As is all-too obvious, I have a particular soft spot for older Japanese cars, especially the more obscure varieties. So when I walked into this Cordia on a trip to the Bay Area a while back, I just had to stop and shoot. I haven’t seen one since moving to Oregon, but then the Cordia was hardly a big seller, and Mitsubishi rolled out its US presence bit by bit. Now if I could just find its companion sedan, the Tredia…
…I’d have a complete set of the Mitsubishi trio. By the early eighties, Mitsubishi wanted more of the action than just wholesaling cars to Chrysler, and pissed off its partner by going into business in the US by itself. Since the Colt and Space Wagon were tied up by Chrysler, Mitsubishi began by sending a trio of the more stranger-named cars just about ever to hit these shores: Cordia, Tredia and Starion (CC here).
The Cordia name was explained as a combination of cordorite, a lustrous mineral, and diamonds, Mitsu’s logo. The Tredia (above) was supposedly named after the three-diamonds logo. And the Starion? Well, we took that on in our recent CC.
Anyway, Mitsubishi started out with a small dealer network, which was in California and…California. Well, actually, a few east coast markets were technically also part of the slow roll-out, but damn if I ever saw one of these Cordias out east. And if any were sold, they’ve obviously long since succumbed to the oxide god.
The 1982 and 1983 Cordias came with a 82 hp 1.8 L four, and the 1984s with an 88hp 2.0 four. The real gem among the Cordias is the 1984 turbo, which had a 116hp 1.8 four. Hot stuff, for then. (Update: CC Cohort Charkle the 2nd found this one)
Well, here’s the Cordia; so are there any early Mitsubishi fans out there? Does anyone care? But before this obscure box completely leaves our collective memories, it deserves its fifteen seconds of fame. Consider it done.
It’s almost showroom new! The only sign of use I see is that the dash and center console have faded some. Somebody must really love his Cordia.
Wow, have not seen one in ages. In my last trip to the U-pick yard about a week ago I came across another obscure Mistu, the first generation Galant, this was the high end Galant Sigma, with the air suspension, hardtop glass and the one spoke wheel, I stood there looking through it kinda studying it, I hadn’t realized how the early Galants were like a Japanese Citroen.
Yes, the Sigma was pretty out-there; I had a secret soft spot for them. It’s been a really long time since I saw one of those.
It was pretty clean too, the once pimpish red velour had faded to a pinkish gray, but all the controls and switches were there.I’ll see if its there next time to snag some photos, at the end of the same row there was a dark red Volvo 780 Bertone too!
You confused me there for a minute with “first generation Galant” and air suspension – the first gen was sold there as a Dodge Colt, the air susp car was 5th gen. I assume they were still the Japanese tax bracket 1.7m wide? Did they also have the control binnacles on each side of the steering wheel?
First car to carry the Galant name in the US, it sort of looks like a Japanese Cutlass Ciera.
Yes I’m familiar with them, a family friend had a wagon version of the Australian wide-body Magna ‘back in the day’. The description “Japanese Cutlass Ciera” doesn’t help though – never seen one!
The Magna was built in Aussie but was really a Japanese Diamante V-2000/Sigma/Galant, NZ has all the varieties all junk but confusing nonetheless.
Ist gen was 67/68 rare car nowdays though they pop up on TM occasionally
We have a Galant Sigma in Boston! It lives near BU. I’ll snag a pic if I can.
The only one of these I ever knew was purchased by the senior lawyer in my office for his wife to replace a fwd early Oldsmobile Omega. For the life of me, I can’t recall if it was the 2 door Cordia or the sedan Tredia. One more longtime GM customer defection. She must not have liked it that well, because a couple of years later, he bought her a new Mustang. She must have really liked the Town Car he replaced his Cadillac with.
Nice find – I have not thought of one of these in years.
Murilee loves those things.
I’m sure I’ve seen one or two of these around town, but sure enough, a search on one of the ‘all-cragislist’ sites comes up with Zero.
My wife had one when I married her in ’88…an ’86 bought new…white with red interior like this one, but hers was the Turbo with a 5-speed manual. She loved it despite its less-than-Japanese build quality (the shifter boot was flaking apart within 2 years). Still, she got about six years out of it before we traded it in early ’93 for a GMC Suburban (which she liked even more).
Still some of these in the wild down here.The Cordia turbo saw patrol car duty with MOT when new they were fairly quick at the time, the Tredia was sawed in half and widened to produce the truly horrible Magna in 84 with east/west 2.6 Astron power and biodegradable trans very very few survive.
Galant & Tredia are different animals I think Bryce, the Tredia looks to be closer in size to a Colt
I know the Cordia tredia cars well I did a CV joint recently on a Cordia and the Tredia bigger than the Colt a lot bigger actually these were common cars in NZ though virtually unseen while I lived in OZ. The early Galant was sold in Aussie with Valiant badging it was a small RWD car about the size of a Hillman Avenger The Galant of the late 70s was called SIGMA for OZ consumption.
It was actually the Japanese Galant that they based the Magna on Bryce.
The prototype was created by cuting straight down the centre using a nine inch angle grinder and 100 mm was added, it looked identical to the Galant but wider.
You could well be right the stew of Mitsu cars available during that era is astounding NZ has them all including the Aussie versions and lots Aussie didnt get
Like Bryce says, still a few around down here. There’s a turbo one regularly parked outside my house, in really good shape for its age. I had one for a couple of years (non turbo) and can verify it was a solid, reliable little motor. Gearbox was a bit crunchy, but otherwise a real good mile eater for a little car. Took ours camping around the south island, and it did very well ( although 2 doors for camping is a bit annoying). Towards the end of our trip, we were in torrential west coast rain in hokitika, and decided to make a run for the inter islander ferry. Caught that, got off the other end, and just had that hankering to be home – 10 hours later we were home in Auckland. Tough journey for a little car, but it soaked up the miles.
One day we got burgled, and without us knowing, the b’tards took a spare set of keys. Came back that night for the car. Found a few days later, couple dents,front tires down to the canvas, but still going strong. It was fixed up on insurance and kept on chugging along until our needs changed and we sold it on. Good car.
My mom bought a Black 84 Tredia Turbo with a 5 speed new here in Seatte, she traded in her 78 Datsun B210. I never liked the looks but it sure was fast when the Turbo spooled up. It spent alot of time in the shop as it wasn’t nearly as reliable as the Datsun. In 90 she finally traded the Mitsu in for a Ford Probe with the 2.2L, not the 3.0L I recommended. That was a smart move as the Mazda mill was damn near bullet proof, but I digress…………..
Some Japanese cars had some pretty fun interior and IP treatments, always thought they were probably influenced by various sci-fi computer games we had then. The Cordia was a good one, and also the rear drive version of the Isuzu Impulse (with handling by Lotus and psychedelic “optical illusion” interior fabric!) and of course the Subaru XT turbo and XT6. Much as I got a kick out of driving those cars, I don’t imagine they’d be much fun to own today though. They just weren’t built to last like cars of the 40s through early 60s were. Of course, I could be wrong…
Paul, that looks to be one clean Cordia. We had 2 dealers in Baltimore when Mitsu started up, one on the West side, one on the East side—the East side guy still has his franchise. A good friend of mine bought an ’83 Cordia, beige/silver and it had the famed Mitsu Twin Stick manual trans, which my ’79 Plymouth Champ was also equipped with. Decent ride, good mileage (27-32) and looked pretty darn good to my eyes. Mike kept it for ~10 years and never had a major issue with it.
Had a mint ’87 Tredia used when I worked for an Acura dealer in 2009. We sold it on EBay to someone in Indianapolis.
My mom bought a brand new Tredia LS automatic in 84, it was her first new car. She had it when my parents were married, and she loved it like crazy. My dad, on the other hand, maintains that it was the biggest turd he ever drove. He made her trade it in on a 90 Mustang LX when they got married. I always joke that it is a fictional car, because to this day I have never seen one on the street, or on one of my many trips to the junkyard.
These were very popular here in Australia, especially the turbo versions. New South Wales Police had a few as Highway Patrol cars but I believe the cops (especially the more rotund ones!) hated them as they were manuals and were hard to get in and out of.
I was in NSW often in the 80s dont recall seeing these they were used as highway patrol cars in NZ for a while my BIL had a turbo new not the best car ever made he reckoned.
I remember the Victorian police trialled these as highway patrol cars, untill it was discovered that they had a total lack of high speed braking.
The Benalla police wrote off two of them within a week of each other and in identical fashion. Cresting a hill at 200+kph and crashing into the back of an innocent motorist due the lack of brakes. They were quietly withdrawn from service.
I like it. Quite Celica-like. I have never seen one. I don’t believe they were ever available in Canada.
Yep, like Bryce and Chaz note, plenty of Cordias and Tredias floating around down here still – after all, New Zealand is the place where the Japanese send their old cars to die lol! I had a Tredia briefly some years ago as a loaner. Being a Mitsi and puke-yellow in colour meant I instinctively wanted to hate it, but by gosh could that thing move, so I ended up not minding it at all. It was a 1984 1800cc version, which still had the bottom 4 of the 5 speeds in the gearbox operating. It went like a rocket and I initially wondered why until I noticed quite a lack of structural strengthening or bracing… Same thing with a ’96 Lancer loaner I had last year: a rocketship with zero crash safety. Mind you, Mitsubishi did build some things well in the 80s – my cousin’s still driving the 1983 Sigma ‘Super Estate’ his Dad bought in 1984, and it’s now got nearly 500,000km on the clock. It just refuses to die…
howl do you find these things? haven’t seen one for years. we definitely had dealers in the ny metro area when i was growing up. my buddy had a new starion in about ’84 with a turbo. crazy fast. he lost his license pretty quickly in it but when he go through that mess he bought a new 2dr montero. that was a hell of nice jeep. great yokahoma tires. i think mitsu deserves more cred than they ususally get in america.
Mum had Maroon 1.8 NON Turbo. It was a lovely car when it was new. She had it from 1986 to 1993. It was a bit gutless, but once it got moving it was OK. She wanted a Turbo but they didn’t come in Auto at the time out here. It was rather tired at the end of the 7 years. She kept complaining about how it wasn’t as powerful as her Scorpion or Skyline so.her mechanic fitted a sports exhaust. She was a bit happier after that
the more stranger-named cars just about ever to hit these shores: Cordia, Tredia and Starion
My vote would go to the inexplicably-named early 80s Isuzu products, the “P’up” (with apostrophe) and “I-Mark”.
A friend had a Cordia Turbo, on the crude side but fun when the boost kicked in.