Mitsubishi Eclipse Turbo W/$17k+ Mods And Low Miles! on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Automakers want to stop the EPA's fuel economy rules change, and why that's a shortsighted move

With a Trump Administration looming, the EPA moved quickly after the election to propose finalizing future fuel economy rules last week. The auto industry doesn't like that (surprise), and has started making moves to stop the EPA. Ford CEO Mark Fields said he wanted to lobby Trump to lower the standards, and now the Auto Alliance, a manufacturer group, is saying it will join the fight against cleaner cars. The Alliance represents 12 automakers: BMW, Fiat Chrysler, Ford, GM, Jaguar Land Rover, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi, Porsche, Toyota, VW, and Volvo. Gloria Bergquist, a spokesperson for the Alliance, told Automotive News that the "EPA's sudden and controversial move to propose auto regulations eight months early - even after Congress warned agencies about taking such steps while political appointees were packing their bags - calls out for congressional action to pause this rulemaking until a thoughtful policy review can occur." The EPA was going to consider public comments through April 2017, but then said it would move the deadline to the end of December. That means that it can finalize the rules before President Obama leaves office. The director of public affairs for the Consumer Federation of America, Jack Gillis, said on a conference call with reporters last week when the EPA originally announced its decision that it is unlikely that President Trump will be able to roll back these changes. Gillis also said on the same call that any attempt by the automakers to prevent these changes would be history repeating itself. "These are the same companies that fought airbags, and now promoting the fact that every car has multiple airbags," he said. "These are the same companies that fought the crash-test program, and now are promoting the crash-test ratings published by the government. So, it's clear that they're misperceiving the needs of the American consumer." There are more reasons the Allliance's pushback is flawed. Carol Lee Rawn, the transportation program director for Ceres, said on that call that the automotive industry is a global one, and many automakers are moving to global platforms to help them meet strict fuel economy rules around the world.

2022 Mitsubishi Outlander pricing, fuel economy announced

Mitsubishi has announced pricing on what is probably the most compelling — and important to the company's future — product in a decade, the 2022 Outlander. As we learned at the reveal, the base ES trim will start at $25,795, or $26,990 when the destination charge is factored in. Fuel economy figures are also in, giving the Outlander a rating of 24 miles per gallon in the city, 31 on the highway and 27 combined for the front-wheel-drive model. Mitsubishi's S-AWC all-wheel-drive system, which is available on any trim for $1,800, drops one mpg highway and combined. By way of comparison, the base 2021 Nissan Roque, which uses a similar engine and platform, gets 27 city, 35 highway and 30 combined in front-wheel drive guise. That combined figure matches that of the Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4. It's worth noting that the Mitsubishi Outlander comes standard with a third row for seven-passenger seating, so a direct comparison with the Rogue isn't exactly fair. The ES comes with what is now an obligatory suite of tech, like automatic braking forward and rear, blind spot warnings, and Apple CarPlay/Android Auto. 18-inch alloy wheels are standard, but a $1,000 convenience package adds 20-inchers and the Mitsubishi Connect remote services smartphone link (which comes with 24 months free). That places the three-row ES below the Toyota RAV4 but above the Honda CR-V. Next up is the SE trim, ringing in at $28,845 with everything the ES offers and adding 20-inch wheels, heated front seats and side mirrors, proximity unlocking, and a leather steering wheel. Here, the tech content is boosted quite a bit, with the bird's-eye multi-view camera system, parking sensors, and wireless phone charging. You no longer need an upgrade package to get Mitsubishi Connect, and it also has MiPilot Assist which adds adaptive cruise with stop and go in traffic, lane keeping assist, and traffic sign recognition. The touchscreen gets bumped from 8 to 9 inches, and USB charging ports become available for rear passengers as well. A $2,300 SE Tech Package adds a 12.3-inch LCD instrument panel, premium sound system by Bose, and panoramic sunroof.  The top-spec SEL stickers at $31,945, building upon the other trims while adding the aforementioned 12.3-inch multi-function display, leather seats, 4-way power seats key-linked to memory, three-zone climate control, roof rails, and heated rear seats.

Self-driving Mitsubishis could use adapted missile technology

Mitsubishi is a big company made up of many different divisions and subsidiaries. Yeah, we tend to focus on Mitsubishi Motors, but the sprawling company also manufactures steel, builds televisions – we all knew someone in the 1990s with a hulking Mitsubishi "big screen" – and even screws together fighter jets and the missiles they carry. According to a report from Automotive News Europe, Mitsubishi Motors is hoping to leverage the capabilities of its sister companies to catch up to the competition and get driverless cars on the road by 2020. That means adapting millimeter-wave radars, sensors, and cameras built for missiles to automotive uses. As Mitsubishi sees it, having the development work done on this tech – albeit for a radically different application – gives it a big advantage over the competition. "All we have to do is to put together the components that we already have," Katsumi Adachi, the chief engineer for Mitsu's auto equipment division, told ANE. "None of our competitors have such a wide array of capabilities." As ANE goes on to explain with the help of Tokyo-based IHS analyst Goro Tanamachi, this is no plug-and-play application. That's largely because of the different economics of the automotive and defense industries. In the former, the bean counters have a tremendous say. There are cuts and cost reductions and all sorts of other stuff designed to maximize profit margins. The defense industry, though, is the land of sparing no expense – that, according to Tanamachi-san, could make adapting missile tech to autonomous vehicles a possible, but potentially very pricey proposition. "Cost-cutting requests are much more severe in autos than aerospace," Tanamachi-san told ANE. "I wonder if it's possible for them to bring down the cost of the systems to the levels manufacturers can use for cheap, low-end cars." Related Video: X