Was this the car that should have heralded a parallel universe wherein Mitsubishi played the role of the cool Japanese carmaker? I was still a bit young when this car was launched, so my question to those of you who do recollect the time, three decades ago, when this budget supercar burst on the scene, is: Did it feel like the dawn of a new era at Mitsubishi? Because that dawn sure turned to dusk pretty quickly.
The world knew it as the 3000GT, but this car was always known as the GTO in its country of birth. There had been other GTOs before this one in the Mitsubishi range – and, crucially, in the Ferrari and Pontiac ones as well. So they kept that name for the JDM and rebranded it for export markets, a trick carmakers have done since forever.
But beyond the name, the GTO symbolized a level of confidence hitherto unseen at Mitsubishi. This was their Corvette moment, a step towards rejuvenation and, perchance, overtaking Honda to become the third biggest Japanese carmaker. Of course, it was always going to be a challenge. For one thing, it’s not like Honda just sat pretty, twiddling their thumbs. They had become a big-time player, with interests in the US and Europe, they had the Acura brand, the all-new NSX – Honda were firing on all cylinders circa 1990.
Similarly, Mazda were in the process of launching a very ambitious multi-marque assault (which would end in catastrophe, but in 1990, nobody had a crystal ball to know that) to claim that bronze medal for themselves. So Mitsubishi Motors had to strike a decisive blow, and that’s part of what the GTO was meant to achieve. Sure, it arrived just one year after Mitsubishi quit making the Starion, but it took the pop-up headlamp sports coupe concept up a couple notches at least.
The recipe for the GTO called for a shortened Diamante platform with the DOHC 3-litre 6-cyl., either in 220hp standard or 280hp twin turbo guise, and mated to either a 4-speed auto or a 5-speed manual sending the power to all four corners. Some export cars were front-drive only, but in Japan, all GTOs were AWD. In 1993, the pop-up lights were ditched; Mitsubishi continued selling the GTO until 2001, but the great majority of the few I’ve seen here, just like our feature car, are pre-’93 models. It’s telling that Mitsubishi did not try to follow this GTO with anything as daring or high-end, as by the year 2000, they were in panic/survival mode. What a difference a decade makes.
Mitsubishi made close to 190,000 of these GTO/3000GTs, though I’m not sure how many stayed in Japan. The US had a great appetite for them, even so far as to stealthily re-body them as Dodges, but cars like these (and the aforementioned NSX, for example) sold very well only for the initial couple of years on the JDM, after which economic woes and newer toys virtually made them an export-only model. More for the rest of us, eh?
Related posts:
Curbside Classics: 1991-99 Mitsubishi 3000GT and 1991-96 Dodge Stealth – The King of Diamonds, by William Stopford
CC Capsule: 1995 Mitsubishi 3000GT SL – At Least It’s Not Red, by Jim Grey
I’m 41 but I do remember Mitsubishi’s having a performance rep here in the states. These cars and the Eclipse (and the various re badges) were still legendary when I started driving later in the 90’s. I knew people who saved thru highschool to buy these.
If you look at what Mitsubishi was doing in the 90’s with things like the 3000 GT, Eclipse, Montero, and later the EVO, it’s a bit surprising they ended up where they did.
Mitsubishi’s dawn turning to dusk could fuel hours of graduate level business classes. I had a brief dark period after college where I was having an incredibly difficult time launching into a career. I ended up selling cars at a dealership with Mitsubishis as one of the lines. Mitsubishi (at least in the U.S.) put a lot of effort into catering to the subprime finance market.
When you look at their other product offerings at the time outside of their sporty cars, Mitsubishi was simply outmatched by the competition. Prospective customers would take a look and test drive and move on to the local Toyota or Honda store; unless they had roachy credit then we had a deal. I’m glad that period of my life is long past!
“even so far as to stealthily re-body them as Dodges”
I see what you did there. 😉
A very cool car and a quite tech-heavy machine. Unfortunately, these were a bit plagued with poor build quality and reliability, especially compared to the three other heavy hitters: The Acura NSX, Toyota Supra and Nissan 300ZX.
90s Japanese sports cars are starting to see their heyday as the generation that lusted after them as kids are now coming into money.
Eric’s comment “Mitsubishi’s dawn turning to dusk could fuel hours of graduate level business classes” is spot on. In addition to the sporty coupe side of the equation (3000GT, Starion, Eclipse) that this post focuses on, the next biggest Mitsubishi fail has to be completely abandoning the Montero/Pajero in the US. Toyota, Land Rover, Jeep and anyone else printing money selling $100,000+ SUV’s thanks you.
To my recollection, these were “halo” or “aspirational” cars, mostly designed to spur sales of lesser models.
Can’t afford a Corvette? Here’s a nice Camaro for you.
Can’t afford a GTO/3000GT? Here’s a nice Eclipse for you.
I recall seeing a lot more of the Dodge version – I imagine sales were better, but I don’t have figures.
I do remember these cars when new and preferred the Dodge Stealth if only for its looks. Test drove one in the mid 90s and loved it. Still great style today.
Right. Taken on its own, it’s a technological wonder. These were very fast by the standards of the day, especially as soon as circumstances weren’t ideal. I doubt many cars of the era would win a wet pavement 0-60 next to one. Compare it to that list of competitors, and suddenly the FWD compromises and so on are very clear. I’d add the RX-7 to that list, too. Those were some of the cleanest and most attractive sports coupe designs, and the 3000GT stands out as a bit overdone by comparison. It looks spoiled by countless scoops, blisters, and flourishes.
Always thought these were gorgeous, but was shocked to discover they have a transverse front engine, just like a Lancer or Galant. It just seems wrong on a car like this.
What struck me about this post – enough that I had to independently fact check – I couldn’t believe that the NSX dated back to 1990. 32 years, wow! Now that was a significant car to me, where as the various Mitsubishi GT evolutions from the first Starion didn’t seem special. Very nice, but not special in a world of front engined Supra’s, Z’s and ZX’es, etc.
It’s hard to pick a favorite design of the high tech Japanese supercars from the 90s but the GTO/3000GT(and Stealth) are honest to goodness as attractive as the FD RX7 Gen IV Supra or 300ZX, only black eye to them is the transverse engine but that doesn’t detract from the looks, there isn’t a bad angle.
It’s lucky I was never enamored by the Eclipse, despite its popularity over these, those looked like bugs in comparison and the memberberries for the more popular name ultimately led to the embarrassingly awful Eclipse Cross today. I don’t think I could handle a GTO Cross.
The neighbor has one of these in black. At the time, I just wasn’t a fan because all the competition was RWD and this was essentially a FWD platform with available AWD. The poster at my desk at work was the 300ZX Turbo.
From another who’s in his early 50s and watched it all unfold, once Mitsubishi went from everything sharp angles and the suffix “VR4” entered the vocabulary, there was some exciting stuff at the three-diamonds dealers; but it’s like the plot started to get lost when the 90s came to an end. The Eclipse’s styling ended up ribbed for nobody’s pleasure, and when my almost new 2000 Prelude suffered a parking lot mishap, the loaner was a Galant that was just God-awful for a car of the era.
It’s like, rather than improve quality that had some room for improvement, the edict became let’s just make the cars uglier and cheaper so people have lower expectations.
And Eric notes they then made their play for the subprime finance market. The last time a Mitsubishi was ever on my shopping list was an Eclipse Spyder Turbo…. meaning at least 25 years since I’d have considered one.
I was keenly interested in this class of cars in their brief heyday (not that I could have remotely afforded any such thing), but I always mentally ranked these fairly far down the list.
As with the contemporary Diamante, it felt like it was trying to wedge its way into a higher class through add-ons, and wasn’t as thorough an effort as the Z32 Fairlady Z/300ZX or the FD RX-7 (or the NSX, but the NSX was SO much more expensive that it wasn’t quite comparable). That formula worked fine for the Diamond Star cars, which were both cheap and cheerful, but the GTO/3000GT was a lot more expensive, and my reaction was, “Eh, I dunno, maybe too many gimmicks.”
It’s a good-looking car, though. I think it suffers from a bit too much “surface excitement” in spots (the strut tower caps on the top of hood are a bit tacky in this class), and it’s awfully big, but it’s better-proportioned than the A80 Supra and the look holds up well.
We were lucky to have found & bought a pristine used ’93 VR4 in 2001. My wife wanted a Dodge Stealth, but most of them were rode hard & put away wet. I suggested looking at the Mitsu version, which she did. This example was from owner #2, meticulous records, adult driven by his wife, 3 season car in IL. Dove grey, she ran out great, and so it comes home. We equally treated this lady well, only big fix/repair was a set of tires. One had a bad repair that never sealed, culminating in a flat in Iowa on I80 on a Sunday afternoon. To our shock the Sears Auto Center in Coral Ridge had a set of these wide 40 series tires.
I had 2 issues with this lady….One, she wasn’t made to do 60, it seemed to be idling its way down the road, pick it up a bit & you’re doing 80+ with no effort. This leads to the 2nd problem, a daughter approaching driving age with a propensity to find trouble. I could only imagine expensive, bad things to happen, so it was with great regret that we posted & sold the VR4 for exactly what we paid for it 2 yrs prior. So it joined the RX7, the M715, the Willys Wagon and others into those experiences treasured.
An aside, another Mitsubishi tale….my youngest daughter started driving and we told her with good grades, she could find a car. Came across a 2001 Mitsubishi Eclipse, hi miles but decent. So was putting some brakes on a year later, was under the hood when I saw this white line reflecting off the engine. I traced it back & the source was the light coming from outside the strut tower…???. Closer inspection showed the tower was rusted 2/3 of the way around!! So I’m a fixer, checked with Mitsu for a strut tower, was $500. No Flippin way!! At the same time, Mitsu was making a Dodge based on the same underbody, a friend worked there, was only $250. So spent a Sunday afternoon measuring, cutting & rewelding in a strut tower. Took it in for alignment, nothing was needed. And that was the last Mitsu…
I always considered the styling of the GTO/3000GT, especially the early models, to be flawed. Some of the details look good: The supple curves of the fenders and nose hold their own with any design from this era, and the full-width taillight panel is quite nice. But…there are a lot of “buts.”
My least favourite detail is the widow’s peak in the black strip on the front bumper: It’s a thoughtless blemish that spoils the car; a flaw that should have been Photoshopped away. The “cheese grater” slots on the side also look unnecessarily delicate…and so do the wheels on our featured car. Meanwhile the rear end looks indecisive, like it couldn’t decide whether it wanted to be front-engine or mid-engine, or a coupe or a hatchback. The dashboard is an acreage of hard black plastic lifted from a 20-year-older 240Z, complete with the same central gauge layout. And the whole car looks a size too big.
To be fair, I think that the 1994 and 1999 facelifts seriously helped the looks of the 3000GT…and a 1999 VR-4 is straight-up lustworthy! Too bad there are so few of them. And it’s too bad that the 3000GT went through an almost GM-like fate, being dropped from export thanks to shrivelling sales just when it was getting interesting.
I think the black strip was to give it design continuity with the outgoing Starion
I of course saw them in the wild, but never drove one, let alone knew anyone with one. But they always appealed to me, not enough to look for, but if one fell in my lap… Sadly it never did. But what I was always puzzled about is the Dodge Stealth seemed to get the lions share of publicity. For a badge engineered twin, that was excessively busy in styling IIRC. Oh well, one more thing in life I don’t understand.