Mitsubishi makes foray into Falcon, Commodore territory

Press, 10 March 1988, Page 40

Mitsubishi makes foray into Falcon, Commodore territory

BEHIND tHe WHEEL with i

Peter Greenslade

Mitsubishi Motors gave notice on Monday that "it intends to have a go at Ford and Holden and take a slice of the Falcon and Commodore market with its new V3OOOI saloon.

The V3OOO <is powered by a 2972 cuj cm,. 60deg. multi-point fuel injection engine that j develops llOkW at 5000 rpm. It is a technically i advanced power unit,! mounted transversely, that drives the front wheels of what is to all intents and purposes the well-known and popular (but elderly) Mitsubishi Sigma.;

Whether this car will have mass sales appeal in our market i$ something only time i will tell. Frankly, after) riding and driving the A'3ooo from Auckland to I New Plymouth last week, I have my doubts, but I’ll reserve judgment until; I’ve had an opportunity to| drive it on the regular test circuit. The V 6 signals a change in direction for Mitsubishi which, when ' under the Todd Motors I flag, stuck almost religiously to the four-cylinder Segment ■ of the local car market and established aj reputation that seldom, if ever, had it in less than; third place on the annual’ best-selling car list. We New' Zelanders have been content to live with mid-sized four-cylinder Japanese cars. Whether we will be prepared to embark on a; new affair with a car -that has a more techri|cally advanced and powerful engine, but is dressed in op shop clothes, j remains to be seen. ; Moreover, the Japanese owners of the Porirua plant may have compounded the problem, because I understand that they intend to introduce an entirely new model, ranging up to two litre capacity, later this year. This will be slightly smaller than a Sigma and marketed under the tried-and-true Galant label. This Galant will be of rounded contemporary styling.

The V3OODS, which come in four versions, could not bei considered expensive in ; the current market, but fleet managers must have tantalising expectations iabout the prices of the upcoming Galant. This is. expected to be a completely new car which, ; at w'orst, should be priced close to the V3OOO super saloon that with manual fivespeed gearboxes tagged at $32,850. Incidentally,; the V3ooos are priced at;531,400 for the base GLX; The more

upmarket versions are the manual super saloon, at $32,850, the automatic ($33,995) and the SE ($41,900). ! Admittedly, the SE has just about everything in it but the kitchen sink, but whether it will appeal as a business car to directors of humbler companies (and even the best of them should feel humble these days) and more moneyed elderly folk probably depends upon which way the wind is blowing at the moment of decision-making.

For my part, I believe that both potential buying segments are likely to forgo the hidden glamour of the powerful V 6 engine. Instead, they will choose a less vigorous but more attractive, four-cylinder Japanese car or, for that matter, a more exotic European which, if one is prepared to shop around, may not be outrageously expensive compared with Mitsubishi's top-of-the-line V 6.

To my knowledge, when it comes to making a carbuying decision, most people live out their own fantasies. Who am I to deny them the pleasure?

No matter in which direction the V3OOO goes, the captain of the ship has already charted it. Last week, when Mitsubishi Motors showed the •V3OOO to thej motoring press corps, .| Denford McDonald, the managing director, admitted that he had seen the engine about three years ago in Kyoto and had told Mitsubishi that it would’ be “tremendous” for New Zealand. “That was,” : McDonald said, “of course, before

■| ; I the popularity ofjsix-cylin-der engines. i "We’re very fortunate in having a very close relationship with Mitsubishi. In fact, I sometimes wonder when I go there, why we have it. i “It is almost as if you go there and I ask for something and 'everyone jumps around and says ‘You can have it.’ ” Serious negotiations for the V 6 started i in 1986, during discussions leading to the takeover of Todd Motors, Ltd, the New Zealand Mitsubishi franchiseholder and assembler, by the Japanese 'manufacturer. ' In any case, Mr McDonald said,| it was agreed that the project could proceed I and by March-April last year, Mitsubishi had tlie engine configurations that had been mooted and, subsequently, vehicles to the New Zealand company's specification. I In short, the V3OOO has

been designed for the New Zealand market at the company’s request in co-operation with its engineers and those in Japan.

“We are particularly privileged. I guess the other side of the coin is, of course, that we’ve got a challenge now to make damned sure that it works in this market and that we get a good share of it,” Mr McDonald said. As a matter of fact, Mitsubishi Motors and Mr McDonald have come up with damned good car. but that does not mearilo say that Mr and Mrs New Zealander are going to rush but to buy one. Prosaic though it is, I like the V3OOO.

It has a very gutsy engine that delivers its peak torque of 230 Nm at 2500 rpm. As we found on the Auckland-New Plymouth run, there is plenty of power there when you need it and, provided one has the expertise to exploit all that is available in the lower rev. range, there is no necessity to drive the car.really hard to put up good point-to-point times. That is probably just as well, because the old torsion beam rear suspension is not up„ to much if you happen to be occupying a rear seat.

As a passenger, I found that when the car was cornered enthusiastically the outside rear wheel tended to dig in as the weight shifted to that corner. The rear end has built-in negative camber and ifl the driver tries really hard, the rear end tends to skip outwards rather nervously. Curiously, this pheno-

menon is not evident when one is occupying a front seat and, certainly, it is not felt by a driver handling the car apparently well within its ultimate limits.

The power-assisted, variable rack-and-pinion steering is quite nicely weighted for a car of this type and size and holds a straight line with no trouble at all at quite high cruising speeds. It corners it is directionally stable and, under normal driving conditions, almost neutral.

In short, in a main road touring role the V3OOO is as civilised as one could expect a better quality Japanese car to be.

I admit to being impressed by the brakes which, like Ford’s new Falcon, are discs all round. This is a popular car breakthrough and I would expect to see the disc-drum brake set-up replaced by discs all round within the next year or two. That certainly makes a lot more sense than the present all-wheel-steer fad.

No doubt, the responsiveness of the smooth V 6 engine is partly attributable. to the multi-point fuel . injection system, which always provides a smooth surge of power at the whim of the driver. The V3OOO is a car that has almost everything.

Maybe it would have been happier running on wide-section 60 series low-profile tyres, as the now-obsolescent turbocharged GSR Sigma did. Maybe it deserves redesigned rear suspension. It should be dressed up in new clothes.