Ford: “Hold my beer!”
Mach E missing from this photo. It’s not a mustang it’s an all electric small SUV, give it a new nameplate you cowards.
(I’m not some purist, just sharing the recognition that the Mach E is a vastly different product and should not have gotten the nameplate, and they used Mustang to evoke a sense of reliability/performance to push sales their experimental new SUV)
I own one and like the car, but the branding is awkward. There was one car related service that had me select and let me specify that it was the mach e, but the places system just printed out “mustang” and they were a bit confused.
And Puma is such a sporty sounding name too. And it ends up as yet another bland crossover.
Augh I love the early Puma. I wish I could get one in the states.
I owned an original puma, such a wonderful car. Then the new monstrosity arrived :( sad times
Not a big deal - the crapi was rightly viewed as such, and the puma was a rebadged fiesta; the cougar was the real car of that era. Still sucked though.
Consider this beehive kicked: The Eclipse was crap long before they tried to bloat it into a crossover SUV. Mitsubishi killed it by continuing to sell the things knowing damn well they had faulty sumps and oil pumps, so they’d constantly starve of oil and then explode. My sister’s Eclipse was the only car I’ve ever witnessed to melt its own radiator. I think that pointless hump in the hood was actually to have a space to contain all your cams and valves when they left the chat at highway speed.
And then, back in the day it was Mitsubishi and not Kia or Nissan who were so desperate for sales that their dealerships were instructed to finance any moron at punitive interest no matter the risk and put them in a brand new base Eclipse or, occasionally, a Galant. Bad credit? No credit? No eyesight? No pulse? No problem!
So the early 2000’s equivalent of “Big Altima Energy” was you inevitably found that any unexploded Eclipse driven by anyone who wasn’t a tuner was instead being piloted by somebody who had no business whatsoever operating a motor vehicle. Sure, that was really a problem with the drivers and not the car, but it means that to this very day every time you see one you still let out that disgruntled sigh and give it an extra couple of car lengths of room.
I await with interest my imminent crucifixion by angry Eclipse owners, now. Go on, give it to me. I am invincible!
I lived through the 90s and can confirm that the Mitsubishi Gallant was the Altima of its day
Damn I had no idea the Galant had such a bad rep in the US…
Yeah part of the problem was you had the VR-4 which all the car nuts understood, but then everyone bought the S or SE and they were everywhere, half because it was an affordable midlevel car, and half because they wanted a VR-4 and couldn’t afford it
Like OP said, it’s because they’d give financing to basically anybody with a pulse, just like Nissan did.
I’m speaking from a 2000s perspective, but everybody hated the Gallant. It was a wannabe Lancer (which in of itself was a wannabe Evo). You only bought the Gallant because you wanted a Fast and Furious car but didn’t have the money for an actual car from the films.
The hump was for the DOHC.
Just like the 3000gt’s humps were for the active shock connectors.
The engines were crammed in there so they had to make some design decisions to get it all to fit.
My dream car is still a 3000GT VR-4 twin turbo.
I have no idea how to work on cars so I’ll never have it. But that 50,000 pound tiny beast is so beautiful.
I had one and when it ran, it was great. Went through 3 used engines and only ran well after I went through and tested/replaced every sensor and component. Lots of fun but not something for a person without a workshop.
ALL WHEEL STEERING?!
Did you have the twin turbo model? I’ve known two people who had the non-twin turbo models and they LOVED them, but both of them required soooooo much work.
So small! So down-low-to-the-ground! So heavy! So sexy!
Yeah. The AWS was the most reliable part of that car coincidentally.
That’s wild! I know they have many issues but I still love them.
What year range was this?
I only ask because I used to have a 2003 eclipse (bought used in 2010 or so and kept until 2016) and I loved it, because it got decent mileage and nobody ever asked for a ride (which is why I still have a coupe), but I also really never encountered anyone else with one, much less driving like an idiot (and it wasn’t me, I’m a really cautious driver)… so I’m kinda curious. Coupes in general have never been particularly popular around here.
Did I just lucky and get one that survived?
Mitsubishi stopped making the eclipse in 1999. Not sure what it was they made after that but it was not an Eclipse.
Doesn’t look like anything to me.
What?
You said they didn’t make it, I sent the Kelly blue book listing for the exact year I had…
(Maybe you think it was meant to be a picture? It isn’t.)
lol, I think they are saying that the “Eclipse” died after Gen 2 stopped in 2000.
And I have to say that I agree. Gen 2 was the best Eclipse design.
The only thing I remember about the 2000’s eclipse was the Girls that drove them. They were like jetta girls but hung out in pool halls.
I’ll never forgive them for killing off the Lancer. I love my Lancer, would love to upgrade, but nope.
I’ll never forgive Mitsubishi for MY SHINS!
It’s like the whole of Japan just decided to kill all the interesting or fun cars they made.
Toyota put out the Scion badge for the young’uns, marketing cars the same way Texas Instruments markets calculators: Let’s sell replaceable colored face plates at $20 a pop, $30 for the pink ones. They were designed to last 5 years and the brand was discontinued like 7 years ago now. There are no more Scions in the world. Meanwhile the Toyota marque went full diaper bag. The Celica, Supra, MR2, all gone never to return, in their place were minivans with built-in vacuums and other 2000 pound self-propelled diaper bags. If they made a 2-door Corolla, they would have discontinued it. And for the folks who sit and watch the Weather Channel while waiting to die, one of the dull colored unnamed loafers on the Lexus lot is waiting for you.
Honda did basically the same thing at the same time though they weren’t as Japanese about it; they kept making an Accord with a spoiler on it.
Subaru and Mitsubishi both kind of faded into the background to the point you forget they ever existed and Isuzu and Suzuki both actually stopped making cars for the North American market.
And the Koreans didn’t really rise up to fill the gap left by the Japanese.
Yeah seriously, especially that last bit. Hyundai is absolutely killing it with their N series right now.
Wait… this isn’t loss.
It’s sad that we probably will never see Mitsubishi make “VR-4” vehicles again. I’d love to see a modern version of the galant and 3000gt on a shared platform. Japanese muscle was really cool.
The VR4 with all wheel drive, all wheel steering, and a hardtop convertible was YEARS ahead of its time. They threw pearls before swine.
They got Mustanged!
Throw the WRX up there too
What do you mean? At least the new WRX is still a sedan, still AWD, still has a boxer, and can still be bought as a manual.
Sure, it’s making about the same horsepower as 20 years ago, and it got progressively heavier as Subaru needed to add more safety equipment to remain compliant, but it’s nowhere near as bad as Ford and Mitsubishi taking legendary name plates and slapping them on crossover SUVs.
Exactly. 20 years of samey power in a porkier, blander, body. What’s not to love? I just can’t imagine a 22b would appreciate the glance into the future.
Just my snarky, subjective take.
Sure, but let’s all agree it could be worse.
If it were added to this meme, it’d have a reaction somewhere between the Supra and the Eclipse. Something like “oh, okay”.
80s Celica/Supras are still my favorite
We had an 84 Celica GT hatch when I was a little boy. I’d been told it had something like 386,000 miles when it was parked in like 2003 and it still ran. It just had a bunch of other issues. Good old R engines. They’ll outlive the death of the sun with basic maintenance.
One of the Celicas looked like a 7/8 scale Mustang, those were cool.
Mitsubishi is dead to me.
1993 eagle talon tsi, ‘nuff said…
I loved my ‘96 ESi. I ended up getting Hahn Racecraft’s stage 2 kit for it but the head gasket ended up going. Stupid weak head gasket in the 420a.
Those 2nd gen DSMs are a beauty, but the first gens also have a really good look as well. There’s one for sale up the road from me and I’ve thought about asking about it.
My mate had a BEAUTIFUL eagle talon with a giant stylized eagle on the hood. Until the engine exploded.
I modded the crap out of the first 2 gens. This is sad.
As a former owner of a Mitsubishi 1996 Eclipse GS-T and 1997 GSX…it died for me when they did the weird model with the indented lines on the side.
Yeah that 3rd gen was ugly as fuck
I loved my Sapporo.
I’d love for the Galant to make a comeback. Such an underrated car.
Same 4G63 as the Talon/Laser/Eclipse and AWD… Family race car.
Galant was my only experience with Mitsubishi. Worst car I have ever owned.
I owned a 1992 and 1994 Eagle Talon Tsi AWD (the '94 was pretty modified). I had a lot of fun in that car.
It was a mid 12 sec (in the 1/4 mile) car on pump gas in the late 1990’s. I upset a lot of Corvette’s, Mustangs and Camaro’s back then.
My license plate was ‘V8EATR’. :)
What’s the Toyota Z4 doing in this comic?
Oh no I’m sorry car make collaborations bother you.
It’s a rebadge… it’s not a damn collaboration. The Mark iv was a collaboration with a bunch of companies…this is a damn BMW, looks good but it’s a BMW.
No, it’s a full on collab. The bits that are BMW are the interior, drivetrain and the chassis. The body, suspension, and engine tune are all Toyota. Very different cars, even if they share a mom.
Also Toyota gave BMW’s engine the Toyota look-over and told BMW how to make the engine more reliable to Toyota’s standards, so we get better BMW engines out of that.
No it’s not lol the entire car is BMW, Toyota put a body kit on the z4 and called it a day. Saying they put different suspension and engine tune is hilarious… I didn’t BPU+ my supras and say I collaborated with Toyota lol
The B series has been around for a long time, Toyota didn’t do shit to the z4 version, that info is from some bullshit that some of the car mags came up with to help hype the car. A lot of us who are OG owners didn’t buy the MKV because Toyota didn’t do shit for it, it was a huge letdown to the majority of us.
Don’t get me wrong it’s a nice looking car, but it’s not going to live up to its name. Toyota should have pulled a Nissan and went over the top like they did with the GTR, which took the R series bar and raised it to mythical status. Toyota had the cash and the ability, but opted to just rebadge a pre build. They built the damn LFA, they could have even spit something out that was 10% LFA and it would have been amazing.
1: Germany has strict laws about “slap a badge and call it a day”, mainly, you aren’t allowed to do that. A good percentage of the car has to be unique. That’s why the Z4 and the Supra have different bodies and suspension - which going from a convertible to a hard top drastically changes how a car behaves. 2: Car mags nothing, the Toyota lead engineer that worked on the project, as well as video documentation, says otherwise. The B series could have been a lot less reliable, but Toyota insisted that BMW change the design in several places, which makes it better than its predecessor. Closed-deck top end, smaller, simpler variable valve timing design, these are some of the things Toyota had BMW change about the engine. 3: You didn’t get a Mk.5 anyway, so do you know the difference? Or did you roll in a Z4 and assume it’s the same? Can you tell me how they “felt the same”? Is it just the BMW active diff wiggle under power? Or are there other tells?
1: Germany has strict laws about “slap a badge and call it a day”, mainly, you aren’t allowed to do that.
The fuck are you taking about, no they do not. All manufacturers do this:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_badge-engineered_vehicles
A good percentage of the car has to be unique. That’s why the Z4 and the Supra have different bodies and suspension - which going from a convertible to a hard top drastically changes how a car behaves.
Cool, no one said they weren’t setup different. It’s still a z4 hardtop which BMW built. That’s why the Toyota techs had to be trained with BMW and they order parts from bmw…
2: Car mags nothing, the Toyota lead engineer that worked on the project, as well as video documentation, says otherwise.
It’s called marketing, they didn’t magically do shit to that motor, it’s still a B series.
3: You didn’t get a Mk.5 anyway, so do you know the difference?
Yea, it’s still a BMW. I don’t know why you’re so upset about this.
Or did you roll in a Z4 and assume it’s the same? Can you tell me how they “felt the same”? Is it just the BMW active diff wiggle under power? Or are there other tells?
How it drives vs what and who designed it are two different things. You’re basically trying to say “if your point held any truth, then all BMWs would handle the same”. That’s not what anyone is saying. It’s built by BMW, using BMW parts, from a car they already had. It’s a hardtop z4, with a Toyota badge and nothing will change this.
public transportation time ¯_(⊙ʖ⊙)/¯
