(first posted 2/23/2014) If you were a Dodge or Plymouth dealer drawing in a good number of import buyers in the early 1980s, the arrival of a new Colt in 1985 would be a bit less exciting compared to previous introductions. Thanks to the American introduction of the identical Mirage, the “real” Colt, Chrysler was no longer the exclusive purveyor of Mitsubishi’s subcompact.
As with the prior generation, this car sold in Japan as the Mirage, alongside a four-door version called Lancer Fiore and, as Paul explained, by this time both Dodge and Plymouth versions went by Colt. However, the focus for Mitsubishi and Chrysler was different the second time around. Chrysler would soon come out with new, more evolved and sporty compacts based on the K-chassis, making Colt superfluous in its lineup, except as a budget option for buyers who insisted on buying Japanese.
Meanwhile, the parent company wanted to market the Mirage as a more refined car, as the prior model was criticized for its flimsiness. This meant that, for the first time in the US, the three-door hatch was accompanied by a four-door sedan, while Mitsubishi dealers began selling the car under the Mirage nameplate in North America.
You really have to hand it to Chrysler, though. Despite their different aims in marketing the Colt, they got more and better versions of the car than Mitsubishi, who only sold the three-door hatch until 1987, when they finally got the four-door sedan, only sans turbo. Mitsubishi also never sold the Chariot/Vista. In fact, Mitsubishi had to sell 120,000 cars through Chrysler in order to be allowed to sell a limited number (30,000 total) of their own cars.
Mitsubishi did get some money when the new car was cloned as the Proton Saga (built from 1985 until 2008) and by licensing its engine and platform to Hyundai for use in the Excel. While many may prefer the Giugiaro-designed Hyundai’s looks, the Mitsubishi has more character.
It may seem ironic that such a generic car should be perceived as having character, and while you wouldn’t call it innovative, the Colt wasn’t the most conservative subcompact, with a faux clamsell hood and wraparound door frames. It also epitomized Japanese styling of the era, with a cohesive, sharp-edged motif.
On the other hand, the sedan’s and 5-door hatchback’s rear quarter window, which divides the width of the rear door almost perfectly in half, is a particularly clumsy looking feature, accentuating the short wheel base and the shape’s overall squareness.
Coming in 1987, the wagon’s rear end design was gimmicky, a bit goofy and in retrospect, somewhat charming.
The three-door was the best looking of the bunch, but after the previous car, which didn’t look like any of its rivals, the whole effect was somewhat underwhelming. It was difficult to tell it apart from the Sentra hatchback, the I-Mark or the Excel.
The interior carried over the last car’s aversion to steering column stalks, but was quite different, with flat surfaces and a more rectilinear appearance. Other than the vaguely retro-futuristic flourish of its gauge cluster surround, it was all very conventional. This shot of a very clean brown example is flattering, with matte finish plastics and soft cloth surfaces in evidence. The 323 may have out-plushed it, but otherwise, this was as fancy as it got, until the 1988 Civic and Corolla were introduced.
If the styling was typically Japanese, the rear suspension was not. A compound trailing arm system, as found on the first Mirage, along with various Citroens, Peugeots and Renaults had, was more French than anything, offering independent wheel movement in the same space a torsion beam would occupy. Note the separation of dampers and springs. Mitsubishi (obviously) knew that this system would result in unwanted camber changes as the body’s roll angles increased in turns, and deliberately tuned the car to understeer strongly at the limit. As the suspension remained fundamentally the same as before, the focus for the new car was to enhance stability, ride comfort and isolation.
In a 1987 comparison against other front drive pocket rockets, Car and Driver wrote,
“This is a jewellike little car: tight, precise, rewarding…due to the Mirage’s apparent quality. The car is solid and rattle free. The levers are rigid and move with minimal friction… nothing feels cheap.” They added, “The Mirage has a handling problem… The Mirage understeers–absolutely, profoundly, unswervingly.”
Once again, the least expensive turbocharged cars in the US featured prominently in the Colt’s model lineup, available both as a sedan and hatchback, while the Mirage Turbo was only available in three-door form. For 1985, the turbocharged, fuel injected 1.6 eight-valve engine put out three more horsepower for a total of 105 at 5500 rpm and 122 lb-ft of torque at 3500 rpm. At about 2300 pounds, performance was very good, with a focus on low-end and midrange power. In the same comparison test, the Mirage Turbo managed a third place in the quarter mile and sprint to sixty at 16.2 seconds at 84 mph and eight seconds flat, respectively. In gear acceleration times were first in the group of ten cars, but as one might expect, performance tapered off noticeably at higher speeds, taking fifth place in the dash to 100 and seventh for top speed, at 109 mph. Still, at about $10,600, it was one of the least expensive cars in the test, and one of the best options around for cheap speed.
Most people bought these cars in Colt form, of course, with the carbureted 1.5 liter version putting out an unimpressive 68 horsepower and 82 lb-ft of torque. The focus with these engines was also on low-end response, but unlike its turbocharged counterpart, it was slower than average for the day, even considering its price. The twin-stick transmission was history upon the introduction of the new cars, many of which were ironically equipped with a four-speed manual, reflecting their position as one of the absolute cheapest ways to get into a Japanese hatchback. The addition of a three speed automatic in our mid-range beige example must make for intolerably slow performance in today’s traffic, not that it was ever a pleasant combination. This engine is still in production today, albeit having been updated through the years with fuel injection and multi-valve heads, in addition to turbocharging.
Oddly enough, even as sedans were replacing hatchbacks as the cheap vehicles of choice, the Colt remained most popular in three-door form, reflecting its bottom feeder status. Customers interested in a well-equipped Colt Premier sedan were likely upsold into a Shadow or Sundance, while Mitsubishi dealers were still few and far between.
The way Mitsubishi saw it, it might have made more sense to sell the Mirage in more basic formats to get people in the door to look at Starions or Galants while pushing more well-equipped models through Dodge and Plymouth dealers, who were allocated so much more volume. By 1987, Mitsubishi dealers even went so far as to sell the Precis, an Excel clone, in order to advertise a low price. Compare this situation to Mazda’s dealings with Ford, wherein a Korean built low-budget version of their 121 sold at Ford dealers as the Festiva. As we can see, Mitsubishi’s problems in this market date back to the beginning of their North American enterprises.
This generation Colt was exceptionally long-lived for a Japanese car sold in the US, as the 5-door wagon was only introduced in 1988, during the end of the three and four-door cars’ model run, lasting until 1991, when the subsequent 1989-1992 generation hatchback and sedan were ready to be replaced. These wagons at shared their “three-link” (read: solid rear axle with panhard rod) rear suspension with the new car and gained fuel-injection, for a grand total of 75 horsepower and 87 lb-ft of torque. A 1.8 liter engine, shared with base Mitsubishi Eclipses until 1994, powered a rare four-wheel-drive version. One of these would be a real find today, as they were uncommon even when new.
The second generation Mirage continued to be sold in Canada as the Eagle Vista, alongside its successor models. If you include the Excel and Precis, the basic car lasted in the US until 1994, after which point Hyundai and Chrysler designed home-grown replacements, leaving Mitsubishi to go it alone. Unfortunately, despite competitive redesigns for 1989 and 1993, the Mirage continued to languish in the US market, while the Colt came to epitomize the automotive penalty box. After hitting a home run in its first generation, one of the most innovative and popular subcompacts went on to become one of the most stereotypical and least loved.
In regards to the Mirage hatch, Sentra hatch, I-Mark, and Excel all looking alike, keep in mind, back home, the Mirage is the first of the bunch by nearly two years. I think it’s aged the best, as well. Somehow graph design seems modern again!
It’s interesting how the sedan has the rear side windows split like that, presumably to allow the front portion to descend deeper into the door, however the wagon has no such divider, I wonder what happened when opening those windows.
The ’86 Mirage Turbo was the first turbocharged car I ever drove, we used to visit the new-car dealers and try to wangle test drives when we were freshly minted drivers in high school. I remember it as an extremely quick car but also remember when we got in the car, the dealer started it from cold, pulled forward twenty feet into the street and just stood on the gas to redline in the first couple of gears before handing it over to me. All on a car with 4 miles on it. Fun to take for a test drive, I feel sorry for whoever ended up buying that particular one…
The i-Mark debuted in ’85 and I thought the Excel did as well (or maybe ’86), but don’t think the Mirage was two years earlier than those. I do agree the Mirage still looks better than the others in the comparo image, those sharp creases do look…sharp!
In Japan, these Mirages were on sale in November 1983. The Gemini/I-mark was a May 1985 introduction, and the other two began sale in their prospective home markets in August 1985.
Thanks for the clarification!
The Mirage/Colt hatch was also visually similar to the 83-86 Tercel. The rear in particular.
I’m a big fan of the 1980s origami styling. Mitsubishi had a nice looking stable of cars at that time. The Colt wagons are particularly nice.
Camethisclose to replacing my Dasher with a Colt Premier Turbo sedan. Loved it – wonderful greenhouse with great visibility, surprisingly posh interior, and lots of pickup. My Navy shipmates with the big SRBs were getting Maximas and Cressidas, definitely out of my league. But I thought the Colt would suit my budget better and at least give me some of the Nissan’s and Toyota’s creature comforts. But I was barely 19 with a very short drivers history. The insurance for a turbo as simply too high. But I loved that beige sedan with the awesome stereo system and the intriguing turbo lag. It was the first turbo I had ever driven – I liked the slight hesitation it had before it it would take off. And I thought it was a good-looking car. Don’t see too many on the road.
Interesting here in Puerto Rico, Mitsubishi sold all the variants of this generation (3 and 4 doors, turbo, etc) but we didn’t got the Colt if I’m not mistaken. I imagine that in Hawaii and the other off mainland territories the situation was similar. Then again, Mitsubishi has always had a good reputation here and are big sellers. My second car and the first one that I purchased with my own money, was a 1997 Mirage coupe. Actually a really good car that tolerated a lot of abuse. In fact the car is still in the family as I sold it to my brother in law about 9 years ago and he still have it. People look at me like I am crazy when I mention the fact that Mitsubishi has such a bad reputation in the USA and that there is not much hope of them staying much longer over there. And if they go from the States, they are gone from here. Not much sense in making their cars complaint with the federal regulations for such a small market as PR.
This generation of Colt survived a bit longer in Canada. The 1989-92 model was known here as Colt 200 and Eagle Summit while the previous one continued to solder as Colt 100/Eagle Vista https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Eagle_Vista_Sedan.JPG
This generation Mirage was gone from the JDM books by 89 I owned a ex JDM 89 Mirage VIE X top of the range it had every concieveable extra as standard equipment climate air power everything but only a 1500cc engine it was gutless to put it mildly and while ok to pedal around town at highway speed with the JDM warning chime bonging away under the dash it could barely stay in its lane top speed was a whiteknuckle 145kmh and it took ages to reach it Yep understeer really was still a feature the car had appalling roadholding but once I replaced the JDM carb with a kiwi new one and redid the ignition system with local parts it was reliable though it got very poor gas mileage, I sold it to a highschool girl cheap and saw it still running 4 years later though very beat up comfortable to ride in yes but at the expense of any roadholding ability, good riddance.
Hide the badge on that cover pic and I would have no idea what I was looking at. The Stepford Salariman
Considered one of this generation in 85….still no headroom. Ended up with a Mazda GLC instead, which was the most bullet proof car I have ever had.
While the previous generation Colt was common where I lived, I think I only saw one of this generation on the road.
I live in Malaysia, and the Proton Saga which was the 4 door saloon version is literally everywhere. There must be hundreds of thousands of them still around. They also did a 5 door lift back that was unique to Proton that was essentially the saloon with a slightly shortened rear overhang and more sloping rear window.
The replacement Mitsubishi model (or perhaps they skipped a generation) was then sold alongside this as another model called the Wira (Hero in Malay).
They were revised slightly with new slimmer nose, lights etc which gave it a little bit of an Alfa Romeo look.
One thing I’ve never understood about these cars was the plastic/rubber strips that run around the door frames. The rear door of the saloon has this rubber piping where the window glass meets the frame AND where the door frame meets the body. Looks very clumsy.
BTW many of the taxis in Kuala Lumpur are still these – so if you want a bumpy, shaky and rattling trip down memory lane come and pay a visit. They’re slowly disappearing.
I spent the summer in Penang in 2000. The Wira skipped a generation and is a clone of the ’93 Lancer (Mirage sedan, just renamed).
Yes, the 4-door versions of the ’83-’88 Colt/Mirage had very awkward window treatment. I’ve ridden around that large city in a number of Sagas, and even though the A/C was on (which was necessary, I recall my aunts car had no heater core) and the cars were old, they still slogged around in the heat, miserably.
It’s amazing that at the time I was there, so many people were willing to pay enormous tariffs just to ride in Hondas and Toyotas.
Oh, Penang is where I live Perry. There are still plenty of these as taxis, and I’m guessing none have had their aircon maintained since you were here. They can be unbearable at times.
I remember one of the UK car magazines reviewing the Mitsubishi saloon and they managed to take a photo from a low angle (I think it was parked on a floor above the photographer). The lines of the car from this angle looked great – so much better than real life!
The back of these is very cramped, getting in and out can be quite difficult – one really notices the difference with modern cars how better packaged they are.
Hi Perry,
I’ve spent many hours in Kuala Lumpur’s traffic jams in the back of red and white Protons……………
…………..not the greatest taxi ever it has it be said.
We had the gold basic ’86 hatchback (Colt E) for a couple of years, an honest little car with the only option being an air conditioner for the Louisiana summers. Comfortable, supportive vinyl bucket seats, 4-speed and a funky little AM radio on the floor tunnel in between the shifter and the brake lever. The radio seemed to get nothing but Paul Harvey, “Stand by for news!” Rear seat back that flopped right down, though not flat, for the big boxes. But it was just as you and the review describe, a tightly screwed together little box, good quality interior plastics and controls, not very fast (I recall it being a bit short on torque, at least in comparison with my fuel injected Rabbit, but it didn’t mind being revved, either) but light on its feet. With the tiny 155r13 tires you didn’t really mind the understeer, as the limits were so low anyway. Much better handling than the Subaru we tried, and much cheaper than the Mazda’s and Honda’s and Toy cars, if you could even get those dealers to give you the time of day-Japanese cars were in demand at this time. Manual steering, but you didn’t need power assist and it felt quite direct and fast enough. Good enough brakes for the overall level of performance. After moving to upstate New York it took us on a memorable family vacation to Cape Cod, and a colleague and me to New York City to take our licensing exam, giving good service on each trip. I have nothing but fond memories for this little box. By the way, I believe the gold hatch in the pictures is a later model, done about the time the wagon came out. The ’86 model had a front end like the one on the gold 4 door (which is also a nice design, though the wheels on that model really look undersized). I miss these little cars and wonder how Mitsubishi lost its way here.
I owned an ’87 Colt 3-door in the mid ’90s, it was my first non-beater car, and the relatively plush DL model with the cord velour seats shown above (mine were blue), a 5-speed, split rear seat and AM/FM/cassette radio. Sadly, it met its’ end on a slick, snowy night when the driver of a Caravan and I slid into each other at <20 mph. I had just put in a new clutch less than a month before, too.
One thing not mentioned is the 5-door hatchback which has to be as rare in the US as its' Nissan Pulsar counterpart – it was offered only in 1985 and only in no-frills E trim (although I saw a few Canadian-registered DL 5-doors back in the day). I always wondered why Mitsubishi didn't pick it up for its' own dealers.
My mom had an ’86 Plymouth Colt 4-door in light blue. My parents bought it new in ’85, before I was born.
Like Iowahawk, it was a manual with the radio sitting down on the floor, but hers had FM! I left an orange crayon under the back windshield in the Memphis summer and it melted into a big orange oval blob that stayed there until we got rid of the car.
Funny that so many of the pictures in this post aren’t actually pictures of the 85-86 Colt, too (with the front end like the one on the 4-door one pictured). I guess they really are hard to find, huh?
We had the Colt until ’97 or so. Seeing that picture of the interior, I remember for the first time in years what those rectangle door handles looked like. Very cool. I don’t remember ever seeing another Colt of this generation after we got rid of ours. They couldn’t have sold that many of them in Memphis, I guess.
My Dad bought a Colt 3 door DL 5-speed hatchback for his commuter car. It did the job but we liked it less than the 83 Subaru it replaced. We used to joke that the shifter felt so rubbery it must be connected to the transmission by a garden hose.
My sister got it once she began working and although the mechanicals were very reliable it got done in by corrosion. It had been rustproofed when new with a Waxoyl like substance so the body wasn’t too terrible, but when it was about 10 years old the wiring harness fell apart. Wires were dropping off lights and sensors, we fixed a few but eventually we realized this was a losing battle and it got scrapped.
My wife had the 3-door hatch when we first started dating in 2001. It was a miserable pile of junk. Of course, it was 15 or so years old at the time.
If I follow correctly:
This generation of the Colt came as a wagon (a “regular Colt” wagon, in addition to the Vista wagon), but it wasn’t introduced until the final model year (1988), then continued in production for a few more years in its 1988 form after the rest of the “regular Colts” had moved on to a new styling generation.
The two basic non-wagon body styles in the U.S. were a 3-door hatchback and 4-door notchback sedan. A 5-door hatchback of this design existed, but (per nlpnt’s comment above), but was only part of the Colt lineup in the U.S. for one year (1985) — although it sounds like it was sold for a longer period in Canada.
After the next generation appeared in 1989, this generation of Colt continued to be sold in Canada alongside the newer one (per Stéphane’s comment above). This included an Eagle-branded version called the Eagle Vista, sold alongside the Summit. (In the U.S., there was an Eagle-branded version of the generation introduced in 1989 — the Summit — but not of the 1984-88 one.) Wikipedia leaves me with the impression that the Vista was introduced for the Eagle brand’s first model year in 1988 — so it was old by itself for a year before the Summit appeared — and that it offered the Chariot-based wagon but not the Mirage/”regular Colt”-based wagon (so that the “Vista wagon” was the same as the Colt Vista wagon).
You got it!
I had a 1992 Eagle Summit I bought for my first wife to learn to drive, circa 2004. This one had been the dealer principal’s sister’s car. It looked great and was very shiny but it was not well maintained otherwise. It was a 1.5 OHC FI unit with a four speed auto. It worked surprisingly well. I had it a year and sold it to a friend of mine who drove it another couple of years. Like other posters noted, all hell broke loose on the electrics. I did the starter, then he did a distributor,and then a fuel pump. He dumped it at the fuel pump as the PCM was surely next and worth more than the car.
I bought a brand new ’88 Plymouth Colt E on Columbus Day 1987. 4 speed manual with AC, it was the best car I have ever owned. A well made car with beautiful fit and finish. My Colt never let me down. Ever. I drove it for 10 years and 170K miles when finally the head cracked. In all that time the only part I ever replaced (other than wear items, tires, belts, brake pads etc.) was the carburetor. It still had the original clutch, starter, alternator, and even the exhaust system when I finally let it go. I sold it to a guy who had another Colt that had been in an accident. He planned to put his motor in my car. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was still out there on the road somewhere.
Newly renamed from AMC/Renault, Jeep-Eagle dealers pushed 1989 Eagle Summits as a ‘cheap car’, taking the place of the dead Alliance. But by 1993-94, Eagle was a sinking ship, and only the Talon had recognition.
CC effect in play… Usually the only pre-1990 cars I see in Manhattan are GM A-Bodies
Right… the 5-door Colt hatchback sedan was a 1985 only offering for this generation here in the U.S.
The previous generation of the Colt (1979-1984) first incorporated that bodystyle starting with the 1982 model year, which was also the last year in which the Plymouth offering was called the Champ.
I suspect the Colt E 5-door sedan was gone after 1985 on the grounds it may have stolen sales from the Dodge Omni and Plymouth Horizon, which were also 5-door hatchbacks with front-wheel-drive but built right here in the U.S.
My brother went through three of these in his college years. Buy them cheap used (much less than Civic/323/Corolla), run them until they weren’t worth fixing.
Basic but functional driving experience, decent at suburban speeds when revved. But none of them lasted very long between rust and reliability issues.
I still think this generation is vaguely egg-shaped.
I bought one of these when it first came out, a DL model with five speed. Learned to drive manual on this car, which made for an interesting drive out of the dealership. I kept it for 14 years and the only time it let me down was when the clutch cable snapped, which was an 80 dollar repair. Was much nicer inside than the equivalent Tercel at the time. I had rustproofing applied every year (Krown) and it never had any problems with rust. (I live in the rust belt.) I didn’t drive it much after moving to a big city and it accumulated only about 80,000 km by the end of 14 years. Started burning oil which was annoying (a Mitsubishi problems based on comments herein?) Replaced brake pads once, as well as tires and muffler, and changed the oil regularly but no other repairs of note. A garage misdiagnosed an engine thermostat issue, which I always thought might have contributed to the early oil burning issue. Scrapped it due to an upcoming emissions test and imminent need for another exhaust system. It served me well and people were always complimentary about its general quality.
I miss my 1989 Colt Turbo VTS 16V. Mario Andretti once lapped it around Watkins Glen in the summer of 1989, proclaiming it as one of the best (road) cars he has ever driven. Little known fact: Mitsubishi had running prototypes of a new suspension, similar to Ford’s RevoKnuckle in the Focus, running in 1986. However, Kazue Naganuma axed the project as “non-cost effective”. In reality, this was at the request of Lee Iacocca, who pushed for “simplification” of the Colt line. Naganuma actually despised Iacocca, as he once stated that Iacocca “hasn’t driven a modern car in 30 years, and conducts his business as such”. Iacocca actually tried to dump the Colt name several times since heading Chrysler, once attempting to use the Duster name in 1983 (later used for a Plymouth Sundance model), then again in 1987 with the Dart nameplate. I’ll admit, I wish my car was a 1989 Dodge Dart Turbo VTS 16V!