The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution: A Millennial Icon Burned into Our Collective Memory

The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution is undoubtedly one of the most desired cars for anyone born after 1985. Its popularity can be attributed to its appearance in movies, video games, and anime, making it a millennial icon that has been burned into our collective memory. The car's sleek design and powerful engine made it a staple of the tuning scene in the States. However, today, Mitsubishi's lineup is boring, and one can't help but wonder how they managed to kill off their most iconic model.

The Loss of the Performance Car

Mitsubishi's decision to discontinue its performance car lineup has left many fans disappointed and confused. The company has shifted its focus towards crossover SUVs and commuter cars, which may appeal to a wider audience, but will it be enough to fill the void left by the Lancer Evolution? The loss of this iconic model is a significant blow to Mitsubishi's reputation as a manufacturer of performance cars.

The History Behind the Decision

To understand why Mitsubishi made this decision, we need to delve into its troubled history. According to sources, there are some surprising reasons behind this brand shift. The exact details are still not fully known, but it appears that Mitsubishi has lost touch with what its fans want from a car. In an interview, Jameth of Donutarium revealed that he did a bunch of digging to uncover the truth behind Mitsubishi's decision.

Jameth's Journey Through Kaladesh

In a bizarre turn of events, Jameth of Donutarium decided to take a journey through the plane of Kaladesh in search of answers. This journey took him through arduous mountain terrain, wind-whipped plains, and even cataclysmic gearhulks and aether theorists. Along the way, he encountered fierce foes, but ultimately, his determination paid off.

The Role of Magic The Gathering

Jameth's journey was sponsored by Magic The Gathering, a popular trading card game that has been entertaining fans for years. Magic The Gathering Arena is a free-to-play online game that features the latest card sets and mechanics for Magic The Gathering. The game allows players to learn the game at their own pace and become a master player.

The Impact of Magic The Gathering on Jameth's Journey

Jameth's experience with Magic The Gathering added a new dimension to his journey through Kaladesh. He was able to hone his skills in the game and even participate in e-sports qualifiers, which offered exciting prizes. This new challenge helped him stay focused and determined throughout his journey.

The Eclipse Cross: A Crossover SUV that Made People Mad

One of Mitsubishi's latest attempts to revamp its lineup is the Eclipse Cross, a crossover SUV that has sparked controversy among fans. The name "Eclipse" may seem fitting for this car, but it actually refers to one of Mitsubishi's most iconic sports cars, second only to the Lancer Evolution. However, in this case, the Eclipse Cross does not live up to the legacy of its predecessor.

The Legacy of the Eclipse

The Eclipse is a true sports car that has been an integral part of the tuning scene in the States. Its presence on the market was enough to make people take notice, and it's no wonder why. The Eclipse was a desirable car among car enthusiasts, and its disappearance from the market has left a void that can't be filled.

The Future of Mitsubishi

Mitsubishi's decision to discontinue its performance car lineup raises questions about the company's future. Will they be able to regain their reputation as a manufacturer of high-performance cars? Only time will tell. In the meantime, fans of the Lancer Evolution and other iconic Mitsubishi models can only hope that the company will listen to their feedback and bring back some of their beloved performance cars.

Conclusion

The story of Mitsubishi's performance car lineup is a complex one, filled with twists and turns. From its origins as a manufacturer of high-performance cars to its current state as a company that has lost touch with what its fans want from a car. The loss of the Lancer Evolution is a significant blow to Mitsubishi's reputation, but it also presents an opportunity for the company to revamp its lineup and appeal to a new generation of car enthusiasts.

The Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross: A Crossover SUV That Made People Mad

Mitsubishi made people mad with their latest attempt to revamp their lineup - the Eclipse Cross. The name might seem fitting, but in reality, it's an SUV that doesn't live up to its predecessor's legacy.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Thank you to Magic The Gatheringfor sponsoring a portion of this video.- The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution.Beautiful, isn't it?A rally car for the road.A millennial icon burnedinto our collective memorythrough movies, video games, and anime.Undoubtedly, one of the most desired carsfor anyone born after 1985.Thanks to this car,Mitsubishi was gonna be cool forever.(car crash)At least that's what I thought.Today Mitsubishi's lineup is boring.Why?How could they?How dare they kill offtheir most iconic modelin favor of crossoverSUV's and commuter cars?Well, it's because theydon't care what you think.Are they tone deaf?Why did they stop making cool cars?Is this a good decision?Why don't they care what we think?Today were gonna look at the long,and frankly strange,troubled history of Mitsubishiand see if they can survivewithout having a singleperformance car in their lineup.I did a bunch of diggingto find out what was behindthis total branding 180.And what I found out was crazy.- Thanks to Magic TheGathering for sponsoringa portion of today's video.Welcome friends to today's expansiveand never before traveled journeythrough the plain of Kaladesh.Call me Jameth of Donutariumas I guide the grand delinquent voyagethrough arduous mountain terrain,wind whipped plains,as cataclysmic gearhulksand aether theoristsrun rampant in a classicArmageddon of fierce foes.But do not fear--- James, areyou coming down for dinner?- Babe!I'm in the middle of somethingand I told you to call me Jameth.- Okay sweetie.Help me when you're done.I put those donuts in the oven for ya.(female voice laughs)- Where was I?Ah, yes.Let the games begin.Oh, a mere mortal.This should be easy.Let me just lay my demon of dark scheme.(James laughs)What?No!No, no, no, no, no!- I got you again, James.You almost had me that time.Tell you what, if you ever beat me,I'll help you get yourAE86 actually running.- Sounds good.Later, buddy.See you next time.Magic The Gathering hasalways been a fun experience,and now it's even more fun,despite me taking constant Ls,with Magic The Gathering Arena.It's their free to play online gamefeaturing their most up-to-date card setsand mechanics for Magic The Gathering.It's really cool asthe arena makes it easyfor anyone to learn thegame and become a master,honing their skills at their own pace.They even have all kinds of new game modeslike draft and brawl,and special in game eventsoffer exciting prizes.And who knows, you couldeven be the next Magic Prowith e-sports qualifiers.So what are you waiting for?There's no better time to start playing.So click on the link inthe description belowto start playing MTG Arena for free today.Maybe you'll get matched with old Jameth.That portion of thevideo was brought to youby Magic The Gathering.- This is the Eclipse Cross.It's a crossover SUV andit made a lot of peoplea lot of mad.Why?Well, the name.The Eclipse is one ofMitsubishi's most iconic cars,second to the Evo.It was a true sports car.And as we'll see, it wasintegral to the tuning scenehere in the States."The Fast and the Furious"might not be aroundif it wasn't for this car.It's that important.To put that name on this is bold,to say the least.People lost their marbles when Mitsubishifirst announced this thing.But as I'll keep reminding you,Mitsubishi doesn't care what you think.Mitsubishi is not just a car company.The Mitsubishi most peopleknow is Mitsubishi Motors,a small subsidiary of theMitsubishi Corporation,which has their hands inpretty much every industryincluding energy, banking,mining, farming, and real estate.With cars playing a relatively small rolewithin the Mitsubishi business universe,this actually makesMitsubishi Motors a moreinteresting company toexamine than other OEMs,in my opinion.If your business doesn't necessarily relyon cars to survive,how does that influencewhat kind of cars you build?That's an exciting question to me.Mitsubishi started building cars in 1918,when the Mitsubishi shipbuilding companychurned out the Model A,which was Japan's first production car,with a run of 22 units.Fast forward 50 yearsand Mitsubishi Motors islooking to get into America.But they can't do it alone.So, they linked up withChrysler in Detroitto bring their Gallant to the Statesunder the name Dodge Colt.This is what's called a captive import.The car built somewhere else has one name,brought to another countryand sold as something else.The relationship was symbiotic in nature.Imagine Dodge is this urchincrab trying to protect itselffrom increasing demands forcompact fuel efficient cars,and Mitsubishi is this fire urchinjust trying to make itsway across the Pacific.The relationship is mutuallybeneficial for both parties.Dodge meets consumerand regulatory demands,and Mitsubishi gets to vibe out.And right on a crab,which sounds pretty rad.While Mitsubishi was stilla small player in the US,the story was a littledifferent around the globe.Mitsubishi Motor Companyrealized the potentialof motor sports as marketingand entered the Gallant in ralliesto show off its reliability,and it really paid off.In 1972 the Gallant won the demandingAustralian Southern Cross rally,starting a five-year eventwinning streak for Mitsubishiand a proud tradition in rally racing,which we'll dive intoa little deeper later.The rally wins boostedMitsubishi's reputationall over world and increased demand.And this was great newsbecause their pal Chryslerwanted to build a global car brand.So, they acquired a piece of Mitsubishiwith long-term plans toeventually buy the entire company.That strategy wouldn't pan out,but there would be somepretty cool cars to comeout of the Chrysler partnershiplike the Starion Conquest, 3000GT Stealth,and the aforementioned Eclipse.By 1980 Mitsubishi wasbuilding 1 million cars a year,and Chrysler was importingmore than a hundred thousandof them into the US.This number was bumping up againstthe voluntary import limitJapanese manufacturerswere abiding by in the US.So, Mitsubishi had to getclever to sell more cars.So, they did what other OEMslike Honda and Toyota didand decided to plant their roots in the USwith a big old factoryin Normal, Illinois.Go Wildcats!Ironman, you're all right.To help build the new facility,Chrysler put in $325 million,half of what was needed.This renewed venture betweenMitsubishi and Chryslerwas called Diamond Star Motors.With the factory complete in 1988,it began pumping out one carunder a number of different badges.The Plymouth Laser,Eagle Talon,and Mitsubishi Eclipse.It was the beginning of a defining erafor Mitsubishi in the States.While the Laser and Talonwere styled by Chrysler,all the design work underneathwas done by Mitsubishi.The two-door coupe was intendedto be a sporty treat for the masses,but (indistinct) tuners quickly discoveredsomething very interestingabout the Eclipse triplets.The engine.The Eclipse was availablewith Mitsubishi's 4G63 inline four engine,the same engine Mitsubishi was puttingin their Lancer Evorally cars over in Japan.In stock form the turbocharged 4G63Tmade 180 horsepower, not bad,but those tuners werelooking to make a lot more,and because the engine hada cast iron cylinder block,it was able to take a lot more boostthan it made from the factory.The ceiling for tuning thesemotors was really high.You couple that with alsoavailable all wheel driveand super aerodynamic stylingand you have a car pretty much hand builtfor drag strip glory.Because of these features,the Eclipse helped jumpstart the fledglingimport tuner scene here in America,and thus carved out Mitsubishi's placein the car nerd cannon,making their current lineuptoday even more confusing.At the time, Mitsubishihad a devoted followingand a strong brand identity.At that time it seems theydid care what you think.Further proof of the Eclipse'simportance in tuner history,is the second gen DSMs inclusionin "The Fast and the Furious".So, with all this historyit's disappointing to see the Eclipse namebeing used on a crossoverinstead of a sports car.But as we'll see later,it might be for the best.As far as I'm concerned,the Evo was the tip ofthe brand identity spear.I was curious what theactual sales numbersfor those cars were,so I spent a lot of time looking at data,I learned how to make agraph in Google Sheets,and I got to work.This line right hereis the Lancer Evolution's sales in the USfor the life of the model.And here's the line forEclipses from the second genbecause I couldn't find first gen numbers.And here's the line forMitsubishi's overall sales.Oh, that's bad.If these numbers are anything to go by,people in the US didn't give a hootabout Mitsubishi's little rally car.Maybe a better way to say itis that people who could afford to buy onedidn't give a hoot.Right around the time theEvo finally came to the US,Mitsubishi was falling off a cliff.What the heck happened?Well, I'll tell ya.That little point right thereis Mitsubishi's peak in the US so far.In 2002 Mitsubishi soldjust under 346,000 vehicles.Seven years later, they'dreached rock bottom with 53,986.Take a hurt, man.That sucks.Trouble started in 2000when Chrysler continued theirpursuit to buy Mitsubishi.Chrysler at the timehad merged with Daimler,the parent company ofbrands like Mercedes,Maybach, and Freightliner.Daimler Chrysler bought a34% stake in Mitsubishi.And remember, this waspart of Chrysler's planto buy a global brand withplants around the world.Unfortunately, Daimler Chrysler's purchasecould not have come at a worse time.Less than one month since the$2 billion deal was signed,news broke that Mitsubishi did a booboo.Under US and Japanese law,automakers must tell the governmentabout defects reported by customers.Mitsubishi didn't do that.Mitsubishi hadn't done that since 1977.That's bold.I guess they didn't care whatthe government thought either.As a result,Mitsubishi recalled over600,000 cars in 2000,costing the company anestimated $69 million.Nice.Even though most of thecars affected were in Japan,50,000 of them were American vehicles.Probably not the impression you wanna makewhen someone just gave you $2 billion.A lot of high level people at Mitsubishiclaimed to have noknowledge of the coverup,which I don't know is possible, I guess,but come on.Interestingly, the recall was three yearsbefore Mitsubishi hit their peak.So, that wasn't the culpritin their sales slump,though I suspect it played a large part.The defect coverup was a gutpunch to Mitsubishi's stock,and to make matters worse,the company had a lot of debtthat was starting to pile up.You'd expect for DaimlerChrysler to bail them out.After all Mitsubishi was theirdoor into the Asian marketand they wouldn't wantto lose that, right?That was the whole freakingpoint of the partnership,but the troubles werecausing Daimler Chryslerto get cold feet and theyslowly started selling offtheir stake in Mitsubishi,eventually severing all ties by 2005.Knowing this, it's actually pretty amazingthat the Evo made it to the US at all.We got really lucky.With the looming debt andshaky ground beneath them,Mitsubishi could have easily scrappedany plans to bring it here,not to mention letting itstay here for 13 years.I think we've got to countour blessings on this one.A side effect of the DaimlerChrysler Mitsubishi divorcewas the evolution 10,which would be a radical step forwardfor the beloved rally car.The new Evo launched in 2007.Gone was the legacy 4G63Tand in its place was thealuminum block 4B11T,which immediately made diehards worried."An aluminum block.Are you kidding me, dude?There's no way it'll be asstrong as the cast iron block."Mitsubishi had to make the switchto meet emissions regulations,but some people saw thatchange as the companylosing a little bit of its character.Of course, those peoplewill be proven wrongby just as, if not better performance,from the new aluminum engine.But hey, a legacy like that isn't gonna beforgotten that quickly.Also the Evo 10 stylingwas a little too muchfor some people.I personally liked it a lot and still do.I still get excited when I see them,but it's really a matterof personal preference.To make matters worse,Mitsubishi closed theirperformance divisionRally Art in 2010,signaling the end of a motorsports era at the company.I told you,they don't care what you think.Things weren't just tough for the Evo,but for Mitsubishi as a whole.From their peak in the early 2000s,Mitsubishi America'ssales were in a nosedive.Over the next 10 yearsunits sold would fall nearly 600%,from over 345,000 in 2002,to 57,790 in 2012.Something had to be done and fast.During the long slide down,Mitsubishi announced a newstrategy for the US in 2011.This plan is responsiblefor the company's huge shiftfrom the funky and fun image they hadto something a little lessexciting that we see today.The key to the plan was to stop producingregion specific cars for the USand bring Mitsubishi's global lineup here,but still produce them in Illinois.I think that's pretty cool.By 2014, the Endeavor SUV, Gallant sedan,and the third gen Eclipse will be dunzo.The end of the Eclipse was surprising,being their longest lasting model.But considering the Eclipseonly sold 7,500 units in 2011,the decision was justified.One car that Mitsubishikept alive was the Lancer,as the small sedan made upa good chunk of their sales.Something interesting tonote on our sales graphis the relatively stable sales of lancersthrough the 2010s,seemingly unaffectedby the wild fluctuationof the company sales as a whole.I have no idea what this data suggests.Other than that,the Lancer filled a small butdedicated niche in the market,which only makes themodel's 2017 death in the USeven more painful.So, which cars would be fillingin the lineup with theregion specific cars gone?Well, some really strangeones, to be honest.In 2011 Mitsubishi announcedthe i-MiEV electric car,a new global small car,and new hybrids.So how'd that work out?I'll tell you.Mitsubishi's new strategy was offto a strong start until 2016,when on April 20th news brokethat Mitsubishi had been, quote,manipulating test data tooverstate the fuel economyof some of their Japanese modelsgoing back to that 1991.Think Dieselgate,but with cute JDM micro cars.At first Mitsubishi owned upto only lying about four of their cars,but it turns out that theyalso lied about 13 other carsthat were involved.Not a good look,and their investors thought so too.Mitsubishi stock plummeted 50%and made companyleadership look really bad.Yeah, that would.So, the new strategy wasn'toff to a great start,but looking at our graph,sales in the US don't looklike they were affected that much.All right, so borderlinecriminal negligence aside,what did Mitsubishi do right?Where are they headed today?Let's talk about those globalcars they brought over here.That new global smart car they teased,turned out to be the Mirage,a tiny, colorful, affordable commuter car.The Mirage is one of thecheapest cars for sale in the USwith a 2020 MSRP of 13,995.And hey, it's available as a manual.Next was the Outlander hybrid,which my boys up in Canadathought was pretty good.And that's where the US lineup is today.They make three differentversions of the Outlander,two Mirages, and the Eclipse Cross.Okay, so Mitsubishi took oneof their most iconic names,added Cross to the endas in crossover SUV,then made it look like this.Some people really hate it,but I will admit it doeslook better in person.But regardless of looks,I can't deny that the EclipseCross was a step over the linewhen it came toMitsubishi's brand identity,or more accurately, the lack thereof.20 years ago, Mitsubishi had sports cars.They were cool.The Eclipse, the Evo, the GTO,which I didn't even talk about,these were all cars thathigh schoolers wanted.I don't think that holdstrue for their lineup today.That being said,if I had a brand new Miragewhen I was in high school,I'd be pretty stoked.My point is Mitsubishino longer makes carsthat car nerds like myself wanna buy.But as the title of this video states,Mitsubishi doesn't care what you think.And I think that's becausethese boring cars are working.Mirage sales absolutelycrushed Evo 10 figuresin the last three yearsof the rally cars life.The Mirage even outsold theregular Lancer before that died.And let's talk about that Outlander.As of last year, it made up astrong 61% of Mitsubishi saleswith over 74,000 units sold.Add the Eclipse Cross into thatand SUV's make up 77% ofMitsubishi's business in the US.The pandemic has greatlyaffected sales this year,which I'm not surprised,but once things calm downI expect Mitsubishi toget back into the groove.Their identity isn't aboutmotor sports anymore,but about giving peopleas much value as they can.And that strategy seems tobe working out for them,even if they have a long wayto go to reach their 2002 peak.And I mean a long way to go.Thank you very much forwatching WheelHouse this week.Let me know in the commentswhat your favorite Mitsubishi is.It is a toss up for mebetween the second gen Eclipseand I think the Evo eight.Just let me know, man.I think Mitsubishi was a really cool brandand now they're justtrying something different.I've wished them the best honestlybecause it's cool to havevariety in the market.Hey, we have a podcast called Pass Gas.It's an in-depth history podcastof like hour long episodes.A lot of fun, I do it with James and Joe.Please check that out on anyplatform of your choosing.Follow Donut on allsocial media @donutmedia.Follow me @nolanjsykes.Mitsubishi, I love ya.Be kind.I'll see you next time.