Our 2008 Mitsubishi Galant GTS got a send-off last week, after having spent just under 2 years with us. Our fleet of four cars needed to be trimmed down, so it had to go. We find it rather unbelievable that so few people contacted us when the “for sale” advert went up, compared to the eleventy-million calls we got when we sold our 15-year-old Toyota Corolla.
While it may look the same on the outside, it seems the 2013 Mitsubishi Lancer EX has quietly received some changes under the bonnet. And it quietly went on sale in the UAE without telling anyone.
Our long-term Mitsubishi Galant continues to run strongly without any hiccups, despite raking up over 40,000 km in less than a year due to regular Dubai-Abu Dhabi runs. Besides the minor A/C fix few months ago, there really has been no costs involved besides our self-imposed 10,000 km interval services with the major one done recently at 80,000 km on the clock. However, as mentioned in our last report we faced a minor issue and that is the battery finally crapped out. Mind you, the battery was not changed since we bought it back in June 2011, so we guess its death was pretty much near.
The new 2013 Mitsubishi Outlander was revealed at the Los Angeles International Auto Show. A completely new redesign which ditches the Lancer-inspired front fascia, the Outlander now has the looks to be a major player in the seven-seater segment.
The local dealer for Mitsubishi in the UAE pulled a couple of surprise launches at the 2012 Sharjah Auto Show this week, unveiling the Mitsubishi Mirage and the Mitsubishi Lancer Fortis.
We still remember the time when we used to service our cars at ghetto garages and petrol stations, because we were not financially well-endowed back then. That was fine, considering we didn’t even own a car newer than 10 years at that time. Things change of course, and now we own four cars, all relatively newer, so we get almost all of them maintained at their respective dealerships. All except one — our 2008 Mitsubishi Galant GTS.
Yesterday, we received a press release from Mitsubishi’s UAE dealer, with the title “Al Habtoor Motors celebrates Pajero being the No. 1 car in the Middle East.” On further prodding their people to clarify, we were told it is the best-selling car around. The Mitsubishi Pajero?
So it is time for another update on our Mitsubishi Pajero. Having covered over 15,000 kms since the last post, and over 37,000 km since buying it almost a year ago, we still do not have anything negative to write about it. Besides some off-road-abuse-inflicted damages, the Pajero runs absolutely fine.
Self-praising aside, DriveArabia.com is certifiably the most comprehensive and most popular consumer-focused automotive website in the GCC. That gives us a good insight on what cars people are researching these days. Mind you, researching and buying are two completely different things, but we can figure out from our data which car brands and models are generating the most buzz among the general car-buying population. It is easy to see the concerted marketing effort by certain manufacturers are paying dividends, while some are banking on their long-running earned reputation, and others are doing well purely because of good new products.
So why the hell are we comparing the 2012 Toyota Camry to the 2008 Mitsubishi Galant GTS? Because we actually own the Mitsubishi. Throw in the fact that for the price for a brand-new basic Toyota Camry, you can buy a brand-new top-of-the-range Mitsubishi Galant V6, and this starts to make even more sense.