2006 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Mr With 4k Original Miles / Evo Lots Of Extras on 2040-cars

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Mitsubishi and Renault-Nissan expand partnership, US will get new sedan

Mitsubishi and Renault-Nissan have just inked an alliance that might, hopefully, reverse the ailing fortunes of the Mitsubishi brand in the US market. The big chunk of news is that Mitsubishi will produce two Renualt-based models for sale in the US market, and that they'll be built at the Renault-Samsung factory in Busan, South Korea.
The plans call for a D-segment sedan to be followed by a C-segment offering. Based on the cars built at the Busan factory, that means Mitsubishi will be getting the SM5 and the SM3, a pair of handsome sedans that are based on Renault-Nissan's D and C platforms, respectively. These same platforms underpin a number of US market Nissans (not to mention a number of cars from Renault), namely the Pathfinder, Maxima, Quest and Murano for the D platform and the last-generation Rogue and Sentra for the C platform.
Besides the sedan production, Nissan and Mitsubishi will be expanding their joint-venture company, NMKV, which produces Kei cars for the Japanese market. A new, all-electric offering will be born from the partnership, likely based on a Kei car platform. The partnership between the three brands will also lead to increased sharing of technology, particularly relating to electric cars.

Weekly Recap: Toyota wants cars to be your 'close friends' around 2020

Toyota confirmed plans this week to launch autonomous technology in its production cars around 2020. The automaker's version is called Highway Teammate, and it's one element of a broader mobility strategy that includes vehicles communicating with each other and the grid. "Toyota believes that interactions between drivers and cars should mirror those between close friends who share a common purpose, sometimes watching over each other and sometimes helping each other out," the company said in a statement. That sounds utopian, and perhaps a bit cheesy, but it's an acknowledgment that autonomous driving requires more than technology developed in a vacuum. Toyota is looking at its research in a broader context, and dubs its overall strategy the Mobility Teammate Concept. Highway Teammate is the first step. Its test vehicle is a modified Lexus GS, which uses road-mapping data and external sensors to merge or exit highways, change lanes, and maintain safe distances during driving. It's operated on the Shuto Expressway in Tokyo. Toyota has been working on autonomous tech since the 1990s, with the goal of providing mobility for older people and the disabled, as well as lowering the frequency of traffic accidents. Toyota's push comes as an early adopter, Nissan, is hedging on its own deadline to implement the autonomous tech by 2020 due to a lack of firm laws governing self-driving cars around the world. Conversely, Volvo took the landmark step of being the first automaker to accept liability for when its cars will operate in autonomous mode, and urged the US government to set federal guidelines to regulate the technology. OTHER NEWS & NOTES 2016 BMW M4 GTS: Your water-injected, turbo-boosted demon BMW is unleashing its most powerful M4 ever, a 493-horsepower special edition that's road legal yet bred for the track. The company is making 700 copies for sale around the world, and 300 of them will come to the United States. The twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter six-cylinder revs to 7,600 rpm and uses a water-injection technology to cool the intake air and lower the compression temperature. BMW says this allows it to wring more power out of the inline six. The car also uses carbon-fiber reinforced plastic for the roof, hood, engine compartment strut brace, drive shaft, and rear spoiler to reduce weight. The M4 features BMW's organic light-emitting diode taillights, which are said to be an industry first.

Mitsubishi Mirage retiring from the Japanese market in current form

The city-friendly sixth-generation Mitsubishi Mirage has reached the end of its career on the Japanese market. The company's consumer website notes that production has ended, and the news fuels speculation that the hatchback will soon retire from the American market. "Due to the end of production of the Mirage, we may not be able to meet the customer's request for body color, options, etc. Please contact our sales staff for details," the message reads. Interestingly, the end of production isn't announced on Mitsubishi's American website. While the Mirage is overshadowed by Mitsubishi's crossovers and SUVs in the United States, a market that has traditionally been unkind to small hatchbacks, it's relatively popular in several Asian markets and nothing suggests slow sales caused its demise. The current-generation model received a new-look exterior design and additional tech features for 2021, but it entered production in April 2012 as a hatchback and in June 2013 as a sedan so it's fairly old in car years — it sounds like the Mirage has simply reached the end of its natural life cycle. It's too early to tell what's next; our spies haven't spotted a new Mirage testing yet. We know that in some markets Mitsubishi will soon revive the heritage-laced Colt nameplate on a hatchback related to the Renault Clio, but we wouldn't be surprised if the Mirage lives on in one form or another. The Clio stretches about eight inches longer and five inches wider than the Mirage so the Colt won't land as a direct replacement. Similarly, what this means for the Mirage's career in the United States is unclear at this point. "The Mirage remains an integral part of our U.S. line-up at this time," a company spokesperson told Autoblog. Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.