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Junkyard Gem: 1990 Mitsubishi Mirage Sedan

In the early 1970s, Chrysler (lacking funds to develop a brand-new subcompact for the American market) began importing Mitsubishi Colt Galants and putting Dodge Colt badges on them. Chrysler's relationship with Mitsubishi deepened over subsequent decades, with numerous Mitsubishis sold here with Dodge, Plymouth, Chrysler, and Eagle badging. That didn't stop Mitsubishi Motors from selling some of the very same vehicles, though, once sales of Mitsubishi-badged cars and trucks began here in the 1983 model year. Starting in 1979, Colt badges moved over to the front-wheel-drive Mirage, with the Mirage itself appearing here for the 1985 model year. Here's one of those cars, a rare 1990 sedan in a Denver self-service yard. In 1990, Americans could choose between four near-identical versions of this car sold by different marques: the Mitsubishi Mirage, Dodge Colt, Plymouth Colt, and Eagle Summit. The MSRP on the '90 Mirage sedan was $8,559 (about $15,015 in 2022 dollars) and the prices of the other three were so close as to make no real difference; customers could just shop for the best rebates and financing. Americans couldn't get this generation of the Dodge/Plymouth Colt as a sedan, though Canadians could. Most of the Mirages and Summits sold here were hatchbacks, but Mitsubishi and Eagle dealers probably wanted something to compete with the Civic and Corolla sedans of the era. Mitsubishi certainly got its money's worth out of the 4G aka Orion engine family! This is a 1.5-liter SOHC 4G15, rated at 81 horsepower. The early Hyundai Excel (and its Mitsubishi-badged twin, the Precis) got a version of this engine. If you bought the Mirage Turbo, you got a DOHC version displacing 1.6 liters and blasting out 135 horses (but it was only available here until 1989 and just as a hatchback). That 81 horsepower was even less fun than it sounds, in this case, because the original buyer of this Mirage skipped the standard-equipment five-speed manual and paid extra for the three-speed automatic. It has air conditioning, with the "Econo" mode that was so popular among 1980s Japanese cars. Not quite 100,000 miles passed beneath its wheels during 32 years of service. At some point, a set of Mercury Tracer hubcaps was slapped on the unsightly steel wheels. The lug holes don't line up, but who's going to notice? Sold out of the now-defunct Ehrlich dealership in Greeley, Colorado, back when you could buy an Isuzu or a Nissan on the same lot.

Nissan, Renault reveal how they'll reshape alliance to cut costs, regain profit

TOKYO — The auto alliance of Nissan and Renault said Wednesday it will be sharing more vehicle parts, technology and models to save costs as the industry struggles to survive the coronavirus pandemic. Alliance Operating Board Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard said the group, which also includes smaller Japanese automaker Mitsubishi, will have each company focusing on geographic regions. “There is no plan for a merger of our companies,” the chairman said. “Our model today is a very distinctive model ... we donÂ’t need a merger to be efficient.” He stressed the alliance needs to adjust to the “unprecedented economic crisis,” to pursue efficiency and competitiveness, not sheer sales volumes. “Now is the time to rebuild,” Senard said, making clear he believed the alliance remained strong. All automakers are suffering from the pandemic, and scaling back or suspending production, but Nissan was reeling before the crisis struck from a scandal involving its former chairman, Carlos Ghosn. Yokohama-based Nissan is due to report its annual results on Thursday and has forecast it will slip into its first yearly loss in 11 years. Under the latest so-called leader-follower initiative, Nissan will focus on China, North America and Japan; Renault on Europe, Russia and South America and North Africa, and Mitsubishi on Southeast Asia and Oceania, for the benefit of the entire alliance. Nissan Chief Executive Makoto Uchida said the alliance planned to pursue fiscal strength together. “The synergy is huge,” he said. The number of vehicles sharing the same platform will double by 2024, saving 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion), according to Senard. The shared technology will also include electric cars and autonomous driving, platforms and car bodies, the executives said. Nissan is a leader in electric cars with its Leaf, but such technology will be available to the other alliance members, they said. The companies gave few details of how the revamp would deliver in the short term, as the car industry grapples with the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic and pressure to develop less polluting vehicles. They said in a joint statement that they aimed to produce nearly half of their vehicles under the new leader-follower approach by 2025 and hoped to cut investment per model in the scheme by up to 40%. The range of vehicles they produce is expected to fall by 20% by 2025 though the firms did not say how many jobs would go as they shift production.

Ghosn flight prompts renewed focus on Japan's strict justice system

TOKYO — Carlos Ghosn's daring flight from Japan, where he was awaiting trial on charges of financial wrongdoing, has revived global criticism of the nation's "hostage justice," but in Japan is prompting talk of reversing more lenient curbs on defendants. The ousted boss of Japan's Nissan and France's Renault fled to Lebanon, saying on Tuesday that he had "escaped injustice" and would "no longer be held hostage by a rigged Japanese justice system." Ghosn was first arrested in November 2018 when his private jet landed in Tokyo and kept in jail for more than 100 days as prosecutors added more charges, all of which he has denied. He was released on $9 million bail in March — only to be arrested and bailed again the following month. He was facing four charges, including underreporting his Nissan salary and transferring personal financial losses to his employer's books while he ran Japan's No. 2 automaker. His apparent escape from Japan's legal system — Tokyo and Lebanon don't have an extradition treaty — will likely halt or even reverse a trend of recent years toward granting bail in more cases, said Colin Jones, a law professor at Doshisha Law School in Kyoto. “I would expect it to be more difficult for foreign defendants to get bail,” Jones said. In Japan, suspects who deny the charges against them are often detained for long periods and subject to intense questioning without a lawyer present, a system critics call "hostage justice." Japanese civil rights groups and the main bar lawyers association have long criticized a system that convicts 99.9% of criminal defendants. They say it gives too much power to prosecutors, who can detain suspects for long periods before indictment, and relies too much on confessions, some later found to have been forced and false. Ghosn's escape is clearly a shock to Japan's legal establishment. "This case raises the extremely serious issue of whether it's all right to continue the trend toward bail leniency," said former prosecutor Yasuyuki Takai. "The legal profession and lawmakers need to quickly consider new legal measures or a system to prevent such escapes," Takai, who was formerly with the special investigation unit of the prosecutor's office, told public broadcaster NHK.