2008 Red Mitsubishi Eclipse 50k Mileage Fully Loaded !!!! on 2040-cars

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Carlos Ghosn appears in court: 'I am wrongly accused'

TOKYO — Former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn told a Tokyo court on Tuesday that he was innocent, defending his honor in his first public appearance since he was arrested on Nov. 19 and charged with false financial reporting. "Your honor, I am innocent of the accusations against me," Ghosn told the judge, speaking firmly and calmly as he read from a statement. "I am wrongfully accused." Prosecutors have charged Ghosn, who led a dramatic turnaround at the Japanese automaker over the past two decades, with falsifying financial reports in underreporting his income by about 5 billion yen ($44 million) over five years through 2015. They also say he is suspected of having Nissan temporarily take on his investment losses from the financial crisis. Seen for the first time since his November arrest, Ghosn was wearing a dark suit without a tie, and plastic slippers, and looked thinner and with gray hair. He rebutted the allegations against him point-by-point and said he had the option to leave Nissan but had decided to stay on. "A captain doesn't jump ship during a storm," he told the court in a strong voice. The veteran auto executive, a familiar face at the World Economic Forum and other elite gatherings, was handcuffed and led into the courtroom with a rope around his waist as the hearing began. Officers uncuffed him and seated him on a bench. Presiding judge Yuichi Tada then read out the charges and said Ghosn, a Brazilian-born Frenchman of Lebanese ancestry, was considered a flight risk — he was arrested on his arrival in Tokyo by private jet — and might try to hide evidence. In Japan, suspects are routinely held without bail, often due to fears about evidence tampering. During Tuesday's hearing, Go Kondo, one of Ghosn's lawyers, argued he was not a flight risk. "He's widely known so it's difficult for him to escape. There is no risk that the suspect will destroy evidence," he said. Facing the courtroom, Ghosn spoke proudly of the automaker's — and his own — achievements, such as reviving iconic models like the GT-R and the Z, expanding operations in China, Russia, Brazil and India and pioneering electric cars and autonomous driving. "I have a genuine love and appreciation for Nissan," he said. Ghosn has been held in spartan conditions at a Tokyo detention facility since he was taken into custody. In keeping with Japanese regulations, he has been allowed visits only from his lawyers and consular officials.

Mitsubishi Mirage will launch in US with three-cylinder engine [w/video]

We have a date with Mitsubishi Mirage (again). The Japanese subcompact is slated to arrive on our shores in September 2013, and it's one of the product offerings meant to help Mitsubishi's US arm raise sales in its next financial year from 55,000 to 80,000. If next year were 1989, we'd say there's no reason that couldn't happen, but from what we've seen, the Mirage is so magnificently meek (have you seen the interior?) that we aren't sure how it will manage that kind of US sales aggression in the 21st century.
Continuing that theme, Car and Driver reports that the Mitsu will launch here with a 1.2-liter, three-cylinder engine. Make no mistake, this is a very popular engine in the Mirage and responsible for its excellent fuel economy. The hatch is doing so well in other markets with its two naturally aspirated tri-cylinders that the Thailand facility that builds the Mirage will have its capacity increased by 33 percent to try and meet demand. In European spec, the 845-kilogram (1,859 pounds) subcompact with the more powerful engine offering 79 horsepower and 78 pound-feet of torque gets 57.3 miles per US gallon and takes 11.7 seconds to get from zero to 62 miles per hour. The question is whether Mitsubishi will boost the output of that engine for our market. If not, only the 70-hp Smart ForTwo will have less horsepower - but the Mirage, interestingly enough, weighs about the same as the microcar.
On its UK site, Mitsubishi said the reveal of the Mirage in back 2011 meant "redefining the standards by which to judge a compact passenger car." We can't wait to find out if that's still true and what that means when it gets here. To prepare yourself, there's video of the Mirage in action below.

Mitsubishi i-MiEV rallies in WAVE 2014 as support vehicle

Hey, we found somebody willing to drive a new Mitsubishi i-MiEV over 1,000 miles. The little-bitty four-seat electric vehicle will be used on the other side of the Pond as a support vehicle in the World Advanced Vehicle Expedition (WAVE) road rally through the Swiss Alps this spring. Brian Orr from EV Matters Ltd. made the purchase, as he'll be providing the support vehicle for Green MotorSport Ltd.'s hand-built utility concept vehicle that's being built with an eye on deploying it in developing countries, the Auto Channel says. Another i-MiEV will be an official, 900 kilogram-plus entrant in the rally, which begins May 31 in Sindelfingen, Germany and finishes a week later in Rigi, Switzerland, with 20 towns or so in between. As many as 70 teams will be joining the party which, in 2013, set a world record for electric-vehicle parades by sending 305 of them very quietly through Zurich. Despite a tiny price tag, i-MiEV sales in the US (where it's simply known as the i) have come to a near halt as Mitsubishi gets ready to shift its plug-in focus to PHEVs. While US i sales jumped 75 percent last year to 1,029 units, the Japanese automaker has moved just four units (!) domestically during the first two months of 2014.