This is a great shot, posted by Pikesta at the Cohort. Not only are these Galant Sigma/Colts now gone from our streets here in Eugene, but the backdrop is of course wonderful. And it instantly reminded me of a shot I made some eight years ago here.
This was a storage lot for a seller-repair shop for vintage Mercedes diesels, at the height of the bio-diesel boom. Back then we had two sales lots selling nothing but W123s and a few W126 diesels, undoubtedly plucked from California’s vast trove at the time. Where have they all gone? Eight years seems like just yesterday; or maybe not, actually.
Isn’t that a grey-market car? It looks a sedan version of the ’78-’80 ‘big’ rwd Colt wagons Chrysler sold here just before the K-cars – without the US 5-mph bumpers. I’ve seen those sedans on reruns of ’80s Australian TV shows.
Happy Motoring, Mark
It was shot in South Africa.
Definitely the wrong kind of colorful for Eugene
I rented a Sigma in Australia when I was in Alice Springs over a Christmas leave from Korea during the 80s. As I recall, it was badged as a Chrysler Sigma rather than a Mitsubishi Sigma. My memory of the car is a bit clouded by the fact that the headliner kept falling down if you tried to drive it over 40 with the windows open. Very annoying.
What a great shot. Interesting building and a rare car to boot.
Around 1988, my younger brother bought a 1980 Colt – the wagon version of this car, with a 5-speed and the 2.6 silent-shaft engine. That was the best combination.
A good friend had a ’78 with the Chrysler Torqueflite and it was a thirsty slug.
With a little help from me, my brother’s Colt survived until the mid ’90s, and well over 200K miles –
by which time the tranny had lost two or three gears and it was time to shop for another car.
Happy Motoring, Mark
You are right the 2.6/5sp is the best combination.
I drove one with a 2.0 & auto, and describe the throttle pedal as a volume control rather than an accelerator!
Oh yes, I was unfortunate enough to own a later one, and it was just as you describe. When the 2.0 smoked more than the Marlboro Man, embarrassment and finances dictated not the ditching of the thing but the replacement with a less-flogged 2.6 – which proved simply a more vibey and thirsty version of the volume controller.
Nice find. I’ve always liked this generation of Mitsubishi – they had the cleanest, if not always the raciest styling of all the Japanese brands. When I was in college in the late 80s, there was a grey-market Galant of the same era with the out-on-the-fender side mirrors we were talking about yesterday. Similar look, just bigger.
I had a couple of those Sigma in wagon a 2.0 five speed I circumnavigated Australia in and later a 2.6 in NZ also five speed manual, not many left now.
Chrysler Aus sold these locally made from ’77 through to ’80, when Mitsubishi bought the local operation in the city of Adelaide from Chrysler, whence they became Mitsubishi Sigmas. They were often enough about the third best-selling car in the country for a while, for good reason. They looked very nice, were Japanese-style better equipped, promised better economy than the local GM/Ford biggies which were absolutely struggling with emissions rules and high fuel prices, the 2.6 option was marketed very cleverly as if vastly more effective than the 2.0 litre alternatives, and it did handle noticeably better than the average (say) Toyota of the time. In truth, they only worked really well as a 2.6 5-speed, the balance shaft stuff making a reasonably smooth, torquey and certainly zippy small RWD car (albeit always with poor recirculating ball steering). But as a commonly-purchased auto, they were utterly gutless, 2.0 or 2.6, they were not very economical in any form, they rusted too early even in Aus, the RWD format in a smallish car was too limited for space, and they often proved short-lived engine-wise (commonly 100,000 mile smoky death). They were replaced by a locally adapted, widened FWD Galant in 1985, a genuinely great car, a really clever local adaptation and initial big-seller that was so badly executed that the effects of the failure still echoed in the death of Mitsubishi Aus in 2007. (All this oddity might help explain to US/Euro readers how a nonentity brand like Mitsubishi still has such presence in the Aus market).
Mitsubishi Australia didn’t die in 2007, just stopped local production – partly because they saw the writing on the wall and partly because they were always a smaller operation than the other 3 (Ford, GM & Toyota). Apparently near the end they had the factory optimised to the point where break-even production was 10,000 units!
Since then, they have done fairly well, and I think were outselling Ford for a time, and currently they are only just behind Holden, selling 400 fewer vehicles in May.
I agree a Sigma is a rare sight nowadays.
The only version of those RWD Colts, we got in the US, was the wagon.
Sold alongside it, was the FWD Plymouth Champ/Dodge Colt twin hatchbacks.
Kinda like Mazda was doing from 1981 to 1985, when the GLC hatchback went to FWD…The wagon remained RWD, and was sold alongside the hatchy.
Meant to add, life itself seems to become an increasingly uncontrollable slide: eight years ago it was unremarkable to see the occaisional slightly rumpled Sigma, usually with an older driver peering ahead or angle parking where it wasn’t actually legal. Now, not a one, anywhere, ever. (Sigmas, I mean). Surely, that was only, I dunno, a year or two back? As for W123’s, there’s still just enough visible here to make one feel more in control of time than could ever possibly be true.
the companion pic..
This car was sold as the Colt Galant by Sigma Motor Corporation from 1976. At the time Sigma was assembling Mazdas, Peugeots, Mitsubishi and Citroen at the Silverton plant.
A week before I caught a mid ’79 update with the square headlights in Buitengracht Street, see below. This baby blue colour was so popular at the time!