The Smart fortwo is an adorable little transportation pod that can get two people wherever they care to go in style, but there are a lot of cheap, efficient four-seaters with more room for people and their stuff. The auto enthusiasts over at 5th Gear rectified the fortwo's apparent disadvantage by creating a smart double decker using four bolts to attach the roof of one car to the floor of another. The experiment is ridiculous enough on its own, but 5th Gear brought it over the top by putting the fortwo+two through a battery of tests versus a four-seat Mitsubishi i. Watching stacked Smart cars doing moose avoidance tests at 40 mph is hilarious, and at 50 mph, you can probably guess what happens. Hit the jump to watch the video.
Click image for a high-res gallery of the turbocharged Mitsubishi i
I'm the resident kei car obsessive here at Autoblog. That means I'm the guy who actually thinks, "That is awesome," when he reads the (Google translated) announcement of yet another Suzuki Wagon R variant. Hell, I did twoposts on the one-off Hello Kitty Mitsubishi i. Keis are cool. So, you can imagine how happy I was to see that Mitsubishi brought along a small fleet of its i minicars to the New York Auto Show this year.
Mitsubishi's focus at the show was squarely on the the all-electric i MiEV, which goes on sale in Japan next year and will be tested in North America this fall. The gasoline-powered version was on hand, too, though. I drove the i MiEV for AutoblogGreen, and was a passenger in a black i Turbo. Head over to AutoblogGreen for driving impressions of the i MiEV, and note that many of the observations there apply to both the electric and gasoline-powered cars.
The i Turbo you see here is powered by a 660cc 3-cylinder that delivers around 64 horsepower. It's got around half the torque of the electric i MiEV and it's buzzier-sounding (obviously), but it felt just as well-suited to city driving in New York as its battery-powered counterpart. It can comfortably transport four adults and a bit of cargo, too. Try doing that in a smart.
Mitsubishi is monitoring public reaction to the cars this week, so if you go to the show and like what you see, make sure to let them know. Me? I'll happily take one in black -- with a DAMD kit for optimum not-exactly-badassedness.
When you boil away everything else, the core elements of the new "Bloom Edition" Mitsubishi kei cars are their Sakura Pink paint; light-colored, water-resistant seat fabrics; and makeup mirrors. Yes, there are other colors available, and we're sure some of the Japanese shoppers (women, specifically) who Mitsu is targeting might also appreciate the cars' UV glass with water-repellent coating (think "factory Rain-X" here). But the real package centers on the Hello Kitty-look that the pink brings.
The Bloom Edition package is available on the "i" (above) and eK Wagon kei cars. It's not uncommon to see keis marketed in pastels with an eye toward female buyers anyway, but these Bloom Editions are about as direct as you can get. Who knew vanity mirrors could actually be promoted as a selling point?
[Source: Mitsubishi]
Gallery: Mitsubishi i and eK Wagon "Bloom Edition"
click above image to view high-resolution gallery of the Mitsubishi i
Beginning on July 1st, Brits will be able to purchase the iconic i kei car from Mitsubishi. The i is a big hit in Japan, having won numerous awards for its futuristic styling and clever engineering while racking up big sales in the home market. Mitsubishi has spent the last year shopping the i around Great Britain at the Badminton Horse Trials, the British Motor Show and some select Mitsubishi dealerships, and the response from the public was positive enough to convince management to sell the car on the Queen's isle. It will be available only in one configuration powered by the JDM spec 660cc turbo three-cylinder engine producing an economical though not entirely thrilling 64bhp. Initially, however, only 300 units will be made available for sale at the price of £8,999 ($17,577 USD).
With the success of the MINI Cooper and the impending arrival of the smart fortwo in the U.S., we wonder if there are talks within Mitsubishi to bring the i to the U.S. They'll no doubt be watching sales of the fortwo closely. Check out the official press release after the jump and a high-resolution gallery of the Mitsubishi i.
The Japanese automakers are the kings when it comes to putting together special limited-edition, limited-availability models for their home market. More often than not, these editions feature little more than a special interior color, accessory pack, and badging. The limited availability adds exclusivity, which begets desirability, and the editions sell.
Mitsubishi's latest is a 100-unit limited edition of its "i" kei car. Dubbed the "i Kurashiki," it will only be sold out of Okayama Mitsubishi in the Okayama prefecture. Okayama, you see, is home to the city of Kurashiki, which is responsible for the bulk of Japan's domestic blue jeans production.
What makes this version of the "i" special? The seat cloth is printed with a special jeans pattern (but not upholstered in actual denim), and it sports a model-specific badge on its rump (shown after the jump). Other than that, it's an "i" in S trim. Four exterior colors are available, and it costs ¥1,099,000.
This is the strangest JDM special we've seen in a while.
The Automotive Researchers' & Journalists' Conference of Japan (RJC) has named the loveable little Mitsubishi "i" its 2007 Car of the Year. The quirky and compelling "i" kei car has been quite a sensation, with its unique appearance and rear-midship engine layout, garnering plenty of attention in Japan from journalists and the general public. Mitsubishi, obviously aware of the hit it has on its hands, has kept interest in the "i" at high levels through clever marketing stunts like the one-off Hello Kitty edition and by giving it a prominent role in the company's research on future electric vehicle technology.
The RJC Car of the Year award is not the first accolade the "i" has won this year. Last month, it was awarded the Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization's Good Design Grand Prize -- a first for a kei car.
DAMD, the tuners who have recently shown a penchant for AstonMartinizing Nissan products, have turned their attention to what is perhaps Japan's quirkiest kei car, the Mitsubishi i. The newest member of DAMD's enormous lineup, this particular i looks like it'd be right at home seeing duty as Darth Vader's runabout if he were forced to ditch his SS for more economical fare.
The diminutive Mitsubishi is drenched in black paint, and benefits from the installation of new side skirts and spoilers front and rear. The parts are available seperately or as a 3-piece set (the two side skirts count as one "piece"). A billet insert spruces up the car's grille opening, and an extra panel dresses up flat black plastic area immediately below the windshield where the wipers live. Finally, 15" black DAMD DS-6 wheels ( the "6" indicates the number of spokes) complete the visual refresh.
It looks great, and it gives us just another reason to be bummed at the fact that Mitsubishi's slick little kei is for Japanese fans only. If there's a market for the Smart here, there's got to be a way to make a business case for something like the i.
Mitsubishi set its phasers to "taunt" during SEMA last week, shipping over an i prepared by FEAST to be part of the automaker's display in Vegas. The i, which I've yammered about a few times here at Autoblog, is Mitsubishi's super-stylish mid-engined kei car, and as such, it's forbidden fruit here in North America.
The FEAST i doesn't have any powertrain mods, keeping it's "keiness" intact, mechanically. Instead, the tuners went a little nuts on the car's appearance and gadgetry. This i is kitted, dropped and exhales through a dual exhaust from Blitz. The exterior graphics are typically overdone (this is a tuner showcase machine, after all, plenty of sponsors to serve). Interior trim panels and other details have been redone to add color and lighten things up a bit, while occupants can take in a DVD or boom their tunes thanks to the new Alpine A/V system.
Myself, I'd trade all the extra stuff just to have the i itself. It's so different from anything we have on the market here, all the attention-getter accessories loaded onto it seem superfluous.
Mitsubishi is going to take good look at the viability of all-electric motoring, this after announcing its plan to sell an all-electric vehicle in the Japan and U.S. in the near future. It has just introduced a new research platform, the i MiEV (Mitsubishi innovative Electric Vehicle), a four-passenger EV based on the company's podlike i kei car.
The i MieV will make its public debut later this month at a Japanese alternative vehicle conference. After that, two Japanese power companies will be provided with i MiEVs for internal research on how to integrate EVs into their business plans, including the development and deployment of a rapid-charge infrastructure. In January, Mitsubishi will bring in two additional power companies and commence fleet testing with all four to gauge whether or not an EV is a commercially viable proposition for all parties.
The i MiEV electric motor is mounted in the standard engine's rear-midship location and generates 47kW (63 hp) peak power. The car has an operating range of approximately 80 to 100 miles with a top speed of 80 mph and is actually much torquier than its conventionally-powered counterpart, generating 130 lb-ft to the standard i's 69.
Never mind the Mitsu-provided renderings we brought you earlier this month. Japan's Carview has been to the Mitsukoshi department store in Tokyo's Nihonbashi district, where the one-of-a-kind Mitsubishi i "Princess Kitty" special edition is on display.
True to the renderings, the Princess Kitty is a rolling tribute to the loveable Sanrio character. Pink paint, special decals, and a themed interior complete with kitty-shaped headrests are the car's not-so-subtle identifiers.
Later this week, a drawing will be held at the Mitsukoshi store to determine who gets the right to buy the car, which is likely the most interesting Hello Kitty collectible ever.
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