I was having an evening walk round the block, as one does, when I saw this Mitsuoka, as one doesn’t. Now, I’ve tried to understand Mitsuoka, and I’ve failed. Different cultures are different; no problem there—I can accommodate Japanese grownups unironically buying Hello Kitty seat covers and briefcases, though I’ll be sore the next day. But Mitsuoka just does not compute. Or it didn’t, until my longest-time friend said You know how some dudes are into [fetish not discussed in open company]? Same thing. That’s the most cogent explanation ever I’ve heard, and I think it’s bang on, as it were: my fetishes are hawt; other people’s are ridiculous.
So here was this Mitsuoka, parked down the street and round the corner from my house. I couldn’t decipher the try-and-read-me model name callout on the trunk lid, so I had to do some image searching to figure out what this is.
It’s a…erm…a reworked Y34-type Nissan Cedric/Gloria:
Wikimedia Commons image
Wikimedia Commons image
So okeh, I understand why one might wish this car were less boring. But looking back at the Galue II, I also understand that warning about being careful what you wish for. The front of this car might be the result of taking magic mushrooms and then drawing a comic book about a Bentley S2; like the linked Bentley, this car has American sealed beam headlamps, too:
I don’t mind this hood ornament. I would like it better if it were configured to spin in the wind, like a propeller beanie:
I might should’ve chosen one of the other wheels to photograph, but the design jibes with the hood ornament:
Much though I think the front is overcooked, the rear works better for me:
I don’t like the useless slim chrome ‘bumpers’, and that tacked-on reversing lamp—also useless—is a bit too
Beetle-y, but I think they did a fine job with the tail lights:
That’s a classic Japanese-type round reflector (this will be less cryptic once I will write about them). At first I thought they’d borrowed the taillights from an export-spec Cadillac…
…and for all the world, it still looks as though they could’ve done. But no, I looked closer:
Mitsuoka-branded lights also bearing a maker’s mark: SYS, a company I hadn’t heard of. They’re a lesser-known but prolific Japanese maker of car lights, as it seems.
All in all, can I dig it? Yes, I can—as long as I mostly see it from angles like this:
All I can say, vis-a-vis “accepting” the existence of this vehicle (or those un-named fetishes/quirks), is that I have this, umm, “thing” about very vintage vacuum tube audio components and very large theater-type loudspeakers (“tubes ‘n’ horns”, as some would say) — so I am in no position to make fun of this vehicle or the market for it. 😉
No comment re: “Hello Kitty”.
My first thought is that perhaps “Galue” is an attempt at “Garou”…as in loup garou.
In which case, maybe it turns back into a regular Cedric at sunrise.
There seems to be not one piece of that body that looks like what it started out as.
The makers say “‘Galue’ means ‘my own style’. Doesn’t matter, if it is being childish, just follow your own philosophy.”
Well…awrighty, then!
I like the taillights. Exclamation points, resembling Plymouth’s trademark from ’54 to ’60 and then again from ’63 to ’66 on the Valiant.
I had the same thought re: Valiant resemblance – specifically to the ’65, which had a round reflector/back-up light below the vertical brake light. The ’63 had horizontal brake lights, while the ’64 & ’66 had vertical brake lights but rectangular reflectors below.
Finally, a Foreign car that I MIGHT consider! 🤔. Looks enough like a vintage ROLLS-ROYCE and some Alien LOVE CHILD! 😉. 🎵 Bigger than a Honda 🎶 Better than a Subaru THINK this Galue 🎵just might be the one for you 🎵. 😉
The Japanese version of Zimmer? And those cut lines where the Nissan ends and madness starts!
Ugh, yeah, or of Excalibur.
Yes, those cut lines are rather egregious.
Looks as if designers took different styling cues from popular luxo cruisers and put together a collage. I want to like this, and if anyone can assemble a reliable car, it’s the Japanese.
It sort of works because the donor car has a classic bow waistline front to rear. Had that been straight but dipped each end it would have looked far, far worse. The back is quite good, but the front much less so. Maybe if it had followed the Bentley T type instead of the S it would have looked better, as it is the fronts of those wings/fenders is just too far forward of the front wheel.
Do not all Motorhead’s have a fetish? I’ve seen partners faces drop when the talk turns to wheels. No difference between a love of a Mustang and this. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Maybe so, but either way, looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing Galue.
Maybe Mitsuoka was using AI to design their cars, before AI was here. All it needs is a couple of extra side marker lights and some weirdness going on in the background, and we are good to go, AI style.
Looks like we had the same thought at the same time. A variation of the CC Effect?
Before AI there was Mitsuoka.
Based on the headline, I thought at first that this was going to be a car spotted in Tokyo by Tatra87.
Not that the Mitsuoka Viewt was terribly good-looking, but at least it was an interpretation of a good-looking Jaguar. Someone went to the trouble of importing a JDM car to Canada, and they chose this? There’s no accounting for taste.
Viewts cant be complied here some were imported but the red tape got in the way, JDM used cars get shipped all over the world, its just a shame the parts stay in the JDM .
I like this car better than the Viewt because this is a bigger car. The Viewt is based on a Nissan Micra and too short.
Paint that car black and it would have a look very close to “The Car.” 😉
I literally came here to say the exact same thing. In almost the exact same words.
Wow. That movie looks dangerously cheesy!
Pretty sad that actors with reasonable reputations like Ronny Cox and James Brolin, chose to appear in such schlock. Actors sometimes remind me of politicians in their easy willingness to compromise their integrity, in pursuit of a buck.
I reckon even actors need to buy groceries and pay water bills from time to time.
Absolutely. Shame there isn’t enough credible work. I’m sure they would admit the embarrassment… afterwards.
I like that…
Whoever designed that English logo script…needs to try again.
Just adds to the AI-ness. Now, all we need is human being in the background with an arm coming out of their neck and hand with 7 fingers.
I actually like the car very much, and not ironically. The front reminds me of my departed ’51 Jaguar Mark VII, and the rear looks good. I like the tail lamps and bumper. The cut lines between the bumpers and body are way too large, looks amateurish. I always thought that a kit car replica, of something like a VW powered Porsche 917 or an early SS Jaguar might be fun.
For a replica of an early SS Jaguar, you’d want a Panther J72.
Really sad about those cut lines. It ends up looking like the car is deliberately wearing masks. The enormity of the gaps would embarrass Saturn. It needed to have been black to help cover all that hacked plastic.
Finally, there could have been a good side design that would begin with the front curve, and then sweep across the side. That could have helped hide the embarrassing mask effect as well.
Final comment. Go to a Pride parade and you’ll discover that Satan is struggling to come up with new fetishes that weren’t already riding on a float being pulled by a John Deere farm implement.
Something for everyone, somewhere. Some one for everything, somewhere.
It doesn’t work for me, and not just because of the awkward shutlines round the front and rear valances
Personally, I’d rather have the Nissan this was based on. Or something else entirely.
As most of us have said, those shutlines between the Nissan part and the Mitsuoka part are awful. I’m surprised Japanese customers would accept this. I’d like it better if Mitsuoka had maybe welded on some pieces to bring the cutlines back to where a sane person would expect them to be. Isn’t Mitsuoka all about hand-finishing?
Fancy them building their own taillights though! That was unexpected.
Yeah, as you can see in my link (3rd comment down from the top, as of right now), the current Galue uses Fiat 500 taillights.
They could have cribbed those taillights from a 1966 Plymouth Barracuda.
What a find though!
Great find and pics Daniel. Reminds me of 1970s pimp cars. An unintentional parody?
The glass also will correspond to the original car,
From the front, a chipmunk on wheels. Quite the automotive fetish.
That unattractive ‘zig zag’ body seam at the leading edge of the front fenders is the perfect touch for this ode to ugliness.
One day while scrying in front of the mirror, the voices told me that Laura Branigan’s Gloria was playing on repeat at the Mitsuoka factory while they were beating the old mare into Galue.
I can’t quite see it in the pictures, but it sorta looks like someone has installed correct for Canada Right Hand Traffic sealed beams in place of the Left Hand Traffic ones it wore in Japan? If so, I’m impressed. I haven’t seen many people go to the bother, save for a JDM van with early Chrysler LH car headlamps (am I remembering correctly?) sort of smooshed into the van’s OEM assemblies.
I saw this exact car in Vancouver 2 years ago. Someone on Reddit just helped me figure out what it was. What are the odds that your article popped up first with the same car?
As someone who loves classic cars from the 30-40’s, I feel like something elegant was lost in car design. This car takes me back to that style. I love it! Why do all modern cars have to be so boring? The retro look of cars that started in the 1990’s Japan just really gets me. Also, I love all the chrome. Style! Makes me want to get some white wall tiers, too. What’s not to like about this?
I have to say that I am not really a car guy as I just don’t get it. They don’t look interesting or exciting. Expensive boxes that get me places. These cars get me excited, though.