(first posted 2/22/2014) Mitsubishi was on a roll in the early eighties. Not only was their trend-setting new FWD econobox Mirage-Colt a success in every measure, but then Mitsubishi followed that up with a highly innovative new vehicle: the Chariot/Space Wagon, sold in the US as the Colt Vista Wagon at both Dodge and Plymouth dealers. It was the first of its kind: a tall and long wagon with seating for eight. Ironically, it appeared the same year as Chrysler’s own highly innovative new mini-vans, the Caravan and Voyager. Dodge and Plymouth dealers were suddenly the hot place for families with kids.
Admittedly, the Vista Wagon had some competition in bragging rights for this general category. The Nissan Prairie/Stanza Wagon (CC here) was truly the first large-space FWD passenger vehicle of the modern era, seeing as it arrived (in Japan) in 1981. But it rather straddles the middle ground between mini-van and long/tallboy “space wagon” wagon. It was taller, and had sliding doors. But then it didn’t offer a third row of seats (except in Japan).
The Chrysler minivans (CC here) nailed it, for American conditions anyway. Although the initial swb versions were tight for three rows of seats, it was doable. And the lwb versions really came to define the segment, although “mini” wasn’t actually all that relevant anymore. The midi-van.
Unlike the Caravan, the Vista Wagon was clearly more directly passenger-car-based, being lower and narrower. But it was actually one inch longer than the swb Caravan, and put that to good use in its interior accommodations. The very big difference was that all of its rear seats folded down, in various configurations, making the space very flexible to adapt to many different needs.
The Caravan’s seats didn’t fold, and had to be removed for carrying large loads. Anyone who’s ever lifted those bench seats in and out of an early Caravan undoubtedly has vivid memories of that, and perhaps some old chiropractor bills to prove it. A royal pain; as I know all too well. Of course, once the Caravan’s seats were out, its load capacity was larger than the Vista’s.
Here’s the view from the rear of those three rows. It’s rather familiar to me, because in 1994, I rode in one of those rear-most seats from Eugene to Vancouver and back, at least for part of the way. Given that I’m 6’4″, I was rather surprised that it wasn’t all that bad. I’m quite sure the leg room was better than in an eight-passenger swb Caravan.
I didn’t drive on that trip, so I don’t have any impressions to share. The interior design was a bit cleaner than the Caravan’s. Power-wise, these obviously weren’t hot rods, given that there was all of 98 hp under the hood, from Mitsubishi’s 4G63 2.0 L four. Well, that was 14 more than the Caravan’s standard 2.2 L four in the early years, so the Vista would undoubtedly have felt a bit livelier. For what it’s worth.
I remember looking at these at the dealer, when we were in the market for a new car in the winter of 1984. I would have gone for one, especially the 4WD version, and it would have undoubtedly worked quite well for us. But Stephanie was enamored of the brand new Cherokee that was new that fall too, and that’s what we bought. I rather suspect the Vista wouldn’t have broken down as often as that Jeep.
These Vista Wagons sold in healthy numbers, at least on the West Coast; of course, nothing like the Chrysler mini-vans. They weren’t exactly cheap; priced at $8721 and $9809 for the AWD version, in 1984. I don’t have a price for the ’84 Caravan handy, but it wouldn’t surprise me that it undercut the Vista Wagon.
By this time, both Plymouth and Dodge dealers were in on the Colt franchise, the only difference being the badge on the back. Presumably, they were sold in the US all the way through their last production year, 1991, but it may have ended in 1990. They certainly didn’t sell in any significant numbers in their later years.
In 1992, the second generation Chariot/Space Wagon arrived, this time being sold here as the Mitsubishi Expo.
image: wikipedia
And then Mitsubishi threw another new at us, a shortened version of the Expo, called Expo LRV. It had a sliding door on the passenger side only, and only one rear seat accommodating three, which could be configured in a number of ways. It too was available in AWD, and was intended to be a multi-purpose vehicle appealing to young families, now with presumably fewer kids. Oddly, these were also (supposedly) sold as Dodge and Plymouth Colts, as well as by Eagle, as the Summit DL Wagon. Good luck finding one of those now. It seems that the vast majority out there are Mitsubishi-branded.
Like the Stanza wagon and the tall-boy Honda Civic wagon of the era, the Vista Wagon brought some refreshing new thinking to Americans (and the rest of the world) about the multipurpose capabilities of passenger cars. For a car that’s several inches shorter than a new VW Jetta Sportwagon or such, there’s a world of difference in their space utilization. We may never see such space-efficient cars again.
I don’t remember seeing this one sold as a Dodge or Plymouth, only as the Space Wagon. Of course being that I was a kid at the time and this being Puerto Rico, as always YMMV.
Cool little car. Reminds of a Versa just with more room.
Better proportioned and seemingly more solid than the B-pillarless Stanza van-wagon, it seems like a good alternative to a Caravan when a Civic wagon just wouldn’t do. These were relatively common until the mid nineties when they all seemed to disappear around here.
Following this series on Mitsubishi (and you haven’t gotten to the coupes yet), I sit here incredulously and ask, “What the hell happened?” Thirty years ago they were going head to head with Toyota and Honda, in design at least, and turning out way more interesting family cars than Nissan . . . . . . . . and today they’re the joke of the American automotive market, nothing designs bought by people with bad credit ratings (or such is the image they’ve acquired).
What the hell happened?
1-They’ve been selling to people with horrible credit since at least the mid ’90s, and began doing that because their sales were so low in this market, except for the Eclipse.
2-Asian Financial Crisis
3-DaimlerChrysler
I don’t know exactly what happened, but I’d guess the 800 pound gorilla Toyota had something to do with it. It’s difficult on a global scale to compete with a company that is so effective and profitable as Toyota is. I don’t know how it is now, but in the 2008 bailout, I remember Toyota being worth more than GM, Ford, and Chrysler combined. And not only net worth, they produced profitable cars that gave Toyota a war chest in the ten-twenty billion dollars league. I don’t know what Toyota did with all that money, but I’d guess they put some of it in r&d, like Prius and so on.
The point being, if it’s difficult to compete with Toyota on a global scale, how difficult must it be in their domestic market? Nissan, the eternal runner up, partnered with Renault. Mazda with Ford. Until they didn’t. Honda survived on their US-market. Subaru has always been a niche-player. Daihatsu and Suzuki as well, cornering the K-market. Mitsubishi has always tried to be a full-line maker of cars, and I guess they simply hadn’t the resources to pull it off, slowly contracting as popular lines disappeared. They don’t even have a mid-liner Galant anymore.
Toyota put some of their cash into R&D, but for a long time their policy was to hang onto large cash reserves in the event of short-term emergencies or downturns.
This makes sense because a lot of their current cars seem very average in terms of quality and performance.
I would hate to have been a passenger in the rearmost seat in one of these. I know most wagons had rear seats but these seem like a deathtrap.
I can remember looking at an Eagle Summit badged Expo LRV in Cape Girardeau(where else?) on a Sunday. I can also remember it was 1994 model sitting on the lot in the summer of 1995, so they’re weren’t strong sellers.
The precursor to the Scion xB (1st gen) as well as the Kia Soul. Remarkably space-efficient.
However, after a bad experience with a Mitsubishi engine in a K-car, I vowed never to have anything to do with a Mitsubishi product again.
I think that van was sold as the Nimbus on the Aussie market and I rarely saw one that wasnt blowing oil smoke, your LVR seems to have been our ex JDM RVR that shares the EVO drive train, What went wrong? in this market the Aussie Magna was a giant nail in their coffin yeah they’ve improved but the early models were plagued with problems, cracking blocks biodegradable transmissions early structural rust valve burning on V6 engines the list is seemingly end less and eventually the customers stop turning up.
Yep that’s it, Nimbus. My cousin had a 2nd gen one 20 years ago.
It seems Mitsubishi just cant design decent valve guides, or they put too much side load on the valve stems because the are the worst for chopping them out and burning oil.
Funny how people either loved Mitsubishis or hated them. I sold them from 1997 to 2003 and I can tell you that they had a unique following. I would sometimes see 300k mile trade-ins and the owners swore by their cars. Others would need an engine rebuild at 50,000 miles and swear at their cars. I think they were more maintenance dependent than other Japanese brands. If properly maintained Mitsubishis were extremely dependable. If neglected, look out.
If there is a late model car on the road that is spewing blue smoke out if its tailpipe, 9 out of 10 times, its a Mitsubishi.
So true Carmine!
Tom,
Do you know anything in regards to a 89 AWD Dodge Colt and it hauling capacity? Can I safely haul a small or medium camper or trailer without messing up my car? I was told because its AWD I can’t tow/haul anything or ill destroy my car. I tried to Google but can’t seem to find anything so far. This is the first AWD I’ve ever owned. Ok , well thanks in advance to any light you may be able to shed on this question! 🙂
Here in new England I hardly ever see expos but eagle summits were reasonably common in the 90’s I;m guessing the eagle dealer was being more aggressive
I remember having seen a lot of Colt Vistas around Vermont back in the day and even rode in a couple. The AWD option was something they had that the Caravan/Voyager didn’t – also, the second-row windows rolled down, important in summers that are hot and humid but too short for most people to justify air conditioning before it became standard/mandatory.
These were another ‘cringe car’ in the auto parts biz. Difficult to work on, part availability not the greatest, and pricey when parts were found. Not a good combination to keep the car going. Most people ended up bagging them instead of fixing them. I used to work in a detail shop in the Eighties and remember detailing a fair amount of these. I swear Mitsubishi/Dodge/Plymouth must’ve had a “Cheerios-in-every-nook-and-cranny” option. 90% of the Colt Vistas that I ever cleaned the interior usually had Cheerios EVERYWHERE (smashed into the carpeting, dumped behind the seats, tossed up on the headliner, and stuffed into the vents) from the kids of the owners.
Well, THAT was the same part number as on the minivans and K-Car wagons…
Heh heh. When I did a thorough cleaning of my Trooper last summer before it retired to the northeast, I found a treasure trove of Cheerios and Gummy Bears tucked behind the rear seat bottoms.
Offspring is almost 13….
Love the Expo LRV shortie. I was looking for one with AWD in the late 90s, which I thought would be a way cool vehicle with the addition of some nice rims and rubber. But the woman I was trying to get into bed at the time made a remark about not dating guys who drove minivans. Well, I couldn’t find an AWD version anway, and ended up buying an Infiniti G20. She wasn’t impressed by that either.
Such is life, mFred.
Almost 30 years ago, I was desperately trying to get the attention of a gorgeous blonde woman. She came from a “money” family in Cleveland. She spent more on her hair monthly than I did on rent for my apartment…
She mentioned to me she liked Trans Ams. I went out and got a nice 1983 Trans Am WS6.
She started dating a junior lawyer who had a BMW 318i.
I have hated the sight of BMW 318i’s ever since…
Ha! She only THOUGHT she wanted the bad boy…
Paul, I just posted pictures to the cohort of an Eagle Summit that a member of my church still uses quite frequently. As of last fall it had around 117k on it and is in great shape.
Boy, that brings back memories. I bought a used ’89 Colt Vista in 1994 and had it for about a year. I REALLY liked the versatile interior, which I put to good use camping and carrying boxes of records. The car would have been great if it was reliable. But it wasn’t. And all repairs on it ended up costing about four times what equivalent ones cost on my previous car (’87 Plymouth). The thing eventually blew its engine at less than 60K miles. It was otherwise mint, but I ended up junking it – the replacement costs were prohibitive. And even though I tried selling it as is first, there was ZERO demand for a non-running Vista, even for $100. I got $50 for it from the wrecker.
I didn’t learn my lesson, though, as my next car was a ’90 Mitsubishi Sigma. Talk about a white elephant. Most people had no idea what that car even was. At every auto parts shop, the computer always insisted it was a Galant. That thing kept eating front axles every couple of months, at about $300 a pop, among other issues, so I was at auto parts shops rather often. Nice car, when it ran. After getting rid of it, I refused to ever have anything else to do with Mitsubishi.
The Sigma WAS a Galant – just a slightly different one with a 3.0 V6. I bought a ’86 Galant brand-new, after checking out the Acura Integra and Honda Accord. I enjoyed all the whiz-bang electronic features (like adjustable ride-height). Didn’t keep it long enough to have reliability issues though.
Bought a ’86 Colt Vista around 1989, when we 2 little girls. It was very handy for schleping around the kids and all their stuff. It got great gas mileage, but lacked a bit in the zip department. I’d love to have another one to play with, this time a 4WD version.
I’m telling you, if Subaru came out with a true ‘minivan’ (Mercury Village/Nissan Quest sized), they’d be rolling in the dough. More than they are now.
The Colt Vista is a precursor to the modern crossover utility vehicles that we see today. It is totally groundbreaking.
To me they’re more of a precursor to a class of car we’re not allowed to have: Vehicles the Europeans know as MPVs, like the Opel Zafira and the VW Touran. The only one we get here is the C-Max, and in that case only the two-row hybrid version. The Mazda 5 might be the only other car sold here that fits in that category. And since neither is exactly setting the marketplace on fire, it seems automakers are right in their assessment that Americans are allergic to anything that in any way resembles a station wagon.
A Euro-MPV is basically a downscaled minivan as you know it. Technically they are based on hatchbacks. The first was the 1996 Renault Megane Scenic, fully based on the Megane hatchback.
These days small crossovers (CUVs) sell like hot cakes. Again, based on hatchbacks. This Renault Captur (based on the Clio) for example is very successful. Another one is the Peugeot 2008.
For 95% of Americans that need three rows, an “MPV” makes no sense compared to a minivan; you can buy a base-model Caravan in the low $20K range, so why would you want something smaller and probably not much cheaper?
The ones who care about image and are willing to pay more will buy a CUV.
“Following this series on Mitsubishi (and you haven’t gotten to the coupes yet), I sit here incredulously and ask, “What the hell happened?” Thirty years ago they were going head to head with Toyota and Honda…”
They just did not make durable products, period. Sure, the first FWD Colt was ‘amazing’ to buff books. But they never owned one for 3 years and replace many expensive parts.
The Galant is dead since it just couldn’t compete. I see them pulling out as Suszuki did, sooner than later.
Also I dealt with this with my ‘amazing’ Champ:
“These were another ‘cringe car’ in the auto parts biz. Difficult to work on, part availability not the greatest, and pricey when parts were found. Not a good combination to keep the car going. Most people ended up bagging them instead of fixing them. ” Mopar Dave
I recently purchased a ’89 dodge colt AWD station wagon. It only has 80,000 miles on it. So far no complaints runs great awesome gas mileage. It is sure footed on snowy, muddy country roads as well as highways. I want to take it camping and was told because its an AWD I can’t tow or haul anything because it’ll ruin my car. I tried to Google towing capacity and whatnot but can’t find anything. Does anyone know if I can haul a small trailer, pop up camper, or small/med camper safely without damaging my car? Any input on this would be greatly appreciated!!!! I know absolutely nothing in regards to an AWD vehicle as this is my first! Thank you 🙂
In 1991 mom bought one used, it was a 5 speed. I think it was an ’86. Shortly after that we discovered one piston was totally eaten away like someone took a bite like an apple. The underpowered engine just detonated itself to pieces.
I recall that Ray Magliozzi of NPR’s Car Talk used to drive one of these and joke about it frequently. At some point, Ray’s old MG was stored on a lift above the Colt Vista, dripping oil down on it and contributing to the beater appearance. If my memory serves correctly, several years ago Ray conducted an experiment to see how long the car would run without changing the oil. But I never heard how that story ended. Perhaps they covered the end of the story on one of their shows, but I don’t recall hearing it. Or perhaps Ray is still driving the Colt Vista around Cambridge, MA! RIP Tom Magliozzi … thanks for many years of laughs and good advice on Saturday mornings.
Also, the last generation of the Mitsubishi Expo was also made under licence by Huyndai as the Hyundai Santamo.
I desperately wanted one of the LRVs since I love efficiency and practicality. By the time I was in a position to possibly buy one, the few that were actually sold were mostly gone.
Dad rented one of the longer Expos when my parents came to visit me after I moved to D.C. It wasn’t terribly memorable, and I remember nothing about it other than it was white and him yelling at me to tell him which way to go to get back to the hotel even though I had no car and, therefore, no idea.
So basically, the three-row crossover starts here. What’s the difference between a crossover and a tall wagon? Evidently, the size of the wheels and tires, as the Vista’s are obviously too small. Someone remind me why crossovers need such huge tires again?
I was surprised to learn the Colt Vista, as well as the Expo and LRV that replaced them, have body-on-frame construction. Was the platform shared with some other Mitsubishi car or truck?
What makes you think they were body-on-frame? They were very much unibodies.
I know Wikipedia isn’t always right, but the article on the Mitsubishi Chariot notes the third generation (the one the US didn’t get) “was introduced on October 17, 1997, and was larger and heavier again. It was now known in its home market as the Chariot Grandis, after the French grandiose, to emphasise the increase in the car’s size and quality as it moved from a ladder frame to monocoque construction”. Here’s the reference cited: https://www.drive.com.au/used-car-reviews/used-car-review-mitsubishi-nimbus-19842002-20100824-13ods (Nimbus was the Australian market name). Here’s Mitsubishi’s press release for the third gen which notes the new ladder subframe (assumedly on a unibody) as an improvement, which seems to match the Wiki article’s assertion. I couldn’t find anything definitively saying the first gen was either BOF or unibody though. I did find this photo of the underbelly, but I’m not up enough on these things to tell the difference from looking.
Sorry, but I don’t have time to go reading all these links, reviews and things. If they got it wrong, it won’t be the first time. The picture of the undercarriage clearly shows a front subframe attached to a unibody, but certainly no “ladder frame”.
They just didn’t use ladder frames in Japan (or Europe) except for genuine trucks and truck-based SUVs. It’s inefficient on a number of levels.
Oops, Mitsubishi press release link: https://www.mitsubishi-motors.com/en/corporate/pressrelease/products/detail523.html
I have a ’98 space wagon. 62k miles.
picture
While I find many cars attractive, I am especially attracted to these vehicles as everyday vehicles. They are like little Swiss Army cars. Their space efficiency was superb and they weren’t ugly like a HUMMER or heavy utility vehicles. I really wanted a 1991 Colt LRV for the longest time. Being a Festiva lover, I couldn’t imagine how much more fun it would be in a larger version of that vehicle.
I admire many cars, but like dress clothes, I don’t want to live in most of them. I like trucks and I like purposeful vehicles like these.
1985, after a three Bloody-Mary lunch decided I needed a commuter car in Philly. Wrote a check for a 3-door 1986 Colt hatchback with 3-speed floor shift. Loved that little car and drove it about 50,000 miles in two years. Then a massive trunk fell onto my little car on 1-95 high speed. Took about 40 mins. to cut me out of my 1986 Colt.
It was such a fun little car during its time.
Thirty years and two sliding doors later, the Mitsubishi Delica D:5 appears to carry the general concept of the Colt Vista into the present.
My best friend’s dad had one – they kept it from 1985-1992 or so. It was an incredible vehicle; we took in on road trips all over the East Coast fully loaded with his family plus me and my sister. It was also the first time I ever learned that you could shift a manual by rev-matching- Howie picked me up one day I was sick from school and the clutch failed; he showed me the trick of rev matching and life has not been the same since. 🙂