No Thanks.

Nice article in Autoguide today.

It makes a change from the sort of article you regularly get like this one from Fox.  Autoguide have taken the usual article stance of cars we want but can't have and replaced it with cars you don't want and still can't have anyway.

Cars like the Tata Nano:

This is a particularly apt photo because as well as showing how ugly the car is, it shows a group of people excited by it that you particularly wouldn't want to go for a drink with.  And the car is UKIP purple - UKIP being a group of people that you particularly wouldn't want to go for a drink with and who don't like foreign things - like Tato Nanos or the other cars in the list:
  1. Jiangling Landwind X6
  2. Tata Nano
  3. Mitsubishi Mirage Hello Kitty 40^th Anniversary Package
  4. Iran Khodro Samand Sarir
  5. Chery QQ
I suppose it is a bit unfair to put the Nano in there given that its remit was to provide safe transport for people who couldn't previously afford a car - but that picture is just vomit-inducing on so many levels.

Number 3 is obscene beyond belief.  Number 4 was a bit of a surprise because I didn't know that Iranians had moved on from rebadged Hillman Hunters.  And, as Autoguide say about number 5, why bother making a copy of an already rubbish car?

Now, dare I comment on American cars that I'm glad we don't have over here?  Probably not a good idea given some British cars of the past but I suppose the AMC Pacer gets a notable mention.  And besides, we are talking cars currently on sale - which does make the list a bit scary.

Seeing Things...

...like a mirage.

A really ugly little car with teeny tiny rear wheels, a 1.2 engine, and the blandest interior that could have come from the blandest 1990s Japanese design studio.  It could make One Direction look interesting.

Canadian motoring site autos.ca have the story today that Mitsubishi are threatening to unleash this on the Canadian motoring public.

 

I warned back in June 2012 that we could get The Mirage here in the UK.

 

And we did - the hatchback version.

 

Fortunately, I don't think anyone's bought one.

 

This monstrosity here, though, is the saloon - or "sedan" as North Americans like to call them.

 

Autoguide had the story a couple of days ago.  Comments were invited...

Three people have commented on it - two favourably, one not so.  The two favourable comments have been voted up while the one sensible negative comment has been voted down.

 

I think I must be seeing things.

Evo Schtick

A story in Autoguide about how a Mitsubishi Mirage Evo Hatch is a possibility.

My initial reaction was "What is a Mitsubishi Mirage?" We don't have them in the UK.

My follow-up reaction after taking in this picture......was "Bloody Hell - that's bland!"

Apart from anything else, how can a car like that share it's name with a plane like this?...Anyway, an Evo version might be OK but I can't see it taking off.

Checking out the UK Mitsubishi range, it seems like there is a big hole in it. You've got the quite passable Colt and the quite ugly little electric i-Miev:...Tata Nano anyone? Sticking silly graphics on the side doesn't make it any prettier you know.

And then they do the big cars starting with the proper Evo - based on the Lancer - which itself doesn't seem that big until you add on all of the Evo gubbins.

So we could have the basic Lancer to fill that gap - except they tried that and it didn't sell.

So how about the Mirage?

Err, no thanks!

We'll take the hole please.