to build the ultimate WRC Lancer unrestricted from production limits. In the end, even if the WRC04 was competitive, they probably didn't have any hope of winning anyway. 2004 was the start of Sébastien Loeb's 8-year reign of terror across the WRC.
It was also when they finally moved to WRC spec Class cars, before that the Evo 7 showed in the Video is a GRP N spec car which was one of the reasons it was uncompetitive
@@OnlyDominican Group A, not Group N. They also had Group N cars, but the 'top' class was Group A; which Mitsubishi entered, even in the WRC-car era until the VII.
The evo isn’t the only car that died. The Eclipse,Starion,Galant,Colt,and 3000gt (GTO).All Mistubitshi gave us that isn’t an SUV is the Mirage😢,I don’t think they’ll go rallying ever again🫡.
This brings back memories of working in sales at a Mitsubishi dealer in the US until 2003 and having the joke amongst the staff that we needed an automated message to play to the huge amount of calls we got asking about the Evo VII as we were fed up of explaining why we couldn't sell them one, haha.
For a few years I thought Mitsubishi had completely left the US market. It had even been a couple years since I'd even seen one on the road locally, and they had a dealership in town. One huge problem with them was in the later 90's with their 0-0-0 promotion as well as their big push to lease Galants to anyone, it so devalued the brand nobody seemed to buy them, with the exception of the Lancer models (even a base model was easy to stick Evo stickers on!), but the Evo was by that time, much like the WRX, such a high insurance loss car that even if you could get one, the insurance could be so expensive it wouldn't be worth it. While Subaru kept a unique model line going, offering AWD on all their cars and keeping production just good enough to generate enough demand, Mitsubish had no idea what they were doing to market their cars to appeal to anyone with good credit. The reviews always put their base model cars at or near the bottom of the list, even beaten by Hyundai. The Italians say a fish rots from it's head, and in Japan's case, that company made a good example of that saying,. There was no reason they let their product fall to junk status outside of them having no idea of what they wanted to do or how to market their cars. A dealer reopened here in town, and their ad campaign was once again appealing to people with bad credit, even having some guy with a fake "mexican" accent talking about how even illegals could be approved. That dealer didn't last long and another dealer picked them up. I just remember the lancer and others feeling cheap and tinny, even weaker and cheaper than Subaru. They had their chance and blew it, proving Japan inc. wasn't the superman it was sold as and they could build trash cars too.
There used to be a big Mistubishi dealer near my hometown for decades. It was located next to a movie theatre. As kids and teenagers, we often stopped by to stare at Eclipses, Evos, 3000-GTs, and even the Pajeros before going to see a movie. About 10 years ago, it got turned into a Harley Davidson and KTM dealership.
Thank you for covering this Albon. As a kid, I loved the Lancer Evo in the racing games I played. 🙌 Hope you get more recognition, given the splendid production quality. 🥳
Internally, they are working for a comeback. It might not be focused on the Evo and US Market, as portrayed in the video, but in their focus market, they are maximizing there for re-expansion. To add, MMC was bought by Nissan not because they lacked money (you may check out their fiscal year reports) but because of their stock value going low and Nissan took advantage of it as MMC, at some point, has strengths on the weaknesses of Nissan (PHEV, Kei Car and ASEAN Market). As early as the 00's, Nissan and MMC has partnered already in some aspects like the creation of Jatco CVTs and providing Nissan with kei cars. That's why Ghosn has mentioned a win-win deal a lot of times as they were partners since the early 00's and both were pioneers in EV tech where their 1st mass produced EVs (Leaf & i) were just a year of difference. Speaking about partnerships, back then, MMC was not new to it just to save them but rather, they help brands to start up (Proton & Hyundai) and expand by letting their cars be sold under other brands for Volvo, Chrysler Group, Peugeot-Citreon & Nissan (00's). Regarding their fall, the 1st to hit them was in 1998 during the Asian Crisis where their focused market was there affecting them. By 2000, they had a global recall which they were later saved by then Daimler-Chrysler. On 2004, that's the truck issue where there was a wheel hub defect which killed people. That's where they lost their share in their truck department (Mitsubishi Fuso) as they use it as a compensation to Daimler-Chrysler which withdraw their partnership because of that scandal. Their mother company, MC and MHI rescued them. On 2016, that's when Nissan rescued them. Lastly, for motorsports, they were not just involved in WRC but also in Dakar Rally and in circuit using the 500, Colt F2000, Starion, FTO, Mirage, GTO and Eclipse. Ralliart was even helping Proton be involved in motorsports making them them unique to other motorsports brand. That's why Ralliart's former tagline was Race & Rally and if you go back in time, Ralliart was the same as what GR is today except for Le Mans and Nascar.
I own a Proton car with a Mitsubishi engine. In Malaysia, Mitsubishi is such a big and common brand owing to the fact that Mitsubishi and Proton were close partners that Proton was essentially rebadging Mitsubishi cars and sold them under Proton's brand up until early 2000s, where Proton shelf out its first in-house designed car although it still had Mitsubishi's powerplant in it. By the mid 2000s Proton's self developed engine began to be put in their own cars and later in almost all of Proton's cars. Adding to the Mitsubishi hype was the Proton PERT's win in the 2002 PWRC. Proton PERT is a collab between Petronas, RalliArt and EON (biggest local car dealership during that era). This strengthens the Mitsubishi brand locally in Malaysia. So when you mentioned about Mitsu helping Proton to start up and its rally division Ralliart helping Proton in motorsports, i nod with you. But now gone the days of Proton Wira with 350hp zipping across the road, or Proton Waja with 4G63 drifting downhill. I still love my car to death, due to the saying "90s Japanese engine simply cannot die" 😁
I was enamored by Mitsubishi cars during my childhood days growing watching Initial D and WRC on occasion, they were so cool to me. When I played Need for Speed Most Wanted and Carbon, I would make sure to get a Lancer and an Eclipse, especially the eclipse because that car was so sexy curvaceous for a Japanese car. I would put the Lancer on the same pedestal as I would a Lamborghini Murcielago. Such a tragic end to a once influential car brand.
I once owned a 2008 Lancer. Gutless lemon factory. The cooler for the already garbage quality first-gen CVT started leaking 36 days out of warranty, requiring a $2,500 replacement, a good chunk of which was the insane mineral oil that it took, which I can only assume was brewed from orphan tears. I called Mitaubishi Canada and ssked that since the car had half a dozen warranty visits before this and that the failure happened so soon after the term, if they'd at least consider covering even part of the expense as a good will gesture. They wouldn't even consider it. I sold the car two weeks later. It is the last Mitsubishi vehicle I will ever own.
The death of the EVO also brought upon the death of the STi, with no direct rivalry competition the STi was just a soldier with no purpose, no one to fight...so it just died quietly
Amazing content. I own a 1993 JDM Mitsubishi Delica Starwagon 4x4 van with the 4D56 turbodiesel engine on JDM OZ Rally wheels in the US. What a stark contrast to the way they were built back then. While this rig isn't fast, it's Montero/Pajero platform the Delica is built on is quite robust. I walked into a local Mitusbishi dealer a few months ago to buy some trim bolts for the Delica. All I could see on the showroom floor was a pathetic Mirage, some lady buying an Eclipse Cross with a presumably horrible interest rate and shady dealer add-on fees. I even asked one of the salesman if they had a Mirage with a manual transmission available. He said it was no longer available and the CVT transmissions (I believe sourced from the horrible Nissan CVT supply chain) were all that were available now. Dying brand that I don't think will ever recover.
I had a montero and it's now in the hands of my buddy. You damn near can't kill the thing. It's been left in a river, both bumpers torn off, minor fender bender, blown head casket, and it's still running
One unmentioned thing they did (but made sense since it isn't related to cars) was how Mitsubishi burned money on their Jet program. Many don't know that Mitsubishi pretty much build *everything*. ACs, TVs, air conditioners, Boats, Planes, even Rockets, they're a gigantic corporation that pretty much have such an immense reach that, if you're in Japan, chances are you'll encounter a product made by Mitsubishi (or at least its children company) at least once. Mitsubishi (and Japan, in extent) wanted to create the first national passenger Jet airliner, and Mitsubishi offered their services sith their Spacejet program. Development started as far back as 2003. They had their first flight in 2015. And they never had any flight since. Delays, costs, and many problems led to the project finally being cancelled just this year. After pretty much billions of Yen being spend both by the Japanese government and Mitsubishi to create this project.
Mitsubishi motors and Mitsubishi heavy industries are different companies, there is also Mitsubishi chemical, banking, and others. They are all separate companies just loosely connected but separately owned and managed. .
that doesn't surprise me, its a very japanese corp thing to have conglomerates where one company, ie mitsubishi have many different arms selling just about anything and everything.
Man I had an Evo 8 then an Evo 9 MR. The two most fun cars I've ever owned. Great fun car and awesome community. I'm still friends with people I met back in those days.
For someone who crys about how much no one likes the A90 for not having a 2JZ, you seem to easily dismiss the Evo X for not having a 4G63 even though the 4B11 has already proven itself
My first car was a 97 Eclipse GS, cheap and with a ton of mileage, but it was my affordable dream car since I was a kid. I loved that thing, only 150hp but the NA 4G63 was enough for me, it was a blast, and it was already an icon. People would give me thumbs up on red lights and show interest for the car, not because it was an amazing car, but because what it represents and what it means to an entire generation of people around the world. I had to sell it since it was getting a bit expensive and troublesome to keep on good condition on the road, and I got my now actual car which is a 2010 E92 328i. I love the BMW, but man do I miss my Eclipse and do I miss what Mitsubishi once was...
Unfortunately the 2nd generation eclipse had the 4g63 turbo engine, and the Chrysler built 420A as the non-turbo. The same engine as the dodge neon. Only the first generation eclipse had a non-turbo 4g63
@@BrokeWrench Indeed, but some Europe cars for some reason had from factory the non turbo 4g63 which basically was the non turbo from the first gen Eclipse afaik. Mine was one of those, it was from Germany and the registry papers also show 4g63 as the engine code. At least that's what I read from some forums, either that or the previous owner of my Eclipse engine swapped it for a 1st gen non turbo 4g63, but it had it for sure cause it was easy to tell just by taking a look at the engine bay. Imo it did fit the car really well even tho it was a non turbo old engine, the thing was fun.
@@shauros92 It's not a swap, the 2g's did come with the 7 bolt 4g63 NA from factory. It's a shame that the pistons in it are weaker than the turbo variant, because it would have been so easy to just slap a turbo on it and call it a day..
I own a Mitsubishi Evo X SST. It is mind-blowing! There is no other car even by today's standards, even at twice the price that can go faster around corners, on a track, on the street! The car breaks the laws of physics and the moment you believe the car is at its limit, you downshift and by some magic, the car screams to push it further and further up to its 8000rpm. I'm not saying this because I own an Evo, but because it's an damn awesome car! You can hear every mechanical sound from the SST, the turbo, the engine, the exhaust, the tires been shredded. The interior is like a taxi and driving it is like fighting a war! I don't know if Mitsubishi will ever come back (but I always hope so). I just know that all evo's from the first to the last are in every Petroheads heart around the world and I always want to have this car in my garage!
@TheRealCatof As Evo 7 GT-A driver... I highly doubt you could gap him in a kia... even if its a stinger. xD I got least wanted evo of all, but she's got built transmission that shifts quicker than SST and with bunch of bolt-ons I'm making 300whp.. for now. should be fun 350whp (stock block) once done all the reliability things, cooling and new injectors.
@TheRealCatof would love to take you on at the race track, but you're probably no where neer Canada. Also my 3rd gear tops out at 200kmh at 7k red line.
Thanks for putting this together, it really connected a lot of the dots that had been kind of floating around in my awareness for years about what happened. Cheers from Chicago, thoroughly enjoyed this video!
You forgot to mentioned critical part historically that it was Mitsubishi manufactured A6M Zero. After Japan lost the WWII, Mitsubishi (means: Three Diamonds) diverse into many business projects. From Zero warplane to car, Mitsubishi carries the knowledge on how to build reliable, high performance, heavy duty combustion engine.
that's why a lot of the earlier engines from the 70's like the Astron have their swirl port Hemi cylinder heads. That was based around their knowledge in plane engine manufacture, but honestly those things leave much to be desired, and while I love the 4g54's, others probably don't share that same love. HKS made a a 4g54 with the crankshaft out of a 4g52 and a one off 16 valve DOHC head with dual sidedraft Mikuni carbs making 240hp N/A. the engine displaced 2.3 liters as opposed to the convention 2.6 liters of the 4g54, but made twice the horsepower. They put it into their special prototype Starion at the time, but instead of going to AWD, they actually ripped the 4wd drivetrain out of a Pajero and stuck that in. Even with all that, and a cage, the thing only weighed around 2300lbs. Would have loved to see that thing in the flesh. The one they actually intended to use was the 12-valve 4g63 Cyclone DASH in their group B Starion, which I would also love to get to see in the flesh, but hey. I don't live in Japan, but maybe someday I'll have to go check out that museum in Japan with all those old mitsu cars.
I've owned 3 Evo X's and you were pretty harsh on them. I've driven 6,7,8 & 9 I find they are so balanced between a track weapon and "daily" drivable. My mate that owns a 34 GTR drove mine in anger for the first time a few weeks ago and even he admitted that the Evo handles so much better than a 34 GTR.
Agreed, for someone who cries a lot about how no one likes the A90 for having a BMW engine on his UA-cam page, he seemed easy to dismiss the Evo X for not having a 4G63 even though the 4B11 has proven to be a great engine. Kinda hypocritical.
I really hope someone from EA is watching this because they just aquired the Mitsubishi license with with their new WRC game... Would be really nice to see alot of those pre WRC cars in there... 😉
I owned evo x for 4 years. It was great, did real well on the race track. Sucked as a highway car due to its super short gear ratios. Terrible gas mileage as well. But to this day, it probably had the best steering wheel feel of any performance cars. Perfectly balanced.
My 1991 Lancer GTI 16V sure has super short ratios too, stays at 3k rpm @ 100kph, in 5th, its top gear... Still, it doesnt use much fuel being a 1.8L 140hp NA engine, and only weighting 1050kg at most. The short gears are GREAT for touge or curvy roads, and its only 0.1 seconds slower than a much newer 320i E46... and that has an inline with proper RWD. Sadly, the roof supports are rusted as hell, so ill have to sell it unless I want to die in a crash, but ill try to replace it with another mitsubishi. Eclipse, Lancer GTI (EVO is wayyy overpriced lol) or even a 90s Montero Sport V6 will do just fine. That V6 sounds really well even stock, and has plenty of torque to go offroading. My moms 1988 Montero 2.6L i4 with a carb has way less power at 114hp but the torque means its pretty good at offroading. So I can only assume the next gen montero with a larger V6 to be even better.
@@skylined5534 I am not even sure if the Evo X or that Paticular Lancer Platform is even consider a Nice car. The Company lost their touch in the early 2000s, and everything they made are actually base on Chrysler Products. The Lancer platform is same as the Dodge Caliber, and the World Engine they used is share with Chrysler, Hyundai, and Mitsubishi. The engine and the Platform has nothing wrong with it, problem is Mitsubishi didn't really have a direction as a Company. Those Car became a normal Grocery getter that competes against Civics and Corolla. There are no Identity with them soon as they abandoned the Rally Racing. Even if the Car isn't greatest, being competitive with Racing events are great advertisement. Yet, Mitsubishi failed to leverage that.
@@skylined5534my ex had an 04 lancer ralliart 5 speed and that had to be the biggest pos car I've ever worked on, but it was fairly fun to drive. I broke half the bolts trying to take the front bumper off and the car was only 9 years old at the time. Rotted out faster than any other car ive ever seen and was falling apart
@@skylined5534its wasnt just the Lan Evos or the 3000GTs. Their normal cars up to the 2000s was just much better back then. Now their new cars suffered poor build quality and poor performance overall.
Even though this video is focused on their automotive arm, I think it’s unfair to say the Mitsubishi is dead. Mitsubishi’s other branches are doing just fine (aeronautics, HVAC, etc), they just gave up on the consumer car market because regulations were getting too tight and profit margins for the kinds of cars they wanted to make evaporated due to economic forces.
Well for enthusiasts it literally is dead. If I want a car I won't buy a Mitsubishi some factory machinery, just like when I need a Samsung phone, if they no longer make those I won't buy a printer or a tank
People don't understand the diversity of Japanese companies within the domestic Japanese market. Sure, Mitsubishi Motors is a shadow of its former image globally, but Mitsubishi UFJ is still Japan's largest bank, and they are hugely involved in a ridiculous amount of other fields, as you mentioned.
@@01iverQueenclearly Mitsubishi don’t. They only care about making money and cars ain’t it anymore. They gladly move on. Enthusiast vehicles are always first to go when hard times hit
I have loved Mitsubishi since I was a kid. Now in my late 30's with children, I have just purchased my second Outlander. They're still fun to drive. I take mine off road, put my foot into it, wash it when I'm done. Cool video. Subscribed.
Drove a 99' 3000GT VR4 back in 02'. The owner on the passanger sit kept telling me to floor it, and all I had driven at the time was my dad's 00' Hyundai V6 Santa Fe and my mom's 92' Honda Accord Berlina. Though the Santa Fe was V6 and had AWD, it could have never prepared me for the feeling of what I did next. I was on 3rd doing 40. Down shifted to 2nd and floored it. By the time I shifted to 4th, the damn thing was hitting 190!! I felt my body sinking into the sit! Since then I got a scratch in my mind, that one day I would own one. Now I'm the proud owner of a stock 95' VR4. Though let me tell ya, it breaks A Lot! But when it runs, it's Literally a dream come true! I LOVE IT!
I dont know if I say this right, but despite of their rally car diminishing, and also market decline in the US. In my country, Mitsubishi still has a strong brand recognition, and that is from Pajero because it was famous in Dakkar. and it became legendary vehicle as a government's car. also the Mitsubishi Xpander as a people mover. so I think different country has different outcome for any brand.
Mitsubishi is the only auto manufacturer I can think of that has repeatedly had police raid their offices and cart off boxes and boxes of evidence to be used against them, during investigations of them covering up safety defects and failing to perform recalls. It's happened several times. Quite the scandal. They've covered up defects for decades it was just part of the corporate culture at Mitsu.
The level of cope in this episode... "The Evo was so good, but it placed last... and then just as then they were figuring it out, they changed the rules."
I remember as a young kid, my mum hustling us out the church doors on a Sunday, to go to the highway so we could watch a safari rally from a safe spot a few meters high above the highway, where we wouldn't get hit if anything went wrong. Some race drivers, where I come from, still have those Mitsubishi vehicles. And they are still huge on racing, although they do it for fun.The winners are always Mitsubishi and Subaru. It's so interesting to see how car brands can suffer from a lack of focus and losing their soul. Those huge so-so vehicles always make me think of an over-bloated middle-age good for nothing who only lives for chips and soda. They should try and do a great rally comeback, with electric motors instead. It shouldn't end like this
Thanks, Guf. This story really hit me hard as a Jackie Chan/ Ralliart/ Lancer guy. Surprised you didn’t throw in Jackie Chan’s Firesports Evo. That thing got very minimal coverage by the press. A very ugly, yet “I want one” kind of car. Keep it up!
I used to work on street legal versions of the RS back in the 90s. The engines really were a dream, DOHC, wasted spark direct fire coilpacks (a big deal back then), oil cooler and to top it off the bottom ends other earlier evos could handle more than 500HP on stock rods and pistons. They really had all the fruit from the get go and were just amazing.
I couldn't believe how good their engines were, to me it was a shame the rest of the car couldn't reflect the same attention, it was sad. Even their base model engines had roller rockers and were laid out nicely and the EFI was decent and trouble free. One guy I knew was going through his Evo engine and I was damn impressed with how strong everything was, especially after knowing several people with Subie STi's, which even driven conservatively would blow up before 50K miles. An extended warranty was a good buy with those..
As a former Mitsubishi pick-up owner, my opinion of Mitsubishi is that they were total junk. I had to tear down the top end at 50,000 miles due to a head gasket and replaced those pathetic little lifters that wouldn't shut up. At 100,000 miles it was burning oil so bad that I had to rebuild the entire engine (and again another set of those expensive jelly bean lifters) Parts were very expensive. Parts were very expensive (did I mention that?), distributor and carb failed, A/C and heater were constantly breaking down. It's no wonder their Zeros were all shot down
Mitsubishi's success in the Dakar Rally with seven consecutive wins & multiple podium placings of its Pajero Evolutions was absolutely phenomenal, but tragically those victories for Mitsubishi & Ralliart in the Dakar & WRC demonstrate how they lost the plot! Coincidentally I'm an Aussie who is currently restoring a swb 1995 Pajero J-Top (the soft-top JDM imported version which are rising in value due to their rarity!). However, my daily drive happens to be a 2013 Subaru Forester!
@@kotarojujo2737 Yeah, there's a real shortage of secondhand hot hatches . I just researched engine power Vs weight. I found the 4G93 SOHC CE Lancer/Mirage was the sweet spot of price/availability & power/weight.
Only two cars I have ever owned in my whole driving life have been CE2s. First was a coupe 1.5L no guts. Current one is a sedan 1.8L, isn't too bad. There are still loads of them around in Australia.
As a mechanic for over 50 years, I have seen most of it. In Mitsubishi's regard I see a malfeasance from the owner operators than the Mfr, from what I see. People don't follow guidelines, and never will. Poor or mostly No maintenance, extreme duty, overloading, High and low temps, and rough terrain. They were typically used outside the owners manual. But it's the company's fault...
Mitsubishi is still quite popular in Australia with its Triton pickup and Pajero Sport off roaders and the outlander sells well too. They're priced very competitively and many people have fond memories of the Aussie built Mitsubishi Magnas of the past as well as their long history of the Pajero and Lancer in Australia so it's interesting seeing so many Americans having a go at Mitsubishi. Here Nissan has basically become irrelevant here since the 2010s with unreliable transmissions and ugly styling, but I can see their current styling has caught back up to Mitsubishi again and I'm seeing more new Nissan's on the road now. We don't get the mirage here, Chinese and Korean cars are the only small cars here now apart from Suzuki.
Speaking from an American experience, the stereotype here is you only buy Mitsubishi/Nissan if you're a subprime borrower, because there's so many better vehicles available close in price, and the mirage is just dangerously slow for our highway system.
@@blazemgb11 I looked at the Mirage as a drive to work car (I have 2 classic cars and an F350) With under 100 horsepower... no way. Freeway speed limits in Nevada are 80 mph. 100 hp and 80+ mph with hills is a no-go.
In my country Malaysia the Mitsubishi Triton 4x4 is the 2nd favourite brand after Totota Hilux due to durability and price tag. The Ford Ranger come the 3rd bcoz it is a lot expensive.
I'm an Aussie who drives a 2013 Subaru Forester as my daily-drive & I love how it's powerful, balanced, & smooth to drive. However, I've owned a couple of 2nd Gen SWB Pajeros, & am currently restoring a '95 JDM TD SWB Pajero J-Top (soft-top) which have become quite rare here in Australia!
As someone who was born in 03 i was too young to witness all this cool stuff. And my passion for cars only started within the last 2 years. But i am so bummed i probably will never be able to own a lancer evo. The evo and Wrx are to cars i want more than anything, but seeing what is happening with the wrx doesn't give me much hope the new one is ugly. Just makes me wish i grew up earlier when all these cool cars were coming out. I now i have to worry about the wourld going all electric i pray that deosnt happen
There are loads of ‘03-‘21 wrx for sale all across the country. Most of them are beat to shit, but if you know your way around a wrench, you can get one for a pretty good deal. I just scored a ‘12 STI for 10k. Had to fix quite a few things, but still. Evos are a lot harder to find though. The GE/GV wrx’s are in the sweet spot right now. They’re not totally falling apart yet (at least in new england) and still pretty affordable.
The company died due to the ceo and leaders. They could have made the base lancer awd and completed directly to subaru when they were having headgasket issues and transmission issues. Instead they made a base fwd car to compete with hond and toyota who already had that market on compete lock down.
As someone who owned both a 9 and a X I will not stand for the X slander everytime it gets a bad rep from someone who hasn’t even owned one they are wonderful cars
I still think evo 5 was peak evo, i owned one. Had it for little over 3 years, and it was perfect. Could leave it stock for ever and be happy with it. Mine only had exhaust, intake and a map to run e85. Fun on snow, fun on track, fun on streets, fun on a dirt road.
So if Nissan controls Mitsubishi, what reason would they have to cut in to any portion of their GTR sales by making another Lancer Evo? Do they still even have the Z? Ford tried and failed with the Focus RS. At best they’ll make the Eclipse Cross compete with the Ford Mach-E as an all wheel drive all electric vehicle…
5-6 years ago I was looking for an all year around car to drive daily in Finland, landed on Evo 7 and it does everything i wanted. Currently waiting to get my license back :)
If sales keep growing they may bring back the Evo, sales are getting better year over year. We own 6 Mitsubishis including an Evo X and it’s an awesome car. ❤️
The story of Japanese corporations immediately after WWII is a bit more complex than stated in this (excellent) vid. Mitsubishi pre-WWII was part of the Zaimatsu, a kind of oligarchy of large nationalist industrialists. As you stated they were a huge company that did a bit of everything. To prevent a repeat of the economic/political situation pre-war, a situation that did a fair bit to cause that war in the first place, the really big corporations in Japan were forced by the US occupation authorities to break up their companies into many smaller ones. And these companies had to be operating independently of each other. Another point, when the vid showed all those managers bowing at a press conference, that is one of Japans weak spots when it comes to management/company culture. Managers get picked largely on the back of being around for the longest time. Their society and companies work on a very hierarchical structure. Because of this, no one ever pops their head up and saus, this is bad, or, we need to change this. So the upshot of this is that things keep going until there is a catastrophic collapse of some kind. That's when the managers press conference and apology happens, and then they resign/retire with a golden handshake. And if you're extremely lucky, something will change. I'm being very general here.
I lowkey miss my lancer. It wasn’t anything special just a base model 2017 lancer but god damn that thing was fun and the AC was the coldest I’ve ever experienced in a vehicle.
三菱 is not three diamonds the 菱 kanji stands for japanese water caltrop, it actually resembles the symbol if you place it triangularly i remember this when the Mitsubishi dealership man explain the meaning behind the "three diamond" logo
@@tofu9637 Go check the shape of japanese water caltrop leaves. By extension it also means diamond shape. Not diamond as in jewelry, but diamond as in the cards.
Mitsu was an absolute juggernaut of industry. They had stakes in everything. For better or worse, that entire juggernaut model is a thing of the past for pretty much all the old giants.
@elcactuar3354 Chassis is shared with Nissan Rogue, but engine and PHEV system is all from Mitsubishi made at their Okazaki plant. Please know your information on Mitsubishi and Nissan. Fun fact, in Japan, the highest selling PHEV is the Outlander not RAV 4 prime. In the U.S., the brand recognition is close to none so too bad Mitsubishi looks dead here, but they sure are selling a lot in Asia.
@elcactuar3354 both generations of the Outlander PHEV are made by Mitsubishi. First gen came out in 2015/16 which was during the merger talks between Mitsu and Nissan which wouldn’t affect shift of production of cars. The second generation (based off the Rogue) uses the chassis developed by Nissan, but the battery, electric motors, tech, and ICE motor are all developed and produced by Mitsubishi. Compared to other PHEVs, the Outlander is RWD focused which the rear motor produces I believe 120bhp. Even Mitsubishi adjusted suspension and the ratio in the CVT so it’s a different driving feel compared to the Rogue. When it comes down to production, the Outlander is produced in Okazaki, Japan while the Rogue is produced in Smyrna, Tennessee. Let’s not forget they have revived the Ralliart division and are prototyping the Outlander to be its first new high performance vehicle since the Evo. This current Outlander has been the best selling generation breaking 40k sales record since being introduced to the US market and so far has improved sales over the last 6 years. It’s a step in the right direction, but if people want the Evo back, they gotta stick with selling crossovers and so far the new Outlander is doing that.
@elcactuar3354the gtr and evo both had their own awd yaw control systems, so it could be either. Mitsubishi engineers are awesome at designing things, its just corporate that makes bad choices and the company suffers
When Chrysler was selling Mitsubishi products, my friend, a Chrysler mechanic praised their 4 cylinder engine and noted that the Chrysler mechanics were calling it a "Semi-Hemi". This was the start of the good stuff to come from Mitsubishi. Now, as you stated, it is the Mirage that remains. Not a bad car for a little car, but no one, at no one in the US, wants small cars anymore. It could be fun with a manual transmission for not a lot of money, but no one is going to envy you. Yes, it is a sad sunset for Mitsubishi automobiles.
Great torque and ability to rev at the same time due to bore and stroke being square, ie both are 86mm. I have one in my Lancer and love that engine, so reliable.
Wayyyy better head flow too. The 4G63 head flow was always big flaw with that engine. I look at the 4B11 as Mitsubishi’s K Series. It pretty much does everything better and is just as capable at tuning but dudes still cry about how it’s not a real Honda engine like a B Series, the argument just evolves to “I don’t like this thing cause its newer”
The Evo X chassis itself was also an improvement. Body rigidity was way more stiffer compared to the 8/9 so much so that even the base model lancer had more rigidity. S-AWC & AYC made it corner just as good as the previous models despite the weight gain, especially in the USA where the Evo 8/9 never got that JDM rally developed tech. Aerodynamics were way more improved to the point where the roof pillars resembled more of a coupe design compared to the taxi looking roof design of the 8/9. But yeah, JDM fanboys will do what they do & say something is better cause someone on UA-cam told them it is lol, no pressure I’m having fun with my X🫡
Dude I have nooooo clue how I missed that. Final Cut fails to render at least one or two clips every single time. At this point I'm basically memeing myself
As an owner of a 1987 2 door Montero, bummed no mention of the Pajero in the Paris-Dakar Rally and how Jackie Chan raced a Pajero in one of his films. There's also a late 90s Pajero Evo sold in Japan that was definitely a performance beast!
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Pathetic... So now you promote this stuff?
Have to remember Mitsubishi heavy industries is a huge company , it builds , planes, ships , power stations , weapons, space stations , etc. It was said that there car division was around 1percent of there business, so it says to me that they never really cared to much for there car division.
Being a UA-cam content creator and getting sponsored by a law firm is an unbelievable flex. You're moving up in the world man, proud of you
@@offbrandbiscuit it's not that uncommon. Not only that but he was sponsored by Morgan and Morgan, which scandalous company. Sorry for bad English.
wow I didn't think about all their other businesses folding too 😵
@klano8443
As a Subie Impreza fan, the Evo did not deserve to die like this
IMO Evos are way better than Imprezas STI, drove an Evo 5 it is a beast, i also drove tons of STI and i daily drive a 340hp twin turbo Subaru B4 RSK.
ya look what the WRX is now...that looks like a worse fate being a crossover with open diffs
As an Evo fan, I appreciate that. But I fear Subaru is following the same fate with their latest WRX Wagon.
@@jegglz3845 gotta agree
@@dariend8659 true
as a mitsubishi mechanic, the part about mitsu showrooms being unrecognizable really struck. the days of rally dominance and a manufacturer who truly cared about performance vehicles are long gone. ralliart has become just a regular name. any mirage, eclipse cross, or outlander with the ralliart trim is just that, an aesthetic trim. the only remnants of mitsubishi’s past life here are a couple evo’s owned by the family running the dealership and the owners personal evo race car that once saw greatness, but is now condemned to sitting idle in the showroom of a company that abandoned it
I feel your pain..each year when i bring my Lancer to the dealer for its annual checkup i walk across the showroom floor an seeing al these boring cars hurts my heart. Knowing they sure as hell know that there still is a market for a sports car.
I miss my '11 ralliart
Totaled my first evo, bought a bmw, sold it and went back to the evo. Im never going to let it go
@@yodawg3469 aw man what made you sell it?
This mentality is exactly why Mitsubishi failed... I am also a mechanic aka dealer technician for 15yrs, and I wish Mitsubishi would have catered to the actual market that spends money and the few who are enthusiasts like Us, they actually did try but it was too late. And that's what you guys are witnessing. BMW revised or replaced their engines every 7yrs, mandatory. This forces engineers to keep fixing defects, or build up on a good engine. And keeps the company on the forefront of technology. What if Mitsubishi actually did that to the 4G, or their outdated cars... The X was the best model for the street market, but the decision to build it was years too late, for the company to bounce back. I believe if the X came out after the 6.5, and a newer model was out beyond the X, this business mentality across the entire company would have probably saved Mitsubishi. Instead of living in the past.
Eg. The e30 M3 was BMW's worst business decision, that is seen now as an iconic car . Yet on the other hand, the e36 M3 was the model that saved them, and now isn't really seen as much as an iconic car of the M cars before or after it.
The hard decisions were correctly made and the company is thriving.....
“Dominated in rally and movies” also dominated as keeping us cool with Mitsubishi electric ac
Very true!
My grandparents have a Mitsubishi rear-projection TV that's still kicking just fine. Before LCDs, that's what you got if you wanted a big widescreen.
funny enough, my granpa base lancer AC 15 years ago is also dominating his wallet since it's always broke down for no reason
@@albonfilmsare you ok?
@@bwofficial1776those thicc with 5c ones? 😂
The fall of Mitsubishi was 100% Nissan's doing. They betrayed Mitsubishi (who was and is still manufacturing probably half of their cars for them) with the supposed 'faking of emissions data' exposure, orchestrated the whole thing with the media and authorites with the end goal of a hostile takeover, which they successfully did. It was a very long and savage process with much of it televised here in Japan pretty much daily. They then immediately canned a majority of what Mitsubishi Engineering was working on, stopped manufacture of spare parts for models over 5 years old, and transferred much of the tech (especially electric) over to Nissan. Nissan is well know in the industry for being corrupt and very dirty.
are there any articles on this subjet
@@bluemethetys9267 In Japanese there were loads at the time, at it's peak it dominated the News for weeks. I haven't seen articles in English that really go into detail, there may be some out there but it'd require some digging I guess. It's going back a few years now and old News articles don't tend to stay online that long these days. If you have a specific question I may be able to answer, I had strong ties with Mitsubishi for about 20 years until shortly after this all went down, a lot of what I heard also came directly from Sales and engineering employees. Many people left, myself included. It was very sad TBH.
@@Motorsportsinjapan I see. (I am japanese, I can read japanese, so if there are any japanese articles that jump to your mind that you can namedrop, I would appreciate it 🙏)
That's wild
@@bluemethetys9267 after the ceo of nissan tried to sneak out of the country? I think that guy became wanted worldwide for a bit lol. Nissan was in big trouble but they never stopped producing vehicles
My son's third, current and final car is his Evo VIII GSR and he'll never depart with it. I must say, the day he bought it he asked me to drive it home (he was afraid he'd get too excited and crash it) and just that short run was enough to guarantee it will never leave this family (while I'm still above ground).
They've stopped making parts for cars over 5 years old as policy....
i wish ya guys trouble free repairs and sourcing. I Salute You Sir..!
I feel you and your son completely!
@@gomahklawm4446there are licensed manufacturers for spares, and there is still the aftermarket and tuning sector if you are looking for some upgrades.
@@gomahklawm4446 I mean, I've got this problem with my old Charger. Same solution: there's an aftermarket, but you're gonna have to pay for it.
One of the saddest tales in automotive history. RIP Evo, you're gone but not forgotten.
Also, wash that dang Porsche.
I put 10,000 miles on that Porsche and I have washed it once, the paint stays protected under the dirt 😂.
@@albonfilms as someone who just painted over an acre of rust in the frame rails of his Toyota FJ, I approve of this method. The rust is the primer for the primer. carry on.
@the.squidd 😂😂😂 if you can't see it, it ain't there!
nah the rain will do it
Aren't you two the same person? You certainly sound the same!
Every year as a kid I stood in the forests of Finland watching the Evo's flying in the hands of Tommi. It was magic.
As an adult I watch the oversized Mitsubishi vacuum cleaner cars standing on the parking lots of grocery stores. It's tragic.
The Evo 7, 8 and 9 are still used a lot in local rallies thankfully, so we still get to see them
There should be law to car factories to make new repo lancers and imzresas etz.
Sometimes Tommi was minutes ahead of the competition. -a WRC rarity.
TBH Mitsu is known more for their heavy industries than cars. from elevators to tanks they make it all. Cars is a side hassle to them.
Then why are mitsubishi still making cars tell me if it hassle them@@GeN56YoS
This hurts my heart. I know Mitsubishi is just another "evil megacorp," but you *know* there were a LOT of good people who poured their heart and soul into that racing division.
I don't see the entire organization as "evil" but only a few key players and shot callers at the top who put personal greed ahead of the livelihoods of those who make it possible to live the way they do. They become detached from the true root of their success, which is the people who work for them. They often forget that without all the talented people below them, they would still be on the ground floor themselves. That's what happens when you stay in your office and never make contact with those who make your life possible.
The Lancer and Eclipse were my favorite cars growing up. I adored those cars but when i got old enough to buy one, they stopped selling both. What a fall from grace
Same:'(
Learned to drive in my dad's starion 😢
Ah, my childhood. I loved the Eclipse until I learned why I had been wrong to love the Eclipse.
Me as well but I want one as a collectable
I had an Eclipse GT. It was entertaining but ultimately a terrible car. You were lucky not to get one.
To all the hardworking engineers at Mitsubishi Evo project, thank you for one of the best cars to ever grace the rally. You all went out fighting, like true heroes !! 😢 🙏 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
In my opinion, the only legendary rally-bred marque that fell off harder was Lancia, which has been reduced to a single sub-compact hatch.
And the hatch isn't even theirs, it's a reskinned low grade Fiat 500.
They massacred our boy :(
Lancia is supposed to relaunch in a few years but they definitely won't be anything like their heyday.
@@indigomizumiit's also owned by the Chinese now I think
@@cherrypepsi2815 No, Lancia is now part of Stellantis.
@@cherrypepsi2815I don’t see how it being Chinese is an issue as they more the capable of making good products. Heck Volvo is owned by the Chinese and they still do well
I had an Evo VIII MR FQ330, 2003. It was a 330 bhp beast out of the box and I had some work done, to take it up to 400bhp. Owned the car until 2016 and sold it, as I was moving to another country. The FQ evo was built by Ralliart UK. The FQ stood for F@cking Quick, and it was. I used to race Lamborghini Gallardo's off the lights and could out drag them up to 150mph. O-60 was around 3.8 seconds and 0-100 was 9.8 seconds. Had Kevlar brake pads for stopping. It was an absolute tool for blasting around the tight country roads of the UK with all the pops, bangs and wooshes. I actually went to buy an Evo 6 TME, which I absolutely love, but I saw the VIII next to it and loved it more, even though it was more expensive at the time. Absolutely no regrets on my choice of car. I had an absolute blast with it.
Wonder where that car is today
Loved these as a kid, now they are gone. Thank you
I hope we can pick one up before they get too expensive!
You are welcome 😊
Samee
Exactly what I did, ones locked up in my garage right now 😍 Evo 8 mr
Gone? Uh... there's lots of Eclipse Cross:es on the street.
My Evo 9 was the most “driver is one with my car” vehicle I have ever owned. A truly one of a kind experience, raw performance that let you squeeze out every drop of blood the car could produce.
Have owned many sports cars, will forever miss my Evo, that car still has my heart to this day!
Have pondered purchasing another several times, but I’ve aged beyond the car and the group of kids mostly involved in that scene.
The Evo will forever be a legend, absolutely sad how it all came crashing down 🤦🏻♂️
For me the car that melded with me the best was an NG Saab 900 SE. Not exactly a sports car, less power from the factory and about the same weight as the EVO 8 (though as actual car guys have shown there's a lot of potential in the Saab H engine series), but everything about it just felt right.
Mine was a '72 Charger with aftermarket swaybars. Still have it, but can't afford the restoration yet after a wiring harness fire while driving it to college years ago. It feels heavy as a truck (heavier than my Dakota, actually), but it lets you know exactly which wheels the load is on, as long as you're paying attention.
it's sad to see mitsubishi die. i wasn't even around during the golden era of mitsubishi but i still feel sad.
my dad owns a pajero Type 2 2.5 from 1999, he bought it new and it's still going strong, with absolutly no problems in 240.000km.
it still has the original cluch, head and alternator. just some oil, a timing belt, filters and literally 3 fuses
mitsubishi didn't made great cars, they made tanks that gave you joy.
You say tank? The modern Japanese GSDF tanks are, well, Mitsubishi Heavy
You totally missed Ralliarts domination in Dakar and Australian Safari Rally.
The Pajero took so many consecutive wins in the 80s and 90s !!
I noticed this. In my country both Triton and Pajero is very well used as their purpose and also some swag.
He was very bias on his view. Mitsubishi might not make fun cars in the US but they are still out there racing. Might not be the lancer evo. But they still doing good in other countries.
The biggest shock of all was the Pajero was still in development when it won the dakar in its first production year! it was entered only to see if it would even finish the rally and the fucking thing didn't just finish it won it!
@@robbalinski1606 , yep, it its 1985 win, it was basically what you can buy off the showroom floor.
From 2001 to 2007 it had consecutive Dakar wins in its Production-based T2 form. That is quite impressive given the type of event and that no other car maker could dethrone them until 2009 (2008 was cancelled due to terrorists) when the category was changed to the now purpose built off-road/rally-raid form and moved to South America.
nobody wants an xpander for fun car purpose because they're boring as shit, even if they rally them (using Evo parts too lol)
the pajero is also dead, and the pajero sport looks like dogshit along with the l200, and both are pretty dull vs their competition @@kurtleonce6221
RIP Evo, I'll never forget the fantastic times I've had with your incarnations in racing games, gushing over you at car shows and being blown away by your performance in ralleys.
Truly a sad story...
As a long-time Subaru fan I have to ask - do you think its better to die out slowly (Subaru) or watch yourself become the villain (Mitsubishi)
@@dynamo1796 both were deliberate acts to kill the beauty of cars in general . Look at all those abominations of today's market...i think time will come that public will demand that beauty back...
20 years later I still miss my EVO, what a car.
I miss my eagle talon
Same 😢
I miss my Benz Patent-Motorwagen
Let's not forget the eclipse GSX. It was the two door evo with the same motor and awd, manual transmission or auto.
Talon TSi AWD too!
@@dooder126 that's eagle not mitsubishi
@@smokestrong1000 tell me you don’t own a dsm without telling me you don’t own a dsm 🤦
@@dooder126 says the guy who thinks eagle is Mitsubishi. I believe your brain got replaced by a large hunk of shit
@@smokestrong1000Man you are lost
I ❤ Mitsubishi. I had 3 in the past and I still have one Outlander v6, 240 hp from 2010, 50.000 km, which is my favorite for long and short trips, go out, go shopping, etc. it is a very loyal friend.
I think it's important to note here that the WRC04 and WRC05 cars were based on the ordinary Lancer, not the Lancer Evolution. That was the turning point for the Lancer Evolution, it wasn't a homologation car anymore.
True, but there were also no homologation requirements for WRC cars, and Mitusbishi had the opportunity to build the ultimate WRC Lancer unrestricted from production limits. In the end, even if the WRC04 was competitive, they probably didn't have any hope of winning anyway. 2004 was the start of Sébastien Loeb's 8-year reign of terror across the WRC.
@@quasimondo1933exactly the problem
It was also when they finally moved to WRC spec Class cars, before that the Evo 7 showed in the Video is a GRP N spec car which was one of the reasons it was uncompetitive
@@OnlyDominican Group A, not Group N. They also had Group N cars, but the 'top' class was Group A; which Mitsubishi entered, even in the WRC-car era until the VII.
The evo isn’t the only car that died. The Eclipse,Starion,Galant,Colt,and 3000gt (GTO).All Mistubitshi gave us that isn’t an SUV is the Mirage😢,I don’t think they’ll go rallying ever again🫡.
Eclipse was a cool car i saw one in my street with carbon fiber hood it was still standing there and was not driven.
This brings back memories of working in sales at a Mitsubishi dealer in the US until 2003 and having the joke amongst the staff that we needed an automated message to play to the huge amount of calls we got asking about the Evo VII as we were fed up of explaining why we couldn't sell them one, haha.
For a few years I thought Mitsubishi had completely left the US market. It had even been a couple years since I'd even seen one on the road locally, and they had a dealership in town. One huge problem with them was in the later 90's with their 0-0-0 promotion as well as their big push to lease Galants to anyone, it so devalued the brand nobody seemed to buy them, with the exception of the Lancer models (even a base model was easy to stick Evo stickers on!), but the Evo was by that time, much like the WRX, such a high insurance loss car that even if you could get one, the insurance could be so expensive it wouldn't be worth it. While Subaru kept a unique model line going, offering AWD on all their cars and keeping production just good enough to generate enough demand, Mitsubish had no idea what they were doing to market their cars to appeal to anyone with good credit. The reviews always put their base model cars at or near the bottom of the list, even beaten by Hyundai. The Italians say a fish rots from it's head, and in Japan's case, that company made a good example of that saying,. There was no reason they let their product fall to junk status outside of them having no idea of what they wanted to do or how to market their cars. A dealer reopened here in town, and their ad campaign was once again appealing to people with bad credit, even having some guy with a fake "mexican" accent talking about how even illegals could be approved. That dealer didn't last long and another dealer picked them up. I just remember the lancer and others feeling cheap and tinny, even weaker and cheaper than Subaru. They had their chance and blew it, proving Japan inc. wasn't the superman it was sold as and they could build trash cars too.
There used to be a big Mistubishi dealer near my hometown for decades. It was located next to a movie theatre. As kids and teenagers, we often stopped by to stare at Eclipses, Evos, 3000-GTs, and even the Pajeros before going to see a movie.
About 10 years ago, it got turned into a Harley Davidson and KTM dealership.
Thank you for covering this Albon. As a kid, I loved the Lancer Evo in the racing games I played. 🙌
Hope you get more recognition, given the splendid production quality. 🥳
I appreciate the kind words!
I thought I was the only one!
@@AlphaGarg don't you say?
Internally, they are working for a comeback. It might not be focused on the Evo and US Market, as portrayed in the video, but in their focus market, they are maximizing there for re-expansion.
To add, MMC was bought by Nissan not because they lacked money (you may check out their fiscal year reports) but because of their stock value going low and Nissan took advantage of it as MMC, at some point, has strengths on the weaknesses of Nissan (PHEV, Kei Car and ASEAN Market). As early as the 00's, Nissan and MMC has partnered already in some aspects like the creation of Jatco CVTs and providing Nissan with kei cars. That's why Ghosn has mentioned a win-win deal a lot of times as they were partners since the early 00's and both were pioneers in EV tech where their 1st mass produced EVs (Leaf & i) were just a year of difference.
Speaking about partnerships, back then, MMC was not new to it just to save them but rather, they help brands to start up (Proton & Hyundai) and expand by letting their cars be sold under other brands for Volvo, Chrysler Group, Peugeot-Citreon & Nissan (00's).
Regarding their fall, the 1st to hit them was in 1998 during the Asian Crisis where their focused market was there affecting them. By 2000, they had a global recall which they were later saved by then Daimler-Chrysler. On 2004, that's the truck issue where there was a wheel hub defect which killed people. That's where they lost their share in their truck department (Mitsubishi Fuso) as they use it as a compensation to Daimler-Chrysler which withdraw their partnership because of that scandal. Their mother company, MC and MHI rescued them. On 2016, that's when Nissan rescued them.
Lastly, for motorsports, they were not just involved in WRC but also in Dakar Rally and in circuit using the 500, Colt F2000, Starion, FTO, Mirage, GTO and Eclipse. Ralliart was even helping Proton be involved in motorsports making them them unique to other motorsports brand. That's why Ralliart's former tagline was Race & Rally and if you go back in time, Ralliart was the same as what GR is today except for Le Mans and Nascar.
I own a Proton car with a Mitsubishi engine. In Malaysia, Mitsubishi is such a big and common brand owing to the fact that Mitsubishi and Proton were close partners that Proton was essentially rebadging Mitsubishi cars and sold them under Proton's brand up until early 2000s, where Proton shelf out its first in-house designed car although it still had Mitsubishi's powerplant in it. By the mid 2000s Proton's self developed engine began to be put in their own cars and later in almost all of Proton's cars. Adding to the Mitsubishi hype was the Proton PERT's win in the 2002 PWRC. Proton PERT is a collab between Petronas, RalliArt and EON (biggest local car dealership during that era). This strengthens the Mitsubishi brand locally in Malaysia. So when you mentioned about Mitsu helping Proton to start up and its rally division Ralliart helping Proton in motorsports, i nod with you. But now gone the days of Proton Wira with 350hp zipping across the road, or Proton Waja with 4G63 drifting downhill. I still love my car to death, due to the saying "90s Japanese engine simply cannot die" 😁
Bro mitsubishi is just making Renault Clios now with a Mitsubishi badge like Mazda with the Mazda 2 hybrid beinga readied yaris
I was enamored by Mitsubishi cars during my childhood days growing watching Initial D and WRC on occasion, they were so cool to me. When I played Need for Speed Most Wanted and Carbon, I would make sure to get a Lancer and an Eclipse, especially the eclipse because that car was so sexy curvaceous for a Japanese car. I would put the Lancer on the same pedestal as I would a Lamborghini Murcielago. Such a tragic end to a once influential car brand.
I'd bet you would have also seen the Top Gear segment where they did just that, pit an Evo VIII against a Murcielago.
@@TheVeyron623 I did! I didn't remember that episode when I wrote this comment it may have been in my subconscious.
I once owned a 2008 Lancer. Gutless lemon factory. The cooler for the already garbage quality first-gen CVT started leaking 36 days out of warranty, requiring a $2,500 replacement, a good chunk of which was the insane mineral oil that it took, which I can only assume was brewed from orphan tears. I called Mitaubishi Canada and ssked that since the car had half a dozen warranty visits before this and that the failure happened so soon after the term, if they'd at least consider covering even part of the expense as a good will gesture. They wouldn't even consider it. I sold the car two weeks later. It is the last Mitsubishi vehicle I will ever own.
The death of the EVO also brought upon the death of the STi, with no direct rivalry competition the STi was just a soldier with no purpose, no one to fight...so it just died quietly
Amazing content. I own a 1993 JDM Mitsubishi Delica Starwagon 4x4 van with the 4D56 turbodiesel engine on JDM OZ Rally wheels in the US. What a stark contrast to the way they were built back then. While this rig isn't fast, it's Montero/Pajero platform the Delica is built on is quite robust. I walked into a local Mitusbishi dealer a few months ago to buy some trim bolts for the Delica. All I could see on the showroom floor was a pathetic Mirage, some lady buying an Eclipse Cross with a presumably horrible interest rate and shady dealer add-on fees. I even asked one of the salesman if they had a Mirage with a manual transmission available. He said it was no longer available and the CVT transmissions (I believe sourced from the horrible Nissan CVT supply chain) were all that were available now. Dying brand that I don't think will ever recover.
I had a montero and it's now in the hands of my buddy. You damn near can't kill the thing. It's been left in a river, both bumpers torn off, minor fender bender, blown head casket, and it's still running
RIP Mitsubishi We will always remember you ❤❤❤
One unmentioned thing they did (but made sense since it isn't related to cars) was how Mitsubishi burned money on their Jet program. Many don't know that Mitsubishi pretty much build *everything*. ACs, TVs, air conditioners, Boats, Planes, even Rockets, they're a gigantic corporation that pretty much have such an immense reach that, if you're in Japan, chances are you'll encounter a product made by Mitsubishi (or at least its children company) at least once.
Mitsubishi (and Japan, in extent) wanted to create the first national passenger Jet airliner, and Mitsubishi offered their services sith their Spacejet program. Development started as far back as 2003.
They had their first flight in 2015.
And they never had any flight since.
Delays, costs, and many problems led to the project finally being cancelled just this year. After pretty much billions of Yen being spend both by the Japanese government and Mitsubishi to create this project.
This is nothing new. We had a Toyota sewing machine for example.
@@skylined5534 yeah but Toyota didn't spend millions of yen on an eventually canned project. AFAIK
Mitsubishi motors and Mitsubishi heavy industries are different companies, there is also Mitsubishi chemical, banking, and others. They are all separate companies just loosely connected but separately owned and managed. .
that doesn't surprise me, its a very japanese corp thing to have conglomerates where one company, ie mitsubishi have many different arms selling just about anything and everything.
Funny how HondaJet is doing just fine. Far cry from a commercial airliner but at least they delivered
Man I had an Evo 8 then an Evo 9 MR. The two most fun cars I've ever owned. Great fun car and awesome community. I'm still friends with people I met back in those days.
For someone who crys about how much no one likes the A90 for not having a 2JZ, you seem to easily dismiss the Evo X for not having a 4G63 even though the 4B11 has already proven itself
My first car was a 97 Eclipse GS, cheap and with a ton of mileage, but it was my affordable dream car since I was a kid. I loved that thing, only 150hp but the NA 4G63 was enough for me, it was a blast, and it was already an icon. People would give me thumbs up on red lights and show interest for the car, not because it was an amazing car, but because what it represents and what it means to an entire generation of people around the world.
I had to sell it since it was getting a bit expensive and troublesome to keep on good condition on the road, and I got my now actual car which is a 2010 E92 328i. I love the BMW, but man do I miss my Eclipse and do I miss what Mitsubishi once was...
I hope that you had good memories with that Eclipse.
Unfortunately the 2nd generation eclipse had the 4g63 turbo engine, and the Chrysler built 420A as the non-turbo. The same engine as the dodge neon. Only the first generation eclipse had a non-turbo 4g63
@@BrokeWrench Indeed, but some Europe cars for some reason had from factory the non turbo 4g63 which basically was the non turbo from the first gen Eclipse afaik. Mine was one of those, it was from Germany and the registry papers also show 4g63 as the engine code. At least that's what I read from some forums, either that or the previous owner of my Eclipse engine swapped it for a 1st gen non turbo 4g63, but it had it for sure cause it was easy to tell just by taking a look at the engine bay.
Imo it did fit the car really well even tho it was a non turbo old engine, the thing was fun.
@@shauros92 It's not a swap, the 2g's did come with the 7 bolt 4g63 NA from factory. It's a shame that the pistons in it are weaker than the turbo variant, because it would have been so easy to just slap a turbo on it and call it a day..
N52 !!
I own a Mitsubishi Evo X SST. It is mind-blowing! There is no other car even by today's standards, even at twice the price that can go faster around corners, on a track, on the street! The car breaks the laws of physics and the moment you believe the car is at its limit, you downshift and by some magic, the car screams to push it further and further up to its 8000rpm. I'm not saying this because I own an Evo, but because it's an damn awesome car! You can hear every mechanical sound from the SST, the turbo, the engine, the exhaust, the tires been shredded. The interior is like a taxi and driving it is like fighting a war! I don't know if Mitsubishi will ever come back (but I always hope so). I just know that all evo's from the first to the last are in every Petroheads heart around the world and I always want to have this car in my garage!
@TheRealCatof Would rather commute than drive a KIA
@TheRealCatof Press X for doubt. I feel small peen straight line dragboi
@TheRealCatof As Evo 7 GT-A driver... I highly doubt you could gap him in a kia... even if its a stinger. xD
I got least wanted evo of all, but she's got built transmission that shifts quicker than SST and with bunch of bolt-ons I'm making 300whp.. for now. should be fun 350whp (stock block) once done all the reliability things, cooling and new injectors.
@TheRealCatof I think you're forgetting power to weight ratio and the fact that I'm no where near stock. ;)
@TheRealCatof would love to take you on at the race track, but you're probably no where neer Canada. Also my 3rd gear tops out at 200kmh at 7k red line.
my dad worked in a mitsubishi garage for 25 years, never knew i loved the cars so much.
Thanks for putting this together, it really connected a lot of the dots that had been kind of floating around in my awareness for years about what happened. Cheers from Chicago, thoroughly enjoyed this video!
You forgot to mentioned critical part historically that it was Mitsubishi manufactured A6M Zero. After Japan lost the WWII, Mitsubishi (means: Three Diamonds) diverse into many business projects. From Zero warplane to car, Mitsubishi carries the knowledge on how to build reliable, high performance, heavy duty combustion engine.
that's why a lot of the earlier engines from the 70's like the Astron have their swirl port Hemi cylinder heads. That was based around their knowledge in plane engine manufacture, but honestly those things leave much to be desired, and while I love the 4g54's, others probably don't share that same love. HKS made a a 4g54 with the crankshaft out of a 4g52 and a one off 16 valve DOHC head with dual sidedraft Mikuni carbs making 240hp N/A. the engine displaced 2.3 liters as opposed to the convention 2.6 liters of the 4g54, but made twice the horsepower. They put it into their special prototype Starion at the time, but instead of going to AWD, they actually ripped the 4wd drivetrain out of a Pajero and stuck that in. Even with all that, and a cage, the thing only weighed around 2300lbs. Would have loved to see that thing in the flesh. The one they actually intended to use was the 12-valve 4g63 Cyclone DASH in their group B Starion, which I would also love to get to see in the flesh, but hey. I don't live in Japan, but maybe someday I'll have to go check out that museum in Japan with all those old mitsu cars.
Loved the days when the Evo 10 gave the Lamborghini Gallardo a run for their money in lap times🙌
So did the Evo VII FQ400
The Evo 3-6 are my favorite
@@kaybevang536 the Evo 6 TME was the best one IMO
@@skippylegrandgourou2069something about the Evo 4 gets me. Probably because I grew up owning a mid 2000 Mirage technica.
The evo 4 is sick too but apparently the engine is not the most reliable said one of my friend who own an evo 5@@fyourpronouns
I've owned 3 Evo X's and you were pretty harsh on them. I've driven 6,7,8 & 9 I find they are so balanced between a track weapon and "daily" drivable. My mate that owns a 34 GTR drove mine in anger for the first time a few weeks ago and even he admitted that the Evo handles so much better than a 34 GTR.
Agreed, for someone who cries a lot about how no one likes the A90 for having a BMW engine on his UA-cam page, he seemed easy to dismiss the Evo X for not having a 4G63 even though the 4B11 has proven to be a great engine. Kinda hypocritical.
I really hope someone from EA is watching this because they just aquired the Mitsubishi license with with their new WRC game... Would be really nice to see alot of those pre WRC cars in there... 😉
For the record the 276hp agreement meant that they only published it as the hp figure. The cars were very much under rated.
They are not dead. My dad has Audi R8 and Mitsubishi Mirage. He is absolutely happy with both
I owned evo x for 4 years. It was great, did real well on the race track. Sucked as a highway car due to its super short gear ratios. Terrible gas mileage as well. But to this day, it probably had the best steering wheel feel of any performance cars. Perfectly balanced.
My 1991 Lancer GTI 16V sure has super short ratios too, stays at 3k rpm @ 100kph, in 5th, its top gear...
Still, it doesnt use much fuel being a 1.8L 140hp NA engine, and only weighting 1050kg at most. The short gears are GREAT for touge or curvy roads, and its only 0.1 seconds slower than a much newer 320i E46... and that has an inline with proper RWD.
Sadly, the roof supports are rusted as hell, so ill have to sell it unless I want to die in a crash, but ill try to replace it with another mitsubishi.
Eclipse, Lancer GTI (EVO is wayyy overpriced lol) or even a 90s Montero Sport V6 will do just fine. That V6 sounds really well even stock, and has plenty of torque to go offroading. My moms 1988 Montero 2.6L i4 with a carb has way less power at 114hp but the torque means its pretty good at offroading. So I can only assume the next gen montero with a larger V6 to be even better.
It's amazing how quickly Mitsubishi stopped making nice cars.
Outside of the last Evo they never really made 'nice' cars though.
@@skylined5534 I am not even sure if the Evo X or that Paticular Lancer Platform is even consider a Nice car. The Company lost their touch in the early 2000s, and everything they made are actually base on Chrysler Products.
The Lancer platform is same as the Dodge Caliber, and the World Engine they used is share with Chrysler, Hyundai, and Mitsubishi.
The engine and the Platform has nothing wrong with it, problem is Mitsubishi didn't really have a direction as a Company. Those Car became a normal Grocery getter that competes against Civics and Corolla. There are no Identity with them soon as they abandoned the Rally Racing.
Even if the Car isn't greatest, being competitive with Racing events are great advertisement. Yet, Mitsubishi failed to leverage that.
@@skylined5534my ex had an 04 lancer ralliart 5 speed and that had to be the biggest pos car I've ever worked on, but it was fairly fun to drive. I broke half the bolts trying to take the front bumper off and the car was only 9 years old at the time. Rotted out faster than any other car ive ever seen and was falling apart
@@skylined5534its wasnt just the Lan Evos or the 3000GTs. Their normal cars up to the 2000s was just much better back then. Now their new cars suffered poor build quality and poor performance overall.
@@skylined5534 The colt, eclipse, 3000gt, starion were nice, though
Even though this video is focused on their automotive arm, I think it’s unfair to say the Mitsubishi is dead. Mitsubishi’s other branches are doing just fine (aeronautics, HVAC, etc), they just gave up on the consumer car market because regulations were getting too tight and profit margins for the kinds of cars they wanted to make evaporated due to economic forces.
Well for enthusiasts it literally is dead. If I want a car I won't buy a Mitsubishi some factory machinery, just like when I need a Samsung phone, if they no longer make those I won't buy a printer or a tank
People don't understand the diversity of Japanese companies within the domestic Japanese market. Sure, Mitsubishi Motors is a shadow of its former image globally, but Mitsubishi UFJ is still Japan's largest bank, and they are hugely involved in a ridiculous amount of other fields, as you mentioned.
@@marcelroodt you are missing the point, people do know about their other fields. What WE CARE about is Mitsubishi making cars
@@01iverQueenclearly Mitsubishi don’t. They only care about making money and cars ain’t it anymore. They gladly move on. Enthusiast vehicles are always first to go when hard times hit
Sure. Suzuki still makes harmonicas, but their moto brand has not inspired me in a long time.
I have loved Mitsubishi since I was a kid. Now in my late 30's with children, I have just purchased my second Outlander. They're still fun to drive. I take mine off road, put my foot into it, wash it when I'm done. Cool video. Subscribed.
Drove a 99' 3000GT VR4 back in 02'. The owner on the passanger sit kept telling me to floor it, and all I had driven at the time was my dad's 00' Hyundai V6 Santa Fe and my mom's 92' Honda Accord Berlina. Though the Santa Fe was V6 and had AWD, it could have never prepared me for the feeling of what I did next. I was on 3rd doing 40. Down shifted to 2nd and floored it. By the time I shifted to 4th, the damn thing was hitting 190!! I felt my body sinking into the sit! Since then I got a scratch in my mind, that one day I would own one.
Now I'm the proud owner of a stock 95' VR4. Though let me tell ya, it breaks A Lot! But when it runs, it's Literally a dream come true! I LOVE IT!
I dont know if I say this right, but despite of their rally car diminishing, and also market decline in the US. In my country, Mitsubishi still has a strong brand recognition, and that is from Pajero because it was famous in Dakkar. and it became legendary vehicle as a government's car. also the Mitsubishi Xpander as a people mover. so I think different country has different outcome for any brand.
Mitsubishi is the only auto manufacturer I can think of that has repeatedly had police raid their offices and cart off boxes and boxes of evidence to be used against them, during investigations of them covering up safety defects and failing to perform recalls. It's happened several times. Quite the scandal. They've covered up defects for decades it was just part of the corporate culture at Mitsu.
VW and dieslegate, though that wasn't safety.
@@seed_drill7135yes but the Mitsubishi case is a lot worse
learn something new every other week
@@seed_drill7135 Not safety? Well, except for the thousands of people whose life was shortened by toxic exhaust fumes. Obviously.
Don’t forget Toyota.
The level of cope in this episode...
"The Evo was so good, but it placed last... and then just as then they were figuring it out, they changed the rules."
Also, the Evo 8 was groundbreaking because it was sold in the US? What? It blew ass as much as the 7 did.
I remember as a young kid, my mum hustling us out the church doors on a Sunday, to go to the highway so we could watch a safari rally from a safe spot a few meters high above the highway, where we wouldn't get hit if anything went wrong.
Some race drivers, where I come from, still have those Mitsubishi vehicles. And they are still huge on racing, although they do it for fun.The winners are always Mitsubishi and Subaru.
It's so interesting to see how car brands can suffer from a lack of focus and losing their soul. Those huge so-so vehicles always make me think of an over-bloated middle-age good for nothing who only lives for chips and soda. They should try and do a great rally comeback, with electric motors instead.
It shouldn't end like this
To recap: Japan's 2nd worse car company was bought by their worst car company.
Sad story..I own a Montero back in 2005... it was so nice and it offloaded spectacularly..
That's awesome!
They still sell the Pajero Sport 4x4 here in Australia and many other countries.
-These unibodies were designed to go ~100mph off road. =Very strong chassis.
@@michaelclark3192 Pajero Sports aren't the same as Pajeros, but rebadged Challengers!
Thanks, Guf. This story really hit me hard as a Jackie Chan/ Ralliart/ Lancer guy.
Surprised you didn’t throw in Jackie Chan’s Firesports Evo. That thing got very minimal coverage by the press. A very ugly, yet “I want one” kind of car.
Keep it up!
12:30
I used to work on street legal versions of the RS back in the 90s. The engines really were a dream, DOHC, wasted spark direct fire coilpacks (a big deal back then), oil cooler and to top it off the bottom ends other earlier evos could handle more than 500HP on stock rods and pistons. They really had all the fruit from the get go and were just amazing.
I couldn't believe how good their engines were, to me it was a shame the rest of the car couldn't reflect the same attention, it was sad. Even their base model engines had roller rockers and were laid out nicely and the EFI was decent and trouble free. One guy I knew was going through his Evo engine and I was damn impressed with how strong everything was, especially after knowing several people with Subie STi's, which even driven conservatively would blow up before 50K miles. An extended warranty was a good buy with those..
What a tear jerker, but, it’s better to have loved and lost than never loved at all
As a former Mitsubishi pick-up owner, my opinion of Mitsubishi is that they were total junk. I had to tear down the top end at 50,000 miles due to a head gasket and replaced those pathetic little lifters that wouldn't shut up. At 100,000 miles it was burning oil so bad that I had to rebuild the entire engine (and again another set of those expensive jelly bean lifters) Parts were very expensive. Parts were very expensive (did I mention that?), distributor and carb failed, A/C and heater were constantly breaking down. It's no wonder their Zeros were all shot down
A little thing to add, in europe they now also sell rebadged renault cars (suzuki does it as well with toyota)
Yes you're right!
so friend, hows your bucciali video coming along?@@albonfilms
Mitsubishi's success in the Dakar Rally with seven consecutive wins & multiple podium placings of its Pajero Evolutions was absolutely phenomenal, but tragically those victories for Mitsubishi & Ralliart in the Dakar & WRC demonstrate how they lost the plot!
Coincidentally I'm an Aussie who is currently restoring a swb 1995 Pajero J-Top (the soft-top JDM imported version which are rising in value due to their rarity!). However, my daily drive happens to be a 2013 Subaru Forester!
I've got a $700 CE Lancer, the 4G engine is a torquey lil beast and an absolute joy to rev 👍😁
Enjoy it!
heck even cheap version of mitsubishi back then were also fun and enjoyable to drives, now we got none
@@kotarojujo2737 Yeah, there's a real shortage of secondhand hot hatches . I just researched engine power Vs weight.
I found the 4G93 SOHC CE Lancer/Mirage was the sweet spot of price/availability & power/weight.
Only two cars I have ever owned in my whole driving life have been CE2s. First was a coupe 1.5L no guts. Current one is a sedan 1.8L, isn't too bad. There are still loads of them around in Australia.
@@soulsphere9242 Yeah, the 1.8 is definitely the one to get, there's a 20kw difference !
As a mechanic for over 50 years, I have seen most of it. In Mitsubishi's regard I see a malfeasance from the owner operators than the Mfr, from what I see. People don't follow guidelines, and never will. Poor or mostly No maintenance, extreme duty, overloading, High and low temps, and rough terrain. They were typically used outside the owners manual. But it's the company's fault...
And so Mitsubishi has come full circle. In the '40s, they were making Zeros and bombers. And now, they are again making zeroes and bombers.
Mitsubishi is still quite popular in Australia with its Triton pickup and Pajero Sport off roaders and the outlander sells well too. They're priced very competitively and many people have fond memories of the Aussie built Mitsubishi Magnas of the past as well as their long history of the Pajero and Lancer in Australia so it's interesting seeing so many Americans having a go at Mitsubishi. Here Nissan has basically become irrelevant here since the 2010s with unreliable transmissions and ugly styling, but I can see their current styling has caught back up to Mitsubishi again and I'm seeing more new Nissan's on the road now. We don't get the mirage here, Chinese and Korean cars are the only small cars here now apart from Suzuki.
Speaking from an American experience, the stereotype here is you only buy Mitsubishi/Nissan if you're a subprime borrower, because there's so many better vehicles available close in price, and the mirage is just dangerously slow for our highway system.
@@blazemgb11 I looked at the Mirage as a drive to work car (I have 2 classic cars and an F350)
With under 100 horsepower... no way. Freeway speed limits in Nevada are 80 mph. 100 hp and 80+ mph with hills is a no-go.
In my country Malaysia the Mitsubishi Triton 4x4 is the 2nd favourite brand after Totota Hilux due to durability and price tag. The Ford Ranger come the 3rd bcoz it is a lot expensive.
I'm an Aussie who drives a 2013 Subaru Forester as my daily-drive & I love how it's powerful, balanced, & smooth to drive.
However, I've owned a couple of 2nd Gen SWB Pajeros, & am currently restoring a '95 JDM TD SWB Pajero J-Top (soft-top) which have become quite rare here in Australia!
As someone who was born in 03 i was too young to witness all this cool stuff. And my passion for cars only started within the last 2 years. But i am so bummed i probably will never be able to own a lancer evo. The evo and Wrx are to cars i want more than anything, but seeing what is happening with the wrx doesn't give me much hope the new one is ugly. Just makes me wish i grew up earlier when all these cool cars were coming out. I now i have to worry about the wourld going all electric i pray that deosnt happen
Yeah manual transmissions fading out and the push towards electric cars is a bit cringe
It's not an out of reach car.
Your dream of owning one is a sensible one.
2020 and 21 model WRX 's with low miles are for sale all over the place. Go grab one.
There are loads of ‘03-‘21 wrx for sale all across the country. Most of them are beat to shit, but if you know your way around a wrench, you can get one for a pretty good deal. I just scored a ‘12 STI for 10k. Had to fix quite a few things, but still. Evos are a lot harder to find though.
The GE/GV wrx’s are in the sweet spot right now. They’re not totally falling apart yet (at least in new england) and still pretty affordable.
WRX vs Evo era was like Messi vs CR7 back then.
Mitsu is my favorite 80s and 90s era car manufacturer. A line up one can only dream of owning.
This really makes me appreciate my old lancer ck4 even more
"Mitsubishi doesn't care what you think."
- DONUT Media
The company died due to the ceo and leaders. They could have made the base lancer awd and completed directly to subaru when they were having headgasket issues and transmission issues. Instead they made a base fwd car to compete with hond and toyota who already had that market on compete lock down.
Quality video that! Ill do Mäkinen proud and shave a few seconds off my morning commute in my Evolution III 😆🤙
Mitsubishi built the Reisen Zero fighter, the plane that LED the attack on Pearl Harbor.
how they are allowed to sell cars in the U.S. is BEYOND me!
As someone who owned both a 9 and a X I will not stand for the X slander everytime it gets a bad rep from someone who hasn’t even owned one they are wonderful cars
I still think evo 5 was peak evo, i owned one. Had it for little over 3 years, and it was perfect. Could leave it stock for ever and be happy with it. Mine only had exhaust, intake and a map to run e85. Fun on snow, fun on track, fun on streets, fun on a dirt road.
What's the best year to buy a used Evo ser
@@forevr Evo 6 of any year.
@@bara555 Dang evo 6 is hard to find these days. Do you think Lancer 10 is any good ser?
Mitsubishi is far from dead. They still have excellent industrial diesels and a big line-up of heavy machinery. Their cars will make a comeback too.
So if Nissan controls Mitsubishi, what reason would they have to cut in to any portion of their GTR sales by making another Lancer Evo? Do they still even have the Z? Ford tried and failed with the Focus RS. At best they’ll make the Eclipse Cross compete with the Ford Mach-E as an all wheel drive all electric vehicle…
If you're just looking for the lie described in the title, it's at the 21 minute mark.
14:25 if you wanna skip the monetization content and get straight to the meat
20:57 if you wanna get to the scandals
5-6 years ago I was looking for an all year around car to drive daily in Finland, landed on Evo 7 and it does everything i wanted. Currently waiting to get my license back :)
Gone but not forgotten. Farewell mits
If sales keep growing they may bring back the Evo, sales are getting better year over year. We own 6 Mitsubishis including an Evo X and it’s an awesome car. ❤️
Mitsubishi, by their own admission, gave up on the car market.
It’s not profitable for them so they won’t. Just stick to regular vehicles as those make money.
The story of Japanese corporations immediately after WWII is a bit more complex than stated in this (excellent) vid. Mitsubishi pre-WWII was part of the Zaimatsu, a kind of oligarchy of large nationalist industrialists. As you stated they were a huge company that did a bit of everything. To prevent a repeat of the economic/political situation pre-war, a situation that did a fair bit to cause that war in the first place, the really big corporations in Japan were forced by the US occupation authorities to break up their companies into many smaller ones. And these companies had to be operating independently of each other.
Another point, when the vid showed all those managers bowing at a press conference, that is one of Japans weak spots when it comes to management/company culture. Managers get picked largely on the back of being around for the longest time. Their society and companies work on a very hierarchical structure. Because of this, no one ever pops their head up and saus, this is bad, or, we need to change this. So the upshot of this is that things keep going until there is a catastrophic collapse of some kind.
That's when the managers press conference and apology happens, and then they resign/retire with a golden handshake.
And if you're extremely lucky, something will change.
I'm being very general here.
I lowkey miss my lancer. It wasn’t anything special just a base model 2017 lancer but god damn that thing was fun and the AC was the coldest I’ve ever experienced in a vehicle.
Mitsubishi was behind the DSM talon and laser and a mini van with a 4g63…. Now it’s just a shell.
In Japanese: Mitsu means 3. Bishii is Diamond.
So, 3 diamonds.
Diamond Star Motors !
三菱 is not three diamonds
the 菱 kanji stands for japanese water caltrop, it actually resembles the symbol if you place it triangularly
i remember this when the Mitsubishi dealership man explain the meaning behind the "three diamond" logo
Mitsu does not mean 3 champ
@@jovo55 of course it does. It means three as a counter. There's several ways to use numbers in Japanese.
@@tofu9637 Go check the shape of japanese water caltrop leaves. By extension it also means diamond shape. Not diamond as in jewelry, but diamond as in the cards.
Mitsu was an absolute juggernaut of industry. They had stakes in everything. For better or worse, that entire juggernaut model is a thing of the past for pretty much all the old giants.
Outlander PHEV is so underrated. Great driving dynamics! There’s no doubt they know how to make AWD vehicles in this modern era.
@elcactuar3354 Chassis is shared with Nissan Rogue, but engine and PHEV system is all from Mitsubishi made at their Okazaki plant. Please know your information on Mitsubishi and Nissan. Fun fact, in Japan, the highest selling PHEV is the Outlander not RAV 4 prime. In the U.S., the brand recognition is close to none so too bad Mitsubishi looks dead here, but they sure are selling a lot in Asia.
@elcactuar3354 except it's not. Go look under the new xtrail and find all the mitsubishi stamping on it haha
@elcactuar3354 both generations of the Outlander PHEV are made by Mitsubishi. First gen came out in 2015/16 which was during the merger talks between Mitsu and Nissan which wouldn’t affect shift of production of cars.
The second generation (based off the Rogue) uses the chassis developed by Nissan, but the battery, electric motors, tech, and ICE motor are all developed and produced by Mitsubishi.
Compared to other PHEVs, the Outlander is RWD focused which the rear motor produces I believe 120bhp.
Even Mitsubishi adjusted suspension and the ratio in the CVT so it’s a different driving feel compared to the Rogue.
When it comes down to production, the Outlander is produced in Okazaki, Japan while the Rogue is produced in Smyrna, Tennessee.
Let’s not forget they have revived the Ralliart division and are prototyping the Outlander to be its first new high performance vehicle since the Evo.
This current Outlander has been the best selling generation breaking 40k sales record since being introduced to the US market and so far has improved sales over the last 6 years. It’s a step in the right direction, but if people want the Evo back, they gotta stick with selling crossovers and so far the new Outlander is doing that.
the s-awc system in the outlander is bespoke to Mitsubishi; and so is the PHEV unit
the rest of the platform is nissan derived@elcactuar3354
@elcactuar3354the gtr and evo both had their own awd yaw control systems, so it could be either.
Mitsubishi engineers are awesome at designing things, its just corporate that makes bad choices and the company suffers
"The itch to race never goes away"
*mitubishi in 2024* 💀💀
When Chrysler was selling Mitsubishi products, my friend, a Chrysler mechanic praised their 4 cylinder engine and noted that the Chrysler mechanics were calling it a "Semi-Hemi". This was the start of the good stuff to come from Mitsubishi. Now, as you stated, it is the Mirage that remains. Not a bad car for a little car, but no one, at no one in the US, wants small cars anymore. It could be fun with a manual transmission for not a lot of money, but no one is going to envy you. Yes, it is a sad sunset for Mitsubishi automobiles.
i used to have a 1g gsx and currently own an evo 9. this is truly sad
The 4B11 is a great motor. I had an Evo X and the power curve was flat for that motor. Plus the 4G63 was 30 years old by the time the Evo X came out.
4b11T is the most underrated engine. Sounds good and is a solid block. Recent record is 740whp on a stock block
Great torque and ability to rev at the same time due to bore and stroke being square, ie both are 86mm. I have one in my Lancer and love that engine, so reliable.
Wayyyy better head flow too. The 4G63 head flow was always big flaw with that engine. I look at the 4B11 as Mitsubishi’s K Series. It pretty much does everything better and is just as capable at tuning but dudes still cry about how it’s not a real Honda engine like a B Series, the argument just evolves to “I don’t like this thing cause its newer”
The Evo X chassis itself was also an improvement. Body rigidity was way more stiffer compared to the 8/9 so much so that even the base model lancer had more rigidity. S-AWC & AYC made it corner just as good as the previous models despite the weight gain, especially in the USA where the Evo 8/9 never got that JDM rally developed tech. Aerodynamics were way more improved to the point where the roof pillars resembled more of a coupe design compared to the taxi looking roof design of the 8/9. But yeah, JDM fanboys will do what they do & say something is better cause someone on UA-cam told them it is lol, no pressure I’m having fun with my X🫡
It's always a good day when Albon posts! :)
YOU
The Starion was a bit of a quick car for its time. It had a 2.6L 4cyl turbo with an iron block. Heavy, but ready for high horse power.
Since it was discontinued, the EVO prices go up up up 📈📈📈 I tink evo 5, 6 and 9 are most expensive.
Font missing at 0:09 🤣
Dude I have nooooo clue how I missed that. Final Cut fails to render at least one or two clips every single time. At this point I'm basically memeing myself
Using the LFA exhaust note for the Porsche in the ad is evil lol
The Galant VR4 ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ basically an Evol in a Galant body lol
The first evo was based on the vR4 - the evo zero
As an owner of a 1987 2 door Montero, bummed no mention of the Pajero in the Paris-Dakar Rally and how Jackie Chan raced a Pajero in one of his films. There's also a late 90s Pajero Evo sold in Japan that was definitely a performance beast!