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Junkyard Gem: 2002 Mitsubishi Lancer OZ Rally Edition

The Mitsubishi Lancer OZ Rally Edition looked fast, with sporty OZ wheels and some Evo-ish body moldings. In fact, it had the same sewing-machine-grade 120-horse four-cylinder under the hood, driving just the front wheels, as the ordinary commuter-appliance Lancer. Mitsubishi moved enough of these things that you see them from time to time; here's a used-up example in a Denver-area self-service wrecking yard. These cars must have been popular in Colorado, because this is the second discarded example I have seen in a couple of months, following this '03. Rear drum brakes on a 21st-century car badged as a Rally Edition? Yes, rear drum brakes. The original factory cold-air intake is gone, replaced by this innovative rain-gutter-downspout rig. Is there anything you can't fix with sheet-metal screws, zip ties, and duct tape? The single non-appearance-related rally-ish bit here is the five-speed manual transmission. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Around the world, there were other faux-sporty versions of this generation of Lancer. For example, the Thai-market Lancer F-Style. Featured Gallery Junked 2002 Mitsubishi Lancer OZ Edition View 20 Photos Auto News Mitsubishi

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 Outlander PHEV arrives in UK with 'no' price premium

For UK buyers who are interested in a plug-in hybrid SUV, the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV just got a little bit sweeter. The reason is that the base model of the vehicle will be available with or without a plug for the same price at the base diesel model. "If it's not going to save people money, they won't buy it" - Mitsubishi UK's Lance Bradley According to Cars UK, the price for the Outlander PHEV will be GBP28,249 (about $47,000 US) after a government grant of GBP5,000. In other words, the plug-in SUV actually costs GBP33,249 ($55,000) but thanks to pro-EV regulations, buyers can choose the powertrain they want, not the one they can afford. The managing director of Mitsubishi UK, Lance Bradley, told BusinessCar that it just makes sense to price the two vehicles at the same level. "There are some clever cars in the market but they're all too expensive," he said. "There should be a clear cost benefit because if it's not going to save people money, they won't buy it. The Outlander PHEV has an all-electric range of 32 miles, a top speed of 75 miles per hour in EV mode and a towing capacity of over 3,000 pounds. The SUV invades Britain in May and is scheduled to arrive in the US in 2015. Mitsubishi Motors North America's Melvin Bautista told AutoblogGreen that the UK price equivalence doesn't mean anything for the US, and that the company hasn't even begun the pricing for the vehicle in the US. The way the vehicles are packaged in the UK is also be different than how things work in the US, so we can't read anything into the UK price. Another factor is that, at the time when the PHEV launches in the US, the standard gasoline version will be undergoing a light facelift, which will also be applied to the PHEV model. This isn't the first time an alternative-fuel powertrain vehicle has cost the same as the old-fashioned gas model. The 2013 Lincoln MKZ could be had with a 2.0-liter hybrid or a 2.0-liter turbocharged EcoBoost four-cylinder for the same price.