1999 Mitsubishi Eclipse Gs Hatchback 2-door 2.0l on 2040-cars

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Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution recalled over clutch woes

Mitsubishi will be recalling over 10,000 Lancer Evolutions built between December 12, 2007 and March 5, 2013, covering model years 2008 to 2013. The recall only affects cars with manual transmissions, though, so if you opted for a Lancer Evo with a quick-shifting SST, this recall doesn't apply to you.
If you're one of the 10,474 people that has a Lancer Evo X GSR, which is the only way into a manual-trans Evo X, you need to plan a trip to your local dealer. The recall relates to a failure in the clutch master cylinder, making shifting in and out of gear difficult. Consequently, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that this could increase the odds of crashing.
Mitsu will notify owners of the affected cars, and these Evo models will be repaired, free of charge, at dealerships. The recall is slated to begin around November 11. Scroll down for the full bulletin from the NHTSA.

Mitsubishi i-MiEV reportedly reaches the end of the road this year

It looks like the Mitsubishi i-MiEV is completely out of juice. News outlet Nikkei reports that Mitsubishi will completely end production of its tiny electric car this year. While the i-MiEV had been discontinued in the U.S. for a few years already, it was apparently still on sale elsewhere. That didn't mean it was doing well, as Nikkei notes that global sales were only a little over 30,000 units over its lifetime. It's not hard to see why the i-MiEV struggled. While its kei-car size and funky styling made it a unique city car, it was compromised in other ways. It only made 66 horsepower and had an official range of 62 miles. While the limited range was augmented somewhat by DC fast charging capability, but it didn't take long for competitors to launch larger, more powerful, longer-range cars for not a whole lot more money. And the gulf between the i-MiEV only expanded over the years. According to Nikkei, the reason the i-MiEV went so long unchanged was a lack of funding and resources. But now that Mitsubishi is part of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, the news outlet reports that there will be a successor to the bubbly EV co-developed with Nissan to be launched in 2023. Whether this next small electric Mitsubishi appears in the U.S. seems like a toss-up. We wouldn't have expected the kei-car based i-MiEV to have been brought here originally, simply because of the cost of making such a tiny car pass safety regulations, let alone appeal to American buyers that like size. Those issues haven't changed, and if anything, American buyers are even more keen on trucks and SUVs than before. But maybe if fuel economy and emissions regulations get stiff enough, Mitsubishi might see a benefit to offering a full EV here, even if it's an odd size. Related Video:

Mitsubishi Outlander rumored to get Nissan engine, Rogue Sport to get PHEV

A report in the Japanese business daily Nikkei, picked up by Automotive News, said Mitsubishi anticipates using a Nissan engine in the next-generation Outlander headed our way later this year. If the report comes true, the engine swap would be a first for the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance partners outside of Japanese kei cars. Mitsubishi engineers will have an easier time slotting in a Nissan engine as the next-gen Outlander gives up its GS platform — an architecture Mitsubishi co-developed with Daimler Chrysler almost 20 years ago — to move to a modified version of the CMF platform that supports the Nissan Rogue and Qashqai, our Rogue Sport.    Last December, Auto Express spoke to Ponz Pandikuthira, NissanÂ’s European vice president of product planning. The exec said Nissan had two hybrid powertrains under consideration for the next-generation Qashqai, the first being Nissan's serial hybrid ePower system that's fared well in Japan where overall speeds are low, but that might not be suited to Europe's higher average speeds. As for a PHEV, Pandikuthira said, "WeÂ’re not pursuing a big plug-in hybrid strategy. On some car lines weÂ’ll try it out, but the business case for plug-in hybrids is not very good." Completing the round-turn, Nikkei said Mitsubishi would supply its PHEV for the compact Nissan, making the Qashqai the car line that gets the tryout. If that happens, and assuming Nissan brings it here, the Rogue Sport would be Nissan's first PHEV in the U.S. Nissan has tended to delay updating the Rogue Sport to Qashqai spec, so depending on when a PHEV version arrives, it could be the only hybrid in Nissan's U.S. fleet since the Rogue Hybrid retired for the 2020 model year.  The platform and engine exchange would have been planned before Nissan's troubles over the past 18 months, but they represent the alliance's growing effort for greater synergy and lower costs. One supposed tactic going forward comes from the Volkswagen Group playbook, identifying a brand's expertise and putting the brand in charge of developing that expertise for the alliance, the same way the Volkswagen brand develops low-cost platforms and Audi runs R&D for the group. We'll know more about plans afoot at the Franco-Japanese trio when the alliance unveils its new midterm business plan perhaps as soon as this month. Related Video: