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Junkyard Gem: 1986 Mitsubishi Cordia L

New Mitsubishi cars first showed up in the United States with Dodge Colt badging in the 1971 model year, and a broad range of Dodge- and Plymouth-badged Mitsubishis followed them across the Pacific in subsequent years. For the 1983 model year, cars bearing Mitsubishi badges finally appeared here, and there were four models available to start with: the Starion, Mighty Max, Tredia and Cordia. The sporty Starion and the sibling-to-the-Ram-50 Mighty Max pickup remain well-known to this day, but the Tredia and its Cordia platform-mate have all but disappeared from streets, junkyards and — for most of us — memories. I thought I'd never see another discarded Cordia again after spotting a first-year example nearly a decade ago, but then this '86 showed up in a San Francisco Bay Area self-service car graveyard recently. The Cordia and Tredia were the same car, mechanically speaking. The Tredia was a subcompact sedan priced to compete with the Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic, while the Cordia was a slick-looking liftback coupe that sought to lure potential buyers away from the likes of the Datsun 200SX, Toyota Celica and Isuzu Impulse. Both the Cordia and Tredia sold very well in Australia and New Zealand, but North Americans mostly ignored the Cordia and laughed at the Tredia. The last model year for both models in America was 1988. The Cordia was a cousin to the Galant and had the same front-wheel-drive layout. In 1986, Cordia engine choices were a naturally-aspirated 2.0-liter 4G63 straight-four rated at 88 horsepower and 108 pound feet and a turbocharged 1.8-liter 4G62T straight-four with 116 horsepower and 129 pound-feet. This car has the 2.0. A five-speed manual transmission was base Cordia equipment, but the original purchaser of this car opted for the 380-buck automatic (that's 1,067 of today's bucks). The emissions sticker tells us that this is a California-market car rather than a "49-state" version. Surprisingly for a car like this in the middle 1980s, an AM/FM stereo radio was base equipment. That worked out well for those who enjoyed the great music of the era. However, if you wanted to play cassettes you had to pay extra. This setup with separate cassette deck was fairly common during the decade; the cost for the 1986 Cordia was $133 (about $374 in 2023 dollars). The paint is faded but the interior doesn't look terribly thrashed.

Mitsubishi says it will make money from EVs

The Mitsubishi i-MiEV is the lowest-cost plug-in vehicle available in the US. The spartan EV's small price tag shouldn't lead you to believe the company doesn't see dollar signs where there's a plug. Mitsubishi says that electric vehicles are one of the three profitable segments that have helped the company get back into the black. The other two are light trucks and crossovers. We suspect that the resounding success of the Outlander PHEV played a bigger role in this than the i-MiEV, but you never know. Mitsubishi Motors Corp president Tetsuro Aikawa told Automotive News that the company will keeps its focus on those three segments and ease back on sedans and performance cars. To that end, the Outlander Plug-In Hybrid will come to the US next April, many years after it went on sale in Japan and Europe. The vehicle will fit well with Mitsubishi's plans to shift its strategy to SUVs and CUVs here. Related Video:

Lexus tops JD Power Vehicle Dependability Study again, Buick bests Toyota

It shouldn't surprise anyone, but Lexus has once again taken the top spot in JD Power's Vehicle Dependability Study. That'd be the Japanese luxury brand's fourth straight year at the top of table. The big news, though, is the rise of Buick. General Motor's near-premium brand beat out Toyota to take second place, with 110 problems per 100 vehicles compared to Toyota's 111 problems. Lexus owners only reported 89 problems per 100 vehicles. Besides Buick's three-position jump, Scion enjoyed a major improvement, jumping 13 positions from 2014. Ram and Mitsubishi made big gains, as well, moving up 11 and 10 positions, respectively. In terms of individual segments, GM and Toyota both excelled, taking home seven segment awards each. The study wasn't good news for all involved, though. A number of popular automakers finished below the industry average of 147 problems per 100 vehicles, including Subaru, (157PP100), Volkswagen (165PP100), Ford/Hyundai (188PP100 each) and Mini (193PP100). The biggest losers (by a tremendous margin, we might add) were Land Rover and Fiat, recording 258 and 273 problems per 100 vehicles. The next closest brand was Jeep, with 197PP100. While the Vehicle Dependability Study uses the same measurement system as the Initial Quality Survey, the two metrics analyze very different things. The VDS looks at problems experienced by original owners of model year 2012 vehicles over the past 12 months, while the oft-quoted IQS focuses on problems in the first 90 days of new-vehicle ownership. Like the IQS, though, the VDS has a rather broad definition of what a problem is. Because of that, a low score from JD Power is no guarantee of extreme unreliability, so much as just poor design. In this most recent study, the two most reported problems focused on Bluetooth connectivity and the voice-command systems. The former leaves plenty of room for user error due to poor design (particularly true of the Bluetooth systems on the low-scoring Fords, Volkswagens and Subarus), while the second is something JD Power has already confirmed as being universally terrible. That makes means that while these studies are important, they shouldn't be taken as gospel when it comes to automotive reliability. News Source: JD PowerImage Credit: Copyright 2015 Jeremy Korzeniewski / AOL Buick Fiat Ford GM Hyundai Jeep Land Rover Lexus MINI Mitsubishi RAM Scion Subaru Toyota Volkswagen Auto Repair Ownership study