REPORT: Mitsuoka to offer unique rental cars in Japan, also plans to sell in China
by Jonathon Ramsey on Sep 27th 2009 at 11:15AM 
Mitsuoka Orochi - Click above for high-res image gallery
Mitsuoka, the Japanese car company whose mission seems to be hoarding all the ugly in the entire world and using it to design automobiles, will expand into Japan's rental car market and offer its luxury range in China. Japanese drivers will be able to rent the Orochi for ¥25,000 ($279 US) from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., or for three whole days for ¥45,000 ($501 US). They can also sport the Himiko for ¥20,000 ($223 US) for those nine hours, or ¥36,000 ($401 US) for 72 hours.
The sea monster-faced Orochi will also spearhead Mitsuoka's charge into China. The company plans to display the car at next year's Beijing Auto Show, and to open dealerships in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. We know the Chinese have occasionally fascinating taste in car design, but we can't wait to see how they receive the Orochi. Mitsuoka wants to move 35 units in its first year, and as if its looks weren't queer enough, the car is expected to cost 50% more in China than it does in Japan, where it will already set you back ¥9,345,000 ($87,287 USD). Any takers?
Gallery: Mitsuoka Orochi
[Source: Antara News]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Parkerman 11:27AM (9/27/2009)
Dear autoblog... When I click a thumbnail... I want to see THAT picture.. Even if its of a hideously ugly car...
Once I finally did look at the pictures of the car.. I cried =[
Reply
Quattrofan 12:37PM (9/27/2009)
Yeah what he said. And while you at it, fix those Hi-Res photos for Firefox.
Jimbo 12:47PM (9/27/2009)
People have been shouting about this problem for a month now. Autoblog doesn't seem to be listening or care.
Parkerman 1:08PM (9/27/2009)
I keep trying to get use to it... But I find myself every time clicking the image I want.. and then being like.. !@#$... I forgot... AB is retarded with its images.
AB needs to just make a post one day
"What do we need to improve"..... But.. considering this isn't fixed.. and they still post Hennessey stuff... They don't listen at all.
ckm 1:28PM (9/27/2009)
The gallery is terrible. I'm on a 20mbps connection and it still takes forever to load, never mind the click and you get an different image problem. I think that it tries to pre-cache all the images before showing you anything, and because pretty much all the staff at Autoblog are clueless about web stuff, no one resizes images, just sets the height and width tags.
The net result is 10-20 images that are cached at full resolution, then resized by the browser. Even on a really fast connection, downloading 10-20 8mb images before you can even seen the first one takes forever. It's just really poor in every single way. No wonder AOL Is going down the tubes....
paul34 1:55PM (9/27/2009)
Hear, hear. In addition to the issue of not properly indexing the linked images from the main article:
Clicking "High Res" resets you all the way back to the first image of the gallery! Annoying, especially if you were just clicking through and not paying attention to what place you were in.
@ckm: I don't have the problem. I believe you are correct in that pre-caches images if you stay in the gallery long enough, but I've never had any extended slow download or latency issues other than when Autoblog as a whole is having problems. I do believe you are right in that the resizing is done inline, which isn't optimal at all. I guess it is moot for me, since I prefer looking at the high res whenever possible, but even that implementation always kicks you back to the first image, so that's quite annoying as well.
So basically to use the image gallery:
1) Do not use it intuitively.
2) Click on a random picture
3) Click high res FIRST
4) THEN click on your desired thumbnail.
Oh one more issue:
Sometimes on many articles, clicking the main picture in the article (that says "click here to go to the gallery"), the big one right under the title, will NOT take you to the gallery, it simply takes you back to the article that you were just on. That problem seems to have really reduced in quantity though, thanks for that.
Jimbo 2:53PM (9/27/2009)
In addition to what paul34 said, I've got a couple other gripes:
- about 30% of the time when you click on the "Back to Post" button within the gallery, it either takes you to to the wrong post or to a blank page
- I have to hit the "Back" button in my browser at least twice, if not more, just to go back one image in the gallery. If I click the "Previous Image" button, it works just fine, but I prefer to use the "Back" button or the backspace key to navigate.
slicecom 3:22PM (9/27/2009)
Glad to know I'm not the only one annoyed by this.
AMcA 7:40PM (9/27/2009)
The horrifying part is I think it's - no, it once was - a Ferrari.
Rar 11:28AM (9/27/2009)
mercedes rip-off design?
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Tony 11:31AM (9/27/2009)
No, even Mercedes didn't go that far into left field.
vespid82 11:42AM (9/27/2009)
Um, aside from 4 elliptical headlights, what Mercedes design cues do you see in this car?
Pokey 10:14PM (9/27/2009)
Seriously?
Aside from the headlights, there is no Mercedes influence here at all.
Nuieve 12:04PM (9/27/2009)
I love it.
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texmln 12:14PM (9/27/2009)
Better looking than a Caliber or Smart Car.
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Thunderbuck 12:31AM (9/28/2009)
Mmmmm... nope. I was gonna give you the Caliber, but no, even IT isn't that bad.
Dave 12:18PM (9/27/2009)
Looks like something they stir fry on Iron Chef.
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Taglane 12:44PM (9/27/2009)
lmfao!
I'd nominate you for comment of the day.
Eliyahu 12:19PM (9/27/2009)
I had the wonderful experence of living in Japan for 6 years and during that time saw many cars and trucks that were for Japan only, some I sorely wished I could have and others better left there; however, we in the West must keep in mind that the Japanese cars we get are designed for our Western tastes. Looking at this car makes sense from a Japanese point of view. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder and the ones who will enjoy this car have it in their market.
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Will 6:32PM (9/27/2009)
While I agree there is some degree of relativism in aesthetics, I highly doubt Mitsuoka represents a "Japanese taste". I think they are more of a niche coachbuilder that happens to be from Japan the same way Morgan is a niche builder from the UK. If Hondas design cars like Mitsuoka I don't think they'd sell well even in Japan.