Mitsubishi is out to ruin every ounce of goodwill its fanbase may have left for the company, and the worst part is, it’s completely unnecessary. Not content to drag the good Eclipse name down by slapping it onto a meh crossover, they’re reportedly going to call a new crossover the Lancer, too, sullying our good memories of Mitsubishi rally domination in the process.
The new thing mistakenly wearing a Lancer badge will likely be a C-segment crossover, set to compete with cars like the Toyota C-HR, AutoExpress reports.
Mitsubishi Chief Designer Tsunehiro Kunimoto told AutoExpress that the new “Lancer” would take design cues from e-Evolution concept displayed at the Tokyo Motor Show. The magazine made this render based on their prediction that this so-called “Lancer” will use a shared Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance CMF C/D platform:
Look, this pointlessly tall abomination is clearly not a Lancer. I own a Lancer, and even my front-wheel-drive, non-turbo car is a good compact sedan. That is what a Lancer is: a solid sport compact car, some of which get built up into the crazier turbocharged Lancer Evolution rally monsters we know and miss. Even the entry-level Lancers are fun to drive, though, which is the exact opposite of the experience I had when I reviewed one of Mitsubishi’s crossovers last year.
The problem is, mislabeling new, boring crossovers with the names of Mitsubishi’s classic sportscars is really just baiting for negative press. I cannot think of a single positive reason to do this, and it’s easily avoidable. Can no one at Mitsubishi think up of new car names, or what?
Look, Mitsu. Name these crossovers anything else that hasn’t been used before, and there will be fewer enraged 4G63 and 4B11/12 fans actively rooting for your demise.
We know the company is struggling, and there’s demand for crossovers. I, a Porsche owner, know intimately that crossovers like the Macan and Cayenne are what make the company enough cash to fund insane Nürburgring record laps, new 911 GT3s and other niche go-fast stuff. You know, Porsche’s versions of the Eclipses and Lancers. We Mitsu fans can suffer through a few years of no new Lancer Evolution sedan if it’s reborn later faster and crazier than ever.
But you didn’t see Porsche decide that their latest baby-crossover should be called the 944. We’d riot, just as we should over this “Lancer” idea. Hire someone to make new names for new, completely different cars, Mitsubishi. It’s not that hard.
The Lancer is still dead, as is the Eclipse. The Eclipse will always be the car so powerful it blew its floorboard off from The Fast and the Furious, and the Lancer will always be the crazy sedan you could scare the whole family in. These new crossovers are not a resurrection of these infamous names—they’re a misprint.
Contact your corrections people immediately.