Archive for Mitsubishi

Mitsubishi Motors Malaysia launched the 2009 update for the Mitsubishi Lancer 2.0 GT today alongside an updated 2.4 liter Grandis. As previously revealed, the new Lancer features the updated front end that first made a debut on the Lancer Sportback.

It continues to be powered by the 2.0 liter 4B11 engine producing 155 PS and 199Nm of torque, mated to an INVECS-III CVT transmission with paddle shifts that allow you to swap between the CVT’s 6 predefined virtual ratios. The 2.0 GT also features ABS, EBD, dual two-stage front airbags, disc brakes all-round, Nappa leather seats that fold 60:40 at the rear, and a 6-speaker CD and MP3 sound system with steering wheel controls.

Only three colours are available – White Solid, Black Mica and Red Metallic. According to MMM, it goes for RM123,980.00 OTR with insurance. It will be in showrooms from tomorrow in the Peninsular, and from the 21st August onwards for East Malaysia.

Look after the jump for a full live photo gallery of the updated Lancer 2.0 GT. You’ll notice one car that’s slightly modified with 18 inch wheels of a darker shade, and a few stickers on the body. That’s a demo car that Mitsubishi prepared to show us how the Lancer can be “pimped up”, and they took a low-cost, subtle and tasteful route to it.

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A new facelift for the Mitsubishi Lancer is scheduled to be released sometime this week and as a teaser, Mitsubishi Motors Malaysia have posted a teaser image on the frontpage of their website. The teaser reveals the new Lancer through a moving shroud but I’ve managed to piece together the whole car so you can have a clearer view.

The Lancer sedan has a new front end with a cleaner front bumper, somewhat like the cleaner look that the Lancer Evolution’s bumper has. If you think it looks familiar, it’s basically the same bumper that can be found on the 5-door Lancer Sportback.

The original Lancer bumper put more prominence on the bumper area that flows between the upper grille and lower grille. Given that so many people just loves to paint the center piece black to emulate the Evolution’s style, Mitsubishi seems to have done this for them from the factory. The look is complete with a trim piece surrounding the grille as a whole, top to bottom.

A 160km range on the Japanese 10-15 urban mode driving pattern, a 7 hour 200V charge time, 30 minutes on a 200V 3-phase quick charger, and LED headlamps and tail lamps to add a finishing touch. You’ve just read the spec sheet of the new production Mitsubishi i-MiEV EV, a production electric car that has just gone on lease by Mitsubishi for nearly 4.6 million Yen inclusive of consumption tax.

That’s nearly RM165k, and with the taxes you have here in Malaysia it could end up pretty darn pricey. But it does have a lithium ion battery, which is more advanced than the nickel-base ones that go into most hybrid and EVs these days.

The battery which consists of 88 li-ion cells connected in series is installed under the floor, and the 64 PS 180Nm electric motor which is mated to a single-gear transmission is installed under the luggage compartment. Yes, like the regular combustion engine Mitsubishi i, it uses a rear midship layout.

Mitsubishi will be preparing 1,400 cars for leasing this year, mainly to corporations and local authorities. Individual leases are expected to begin in April 2010, but order-taking will begin in July 2010. Look after the jump for a video of the i-MiEV’s test run through the Tateyama Kurobe alpine route surrounded by 3,000-meter-high mountains.

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Those who are looking for a rugged ladder frame-based 4WD vehicle as an alternative to the Ford Everest or the Toyota Fortuner can now opt for the Mitsubishi Pajero Sport, which is based on the multi-Malaysian-award-winning Mitsubishi Triton pick-up truck.

Mitsubishi has engineered a SUV body for the Triton’s ladder frame and change the rear leaf spring suspension to one based on coil springs mated to a 3-link live axle with stabilizer bar. The front rides on double wishbones with coil springs and a stabilizer bar. It is essentially the replacement for the Mitsubishi Challenger which can be found on Malaysian roads, which is a 4WD SUV version of the Mitsubishi Storm which preceded the current Triton.

Under the hood is a 16 valve 4 cylinder direct injection intercooled turbocharged 2.5 liter diesel engine producing 136 PS at 3,500rpm and 314Nm of torque at 2,000rpm. This is mated to a 4-speed automatic transmission with INVECS-II shift control. No 3.2 liter version like the one in the Triton currently available.

The 4WD system features Super Select 4WD. SS-4WD features four modes – 2H for regular driving, 4H for a 50:50 torque split between the front and rear axle, 4HLc which locks the center differential for equal power to all four wheels, and 4LLc which engages 4WD, the center differential lock, and in addition drives power through a set of low gear ratios for torque multiplication. 2H to 4H can be selected at speeds of up to 100km/h. 4LLc provides a maximum climb angle of 35 degrees. Departure angle and approach angles are 25 degrees and 36 degrees respectively. The ramp break-over angle is 23 degrees. Lateral travel angle (tilted sideways) is up to 45 degrees.

The Pajero Sport features a beige interior with three rows of seats in a 2-3-2 configuration, which means space for 7. The second row splits 60:40, with two 3-point seatbelts for the sides and one 2-point center lapbelt for the middle. The third row has 3-point seatbelts for both seats. For smaller families that don’t require the third row, it can be folded down flat and kept that way most of the time to make way for a larger boot space. The second row shares air conditioning vent airflow from the front dash with the first row while the third row gets their own side vents with manual fan speed control.

The interior’s dashboard design looks quite close to the Triton but there are a few subtle changes such as a different steering wheel, a slightly different design for the center dash area, and a different automatic shifter to accommodate the Tiptronic manual shifting ability. The area where the Triton featured an RV meter has been replaced with a 2-DIN touch screen DVD/CD head unit with USB and AUX input, mated to a 6-speaker audio system (including 2 tweeters).

The Pajero sport rides on 265/65R17 tyres. It has dual SRS airbags for the front. Brakes are ventilated discs at the front and drums at the rear. To help with maneuvering its larger bulk it has both front and rear sensors. The wing mirrors have power folding function. A total of 5 body colours are available – Eisen Grey Mica, Cool Silver Metallic, Platinum Beige Metallic, Dark Blue Mica and White Pearl. It goes for RM162,980.00 OTR with insurance for individual private registration, and RM163,450.51 for company private registration.

Now that’s a huge gap of tens of thousands between the price of the Pajero Sport and the Triton but it’s all because of taxes as the price difference between the Pajero Sport and Triton in Langkawi is just slightly more than RM3k – RM88,888.00 for the Pajero Sport SUV versus RM85,299.05 for the Triton pick-up, both for individual private reg. The Pajero Sport is brought in as a fully imported CBU from Thailand.

Look after the jump for more images of the Pajero Sport.

Click here to read the rest of Mitsubishi Pajero Sport SUV on sale for RM163k!

Mitsubishi Motors UK has finally added the FQ-400 to its Lancer Evolution X range. The Lancer Evolution X FQ-400’s 2.0 liter engine puts out 403 horsepower at 6,500rpm and 525Nm of torque from just 3,500rpm, and it gets up to 100km/h in a scorching fast estimated 3.8 seconds.

So what’s changed in the engine department to allow it to produce the higher power and torque? Well firstly motorsport specification high-flow fuel injectors have been fitted, along with a new turbocharger that features low-friction bearings, a high temperature turbine and a strengthened thrust bearing to increase response and reduce turbo lag.

A better intercooler has also been fitted, and the exhaust system now has a 3 inch diameter high flow stainless steel pipe which exits in the middle of the rear bumper. The ECU has been reprogrammed to take advantage of all the new hardware and this took over 500 hours of development time.

The Evo X also has some aesthetic changes on the outside. Wheels are 18 inch 9-spoke lightweight alloys wrapped with Toyo Proxes R1R tyres. There is a new vented bonnet and a new lightweight composite front bumper with carbon fibre elements. The Bilstein shock and Eibach spring suspension’s ride height has been dropped by 30mm at the front. The rear bumper has also been restyled with a carbon fiber diffuser, and in the middle of the diffuser you will find the central exit exhaust tailpipe.

Like the previous top of the line FQ-360, the car comes with a manual as it is likely the 6-speed twin clutch SST cannot take the high torque that the FQ-400 puts out. The FQ-300 and FQ-330 have SST models though, with the FQ-330 SST only just recently added as the original line-up only specified SST on the FQ-300.

Related Posts:
Mitsubishi UK unveils new range of FQ cars for the Evolution X

Now which car do you think Mitsubishi is going to splice the Lancer GT’s nose on next. The Triton? The Colt has not been spared, despite it being a nice-looking tall-ish B-segment hatch originally. Now it’s a weird mini-me of the Lancer. The latest model to get the GT treatment is the Outlander.

Other than the new front end, the Outlander GT also gets new side mirrors. It has an aluminium polished roof panel that hepls lower the car’s center of gravity. it has been lowered slightly via a shorter and stiffer suspension system, and fitted with 19 inch OZ RAcing wheels hiding large Brembo discs and calipers behind them.

The little instrument panel between the two meter pods has been upgraded to a 3.5″ QVGA colour display. Mitsubishi is also using the vehicle to showcase its FUSE Handsfree Media Gateway, which features a Bluetooth handsfree with phonebook management and A2DP audio system, voice recognition, and a 40GB hard drive for Navteq GPS navigation data.

The SUV’s 3.0 liter SOHC MIVEC V6 engine has been upgraded from 220hp to 230hp, with the peak torque remaining the same but coming in earlier in the rev range. This is thanks to different camshaft timing and compression ratio. It is mated to a 6-speed auto with Idle Neutral Logic, which means it shifts to neutral automatically when you stop.

The all-wheel drive system has been upgrade to S-AWC, which features 3 selectable modes: “Normal”, “Snow” and “Traction”. This adjusts the power delivery according to various input data including throttle input, wheel speed, engine output, steering angle, gear selection, acceleration and yaw rate, and the data coming from the stability control sensors. Look after the jump for full gallery of the new shark-nosed Outlander.

Click here to read the rest of Mitsubishi Outlander GT Prototype has a new face and adds a mind-blowing… 10 horsepower?!

Mitsubishi will debut the vehicle above at the NYIAS 2009. It will be called the Mitsubishi Outlander GT Prototype, essentially what looks like an Outlander with a Lancer face up front, which makes it look more aggressive.

Of course for an American show debut you mustn’t talk about anything being a performance model without at least a V configuration engine so it uses a 3.0 liter SOHC MIVEC V6 engine, never mind the fact that the 4-pot in the Evo or even the Lancer Ralliart is more powerful.

The Outlander will also reportedly gain a new feature called Idle Neutral Logic, which basically shifts your auto transmission into neutral automatically when you stop. This really isn’t something new I think, heard of it years back but I forgot which car… but new for the Outlander I guess.

Stay tuned for more details when the MYIAS rolls along in a few days time.

No news yet on which engine the Malaysian model will come with but it will be a diesel, so its either the 2.5 or the 3.2 or maybe both. No specs yet either but it will have 4WD and an indicative price tag is pegged at the region of RM170,000, which is the equivalent to the diesel Fortuner 2.5G. The petrol Fortuner costs more at RM178k. The Everest has cheaper models from RM145k to RM168k but the most expensive Everest 3.0 TDCi is also around the RM170k range.

The Pajero Sport will be launched in Malaysia in May 2009, but you can already book the Pajero Sport from tomorrow onwards and I understand there is a special pre-launch booking promotion. There is of course another Mitsubishi 7-seater based on a ladder frame, the Zinger which is an Innova competitor.

Look after the jump for a small photo gallery of the Pajero Sport.

Related Post:
New Mitsubishi Pajero Sport based on Triton platform

Click here to read the rest of Mitsubishi Pajero Sport 7-seater set for May launch in Malaysia at RM170k

Mitsubishi Motors Malaysia now has its first 3S center in Sarawak, located at Lot 2527, Boulevard Commercial Centre, 98000 Miri, Sarawak. The new 3S center by Auto Pacifica spans over 20,000 square feet and was built at an investment of over RM 1 million. The 3S center will house a sales showroom, discussion area, customer lounge, meeting rooms, delivery bay, service reception area and a service workshop with seven dedicated working bays.

A dedicated service center is important for the Mitsubishi Triton to increase its popularity in East Malaysia, especially Sarawak. The Triton holds a market share of 19.1% in the segment, making it the second most popular pick-up in Malaysia, but alot of that is in West Malaysia.

Buletin Utama featured the Royal Malaysian Police’s new Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X cars yesterday night. PDRM says the Evos will be used in high-speed car chases, particularly in cases of carjacking, kidnapping and highjacking.

Police personnel assigned to the vehicles have undergone intensive driving classes to ensure they are able to drive the Lancers effectively, said a PDRM source. The cars are equipped with 5-speed manual transmissions instead of the twin clutch version that we are able to buy from Mitsubishi Malaysia. We first saw the cars without decals, but now they have decals and are called “Helang Lebuhraya Polis”.

Check out a clip of the feature after the jump which features the current PM in his last days check out the ride and giving it his thumbs up. Perhaps we may see a unit or a mock-up unit featured in Yusof Haslam’s Gerak Khas eh?

Click here to read the rest of PDRM’s Lancer Evolution: Helang Lebuhraya Polis