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gagrice...

by iluvmysephia1 on Sat Nov 15 12:47:17 PST 2008

hold that El-train for me, buddy! I'm pedalin' as fast as I can. Took me a while to catch up...my favorite car websites can have some long-winded..umm...I mean real interesting writers to keep up on and keep up with. If I get even two days behind I'm having to do the Evelyn Woodhead School of Speed Readin' thing to catch up. Add this post to that sort of list. :) Any how, did you see this pic I put up on Edmunds a few days ago. I have the Pinanfarina-Bollore website saved to my faves at home but here at work I don't. I searched on Google for it and got two sites, one has my post here on Edmunds with the picture! Whoo-hoo! Here the little beast is: This thing will have underneath and balanced placement of it's battery pack(Bollore made, I need to access that website to get the particulars on the battery packs)for better handling, about a 200 mile range, a top speed of 85 mph and a charge-up time of 7-8 hours on a common 120-volt socket at your American homes. The hinge-point in my research on this little car is whether or not Pinanfarina-Bollore will import this little monster to the U.S. I will go research when I get home some more and bring some more venison to this table for y'all. I am certainly interested in this car...my '08 Mitsubishi Lancer GTS is currently sitting at about 29,235 miles, getting set to get it's 30,000 mile service soon. So there's really not a screaming need for a 2010 Mitsubishi i-MIEV or a 2010 Pinanfarina-Bollore super-mini in my SE Arizona driveway. But, gagrice, you may have read my Edmund's posts of several months ago where I stated my thoughts on "green" technology vehicles. I have firmly planted my foot in the shipbeds of manufacturers who are working on bringing these types of vehicles to our fine shores. Mitsubishi has won me over, as a lot of you know I have been an ardent Kia fan for years. I still believe Kia is here(West Point, GA, USA)and is in S.Korea to stay. I have stated this fact for years, a lot of times to hoots and catcalls. But Kia is lagging a bit, both with a sporty 4-door sedan that I longed for, and with an all-EV or hybrid vehicle ready to buy at this time. They have now designed a new Kia Forte sedan and Koup that are real lookers. There's a great chance I would've traded the '01 Sportage 4X4 in on a Forte 4-door sedan if it were available in 2007. But it wasn't and the Sportage 4X4 had 130,000 miles on it, was meticulously maintained and was ready to trade. Avondale Mitsubishi treated me well in my trade-in for the '08 Lancer GTS. I made sure they did, the small SUV was very well cared for. BTW-Kia has apparently decided to retain the Spectra name for the new Forte that is coming here in 2009. It's a beautiful new car, body designed by Peter Schreyer, Kia's new Design Chief, wooed away from Audi Motors. Schreyer designed the Audi TT. So, long story somewhat shorter, I have a late-model Mitsubishi Lancer GTS that I love. I also have a yearning to drive an all-electric. gagrice, I'm all over this new i-MIEV from Mitsu like "white on rice." Tee-hee. I really am. I'm following the i-MIEV from Mitsu and the rig from Pinanfarina-Bollore like a hawk. Or perhaps a Seahawk. No, make that a hawk. If Misubishi is going to sell the tiny i-MIEV for only $24,000, then the $7,500 knockdown in price with the energy rebate would be a coup for us. It is quite likely an i-MIEV from Mitsubishi will be my next choice, however, when the Mrs. and I get wild hairs and want to go play in Tucson, 80 miles NW of us here, what will I do with an i-MIEV that only has a traveling range of 100 miles. Plug in somewhere's in fair Tucson? Maybe the only Mitsubishi dealer in Tucson, Wildcat Mitsubishi? Or at Ideal Mitsubishi in Sierra Vista, AZ, about 90 miles west of us here, located near Fort Huachuca. Remember, too, Mitsubishi offers a generous 10 year and 100,000 miles Warranty. That figures strongly in to this search result. These are by no means insurmountable problems here, gentlemen. An excited schoolboy with a chipped front tooth looking like Jim Carrey in 'Dumb and Dumber' going after Mary Swanson(OK, I'm not quite that excited for an all-EV :shades: )on a mission will spare no prisoners and take no down-hearted souls' negative advice as he seeks out a viable energy-propulsion alternative. Foreign oil is vile...it's going bye-bye and it's old-hat. It's spittle in the dusty Arizona flutter-winds. It must pass on by me like Dennis Rodman into relative obscurity. Be gone with you, ghastly! gagrice, the Chevy Volt is not scratched off my list but it's beginning to fade. When they make comments like "we may not realize a decent profit pricing the 2010 Volt at $40,000" I look to the side, just as I would when Baw-bwa Wahh-Wah is ready to speak on "The View". Yikes, Barbara, has the word "retirement" ever entered your mind? You were never really that good and yet you intend on scouring our televisions endlessly? Enough already. So, it's the '08 Lancer GTS, the 2010 Mitsubishi i-MIEV and the 2010 Pinanfarina-Bollore(that may not ever be coming over here, anyway)that have my interest at this point, gagrice. The next purchase is really pointing towards an all-electric. As a side point to boot, BYD of China is building some hybrids and all-electrics, one all-electric is named the e6, with intentions of eventually importing to the U.S. with some of them. Keep an early eye out-they'll make it here. The e6 is a large crossover that BYD envisions selling for taxicabs(taken from one of their news releases)that is really not that homely looking at all, actually. It has a decent body design. It will sell for around $28,000USD. Range of 200 some miles, top speed of 85 mph and is another EV with a 8-10 hour 120-volt re-charge time. I would be remiss to cross the BYD e6 off of my list, but, the i-MIEV stands a sooner chance of landing on these U.S. shores. The Pinanfarina-Bollore is more of an idea of what I'm really more interested in at this time, but it's entirely possible that that train may have sailed before it even gets here. Over.. and, out.

Drive on!

by iluvmysephia1 on Fri Sep 26 12:43:52 PDT 2008

cdnpinhead, I just noticed you're another one of us Arizona Edmunds members. I'm heading up there towards your area from Willcox on Monday, to get my '08 Lancer GTS detailed with an 'Auto Butler' paint protectant treatment. I get it every 6 months from the dealer I bought the Lancer from, Avondale Mitsubishi in Avondale, AZ. But what I wanted to comment on was your statement on driving and how much you like it. Drive on, because driving is not illegal, there's an oil company around that wants your ghastly dollar and a service station that wants your ghastly dollar, too. But driving is fun and a form of entertainment for a lot of us automotive enthusiasts. And whether we drive a rig with an ICE, hybrid, or all-electric, I believe it is important to be able to feel free to do just that. Drive our rigs with glee...I love driving around Arizona and New Mexico seeing new places and learning about the people of that land. Around here are the Chiricahua National Monument(the "land of standing rocks" the native Indians called them) with their enchanting rock spire formations, that are truly fascinating to see. Only about 37 miles south of Willcox, too. There is Fort Bowie, where Geronimo was held by the U.S. Army, after finally catching the great Apache warrior, back in 1886. Fort Bowie's ruins are available for viewing and they are only 25 miles SE of my home. More interesting rock formations are found in Texas Canyon with the Dragoon Mountain range and their rocks resting on top of other rocks and abnormalities are great to visit. I-10 actually runs right between the formations. Cochise Stronghold is about 45 miles west of me here in Willcox, and that is the proud Chief Cochise's old hiding place from the Cavalry and anyone else he didn't want to find him. We drove up to see a Foghat concert in October of '07 near Wickenburg, AZ, about 60 miles or so NW of Phoenix. The next day we left our motel and drove up to the Grand Canyon. I have never seen anything like that place and heartily await our next visit. When my son ran up to the edge on the SE area of the South Rim, he just stopped in his tracks and stared in amazement. "Dad, you're not gonna believe this!" He's right, I couldn't believe the beauty I was staring at. Incredible, awe-inspiring natural beauty that just went on and on. Point is, fact is, this country has benefited greatly from the automobile and it's availability to people. It's given us freedom and mobility that can't be rivalled by the horses and the carriages. Agreed? If we still have a rig with a ICE, and most of us do, I am for driving as much as we can afford to drive and for as long and far as we want. Restricting that idea is bad for business, bad for the economy and bad for our emotional health collectively. But it's an individual thing that varies according to the person, agreed. The environmentalists will never be satisfied, whatever propels our automobiles. You realize that, don't y'all? And if you love a manual-trannied rig way more than an automatic-trannied rig, ya know what, you've got that right. Once again, it's an individual thing. I think that with the advent of hybrid and all-electric propulsion technology you're gonna have to be ready to abandon your stickshift vehicle, however. Reading up on the subject points me to things like automatic push-button starts for new world order rigs like this. And after starting the rigs, I am reading of the implementation of simple levers for putting the power to the wheels, like "forward" and "reverse" buttons. Does that doom the manual tranny? I don't think so. Especially if you've got some awesome backyard mechanical skills, gentlemen. I am starting to see the end of the manual transmission. But that's just my view, my car-nut buddies. Think I'll go exploring in the Lancer GTS. And I'll feel good about doing just that, too. :shades:

Get the Mitsubishi...

by iluvmysephia1 on Sun Jun 15 13:43:33 PDT 2008

better SUV than the Nissan Murano. I have a 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer GTS with the Rockford Fosgate 6 CD/AM/FM/Sirius stereo and mine has 9 speakers. But it is loud and hot and heavy. I pop some Foghat Live II in there and crank it up and I have a big 'ole rockin' time! BTW, where in Mexico are you at? I live in Willcox, AZ, about 75 miles north of the USA-Mexico border. I bought my Lancer GTS up in Avondale, a Phoenix burb. But I get my Lancer serviced at Ideal Mitsubishi, which is in Sierra Vista, AZ. That city is only about 10 miles north of the USA-Mexico border. Where ya at?

Wow, nippon...

by iluvmysephia1 on Sun Jun 15 12:33:37 PDT 2008

Toyota is seeing the light. raychuang...Mitsubishi is already all over those two types like white on rice. My 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer GTS has a 2.0L 152 hp motor and a CVT transmission. The "shifts" are as smooth as a baby's a@#. No kidding. Smooth as a freshly shaven face. I have power-shifted with it, of course. It doesn't hurt that Mitsu built my '08 Lancer GTS to be a baby EVO, with improved front suspension assemblies and Dunlop performance tires. What a great car. And nippononly, I know you won't believe this, but I know I used to preach the "5-speed or 6-speed manual" all of the time. There is life after manual transmissions! This baby shifts and handles like a dream. I mean, even with my 2.0L 4 cylinder producing 152 horses and 146 pounds/ft. torque, I could really tick people off riding with me powering in to the turns. Of course, I've already done just that. My wife reacts quickly and decisively whenever I do that type of thing. The fun ends fast! This car will track and turn on a dime and downshifting or upshifting is done with a quick flick and the engine and CVT don't waste a speck of time. I mean, it's like right there, in your face...DONE! And then you punch it and move out. I gotta admit, when I entered my Mitsu dealer in Avondale, west of Phoenix, they didn't have a Rally Red '08 Mitsubishi Lancer GTS with a 5-speed manual tranny in stock. They had one with a CVT tranny! I spat out in anger at a few of them in the front of the store. Why did they tell me over the phone that they had a 5-speed then? Yikes, it must be hard to get competent help these days. But then, after talking about it with my wife, and thinking it out loud, we decided we did want the automatic CVT. I had to dispense a cold Pepsi, cool off, and then test drive the car first. Yes, it was tensioning to watch them drive it out of the showroom. Man, talk about tight car-to-door tolerances there! All of this in my excitement to say to you that I love the car and the automatic CVT with 6 forward and "reverse" speeds to paddle shift and it's a hoot to drive! I think that manual or CVT both would work for me. And in the future, with electrics/hybrids, etc., I see CVT's and DSG's fillin' up our sales lots. The transition can be made, it can be done, and a lot of people are switching over.

Well, that's not right...

by iluvmysephia1 on Sun May 04 15:34:52 PDT 2008

they wouldn't wash your car because detail was closed? Eeek! Yeah, Ideal Mitsubishi is really pretty good. We had to wait a long time last time in but I mentioned all the things that were done. We were enjoying shopping and browsing so it was cool. I didn't even buy my Lancer GTS from them! I went to west Phoenix(Avondale, AZ)to buy mine! They still treat us right! I know where I'll buy our next Mitsubishi from! :D I am watching the development of Mitsubishi's electric car the i-MIEV. Even though I won't be buying anything new for years and years, I think electric might be a sound way to go for propulsion after all the dino gas and oil is used up, or gets too costly to keep spending money on.

tiff c...

by iluvmysephia1 on Wed Apr 16 22:57:47 PDT 2008

that's true. When I started looking at the 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer I was gonna buy a stick. I phoned ahead and found a dealer west of Phoenix that had the exact Lancer GTS in the exact color and they would give me the 4.9% financing that two other Phoenix dealerships already agreed to offer. Good-great, just needed to drive the 209 miles NW to Avondale, a western Phoenix suburb, and test drive this beautiful new Mitsubishi. When we got there they showed me the Rally Red Lancer, but, to my surprise, it was an automatic CVT Lancer GTS! I got all upset and told them that they should be more careful when talking to people over the phone about what their own cars had as features, blah-blah-blah. At the same time I was so stoked to test drive this gorgeous car that I just decided that it would work for us as an automatic, my wife and son don't drive stick, etc. I was gonna be the primary driver of the car, anyway, but we decided to get it, even though I drove up there thinking 5-speed tranny all the way! It has worked out very well for us so far. I would not rule out going back to a stick in the future, but, this CVT has some advantages to it and has worked out very well for us.