2004 Mitsubishi Eclipse 5 Speed 2.4 Liter 4 Cylinder With Air Conditioning on 2040-cars

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Mitsubishi ending US production

Mitsubishi is closing the doors on its US production as part of a "strategic move," Japan's Nikkei news service reports. According to Automotive News, the company declined to comment on the factory, and instead said it had "no plans to stop selling" vehicles in the United States. That's not what we asked, folks. According to the Nikkei news, the company is in the process of finding a buyer for is Normal, IL factory, which it opened as part of a joint venture with Chrysler back in 1988. The facility currently employs 918 UAW workers, whose jobs Mitsubishi is attempting to save as part of its negotiations with labor reps. The Normal plant is the only Japanese production facility with UAW representation, Automotive News reports. Normal is responsible for production of the Outlander Sport, building nearly 70,000 examples last year. Production is continuing on, according to the vice president for the local UAW Local, Kyle Young. "We haven't heard anything," Young told AN in a phone interview. "We're supposed to have negotiations coming up" in August. It's not clear how much the Mitsubishi will be selling the Normal plant for, nor is it clear if any parties are interested in picking up the facility, which contributes around $120 million to the local economy each year.

Brand new cars are being sold with defective Takata airbags

If you just bought a 2016 Audi TT, 2017 Audi R8, 2016–17 Mitsubishi i-MiEV, or 2016 Volkswagen CC, we have some unsettling news for you. A report provided to a US Senate committee that oversees the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and reported on by Automotive News claims these vehicles were sold with defective Takata airbags. And it gets worse. Toyota and FCA are called out in the report for continuing to build vehicles that will need to be recalled down the line for the same issue. That's not all. The report also states that of the airbags that have been replaced already in the Takata recall campaign, 2.1 million will need to eventually be replaced again. They don't have the drying agent that prevents the degradation of the ammonium nitrate, which can lead to explosions that can destroy the airbag housing and propel metal fragments at occupants. So these airbags are out there already. We're not done yet. There's also a stockpile of about 580,000 airbags waiting to be installed in cars coming in to have their defective airbags replaced. These 580k airbags also don't have the drying agent. They'll need to be replaced down the road, too. A new vehicle with a defective Takata airbag should be safe to drive, but that margin of safety decreases with time. If all this has you spinning around in a frustrated, agitated mess, there's a silver lining that is better than it sounds. So take a breath, run your fingers through your hair, and read on. Our best evidence right now demonstrates that defective Takata airbags – those without the drying agent that prevents humidity from degrading the ammonium nitrate propellant – aren't dangerous yet. It takes a long period of time combined with high humidity for them to reach the point where they can rupture their housing and cause serious injury. It's a matter of years, not days. So a new vehicle with a defective Takata airbag should be safe to drive, but that margin of safety decreases with time – and six years seems to be about as early as the degradation happens in the worst possible scenario. All this is small comfort for the millions of people who just realized their brand-new car has a time bomb installed in the wheel or dashboard, or the owners who waited patiently to have their airbags replaced only to discover that the new airbag is probably defective in the same way (although newer and safer!) as the old one.

Mitsubishi recalling 2011 Outlander Sport over panoramic roofs that may fly off

The panoramic roof offered on the 2011 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport is a great way to make the cabin feel more open, but some owners of the compact CUV could get a little more openness than they bargained for. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced a recall for Outlander Sport models built between August 2010 and March 2011 due to the possibility that the panoramic roof could fly off.
On about 3,200 Outlander Sport models in the US and Puerto Rico, a potentially improper installation process could have resulted in a lack of adhesive primer between the glass and the roof, which could allow the glass to detach from the vehicle and become dangerous debris on the road. Fortunately, it sounds like there have only been two instances of detached roofs, and neither was in the US. As a fix, Mitsubishi dealers will check to make sure the primer was used, and if not, the glass will be reinstalled following the proper procedure. Scroll down for the official NHTSA recall notice.