Mitsubishi Montero Limited Suv 4x4 2001 New Motor 18,000 On Engine Black on 2040-cars

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A car writer's year in new vehicles [w/video]

Christmas is only a week away. The New Year is just around the corner. As 2014 draws to a close, I'm not the only one taking stock of the year that's we're almost shut of. Depending on who you are or what you do, the end of the year can bring to mind tax bills, school semesters or scheduling dental appointments. For me, for the last eight or nine years, at least a small part of this transitory time is occupied with recalling the cars I've driven over the preceding 12 months. Since I started writing about and reviewing cars in 2006, I've done an uneven job of tracking every vehicle I've been in, each year. Last year I made a resolution to be better about it, and the result is a spreadsheet with model names, dates, notes and some basic facts and figures. Armed with this basic data and a yen for year-end stories, I figured it would be interesting to parse the figures and quantify my year in cars in a way I'd never done before. The results are, well, they're a little bizarre, honestly. And I think they'll affect how I approach this gig in 2015. {C} My tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015 it'll be as high as 73. Let me give you a tiny bit of background about how automotive journalists typically get cars to test. There are basically two pools of vehicles I drive on a regular basis: media fleet vehicles and those available on "first drive" programs. The latter group is pretty self-explanatory. Journalists are gathered in one location (sometimes local, sometimes far-flung) with a new model(s), there's usually a day of driving, then we report back to you with our impressions. Media fleet vehicles are different. These are distributed to publications and individual journalists far and wide, and the test period goes from a few days to a week or more. Whereas first drives almost always result in a piece of review content, fleet loans only sometimes do. Other times they serve to give context about brands, segments, technology and the like, to editors and writers. So, adding up the loans I've had out of the press fleet and things I've driven at events, my tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015, it'll be as high as 73. At one of the buff books like Car and Driver or Motor Trend, reviewers might rotate through five cars a week, or more. I know that number sounds high, but as best I can tell, it's pretty average for the full-time professionals in this business.

MotorWeek remembers a better time for Mitsubishi performance

Dodge still knows how to create an capable performance car – look at the Hellcats, for example – but the same isn't true for Mitsubishi. With the Lancer Evo's demise, we don't expect driving enthusiasts to clamor for any of the Japanese automaker's other products. Things used to be different, though. As MotorWeek found in its new Retro Review, the 1991 Mitsubishi 3000GT VR4 and its sibling, the Dodge Stealth R/T Turbo, were impressive sports coupes in their day. Dodge and Mitsubishi packed a bevy of cutting-edge tech into the coupes. In these trims, both sported all-wheel drive, four-wheel steering, an adjustable suspension, active exhaust, and automatic climate control. The 3000GT VR4 upped the ante even more with active aero parts at the front and rear. Their 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6 was good for 300 horsepower and 307 pound-feet, which were good numbers at the time. This pair put all their gizmos to good use, too. MotorWeek compares the all-wheel-drive system's grip levels to a Porsche 911 Carrera 4. When was the last time you heard any favorable similarity between a Mitsubishi and a Porsche? The Stealth R/T Turbo and 3000GT VR4 came from a special time for Japanese sports coupes, when every brand had a halo model. Whether you were looking at Nissan 300ZX, Mazda RX-7, Toyota Supra, or even the Acura NSX, there was a lot to like on the market. MotorWeek's latest Retro Review offers a great reminder of that period.

Junkyard Gem: 1999 Mitsubishi Galant GTZ-V6

The Mitsubishi Galant first appeared on American streets as the 1971 Dodge Colt and then a bit later with Dodge Challenger and Plymouth Sapporo badges. Mitsubishi Motors finally began selling Galants from its own U.S. showrooms for the 1985 model year, and Galant sales continued here through four more generations before getting the axe in 2012. We saw some interesting and/or quick Galants along the way, including the Sigma, VR-4, GS-X and Ralliart; today's Junkyard Gem is a rare example of the sporty eighth-generation Galant GTZ sedan, found in a North Carolina self-service wrecking yard recently. The final year for the hot-rod all-wheel-drive VR-4 and GS-X Galants in the United States was 1992. By 1998, there were just three levels of new Galant here, all with 141-horse four-cylinder engines driving the front wheels. Then the 1999 model year arrived, and so did the 6G72 V6 engine under Galant hoods. This SOHC (yet still 24-valve) engine was rated at 161 horsepower and 205 pound-feet. It was available in the U.S.-market ES-V6, GTZ-V6 and LS-V6 Galants for the '99. The GTZ was sporty-looking, but not as loaded with luxury features as the LS. 1999 was the first model year for the eighth-generation Galant in North America, and it had finally become big and powerful enough to be considered a genuine rival for the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord (both of which had been available with V6 power for quite a few years). The 1999 Galant got a grille that resembled the one on its upscale Diamante big brother, which had five years to live at the time. The MSRP for this car was $24,300, which comes to about $46,374 in 2024 dollars. The base 1999 Galant DE started at just $16,999, or $32,441 in today's money. Those prices were in the ballpark with the Galant's Camry and Accord rivals; the Camry LE V6 with automatic started at $22,748 ($43,412 now) with automatic transmission, while the Accord LX V6 with automatic was $21,700 ($41,412 today). Both those cars had a lot more power than the Mitsubishi, though: 194 horsepower for the Toyota and 200 for the Honda. The 1999 Galant sold in the United States was not available with a manual transmission, which made the El Cheapo DE trim level a steal compared to the cost of two-pedal base Accords and Camrys. The Galant DE even came with air conditioning at no extra cost. The factory wing on the GT-Z is serious. Collectible today? Hardly, but an interesting bit of automotive history. This content is hosted by a third party.