Mitsubishi Motors has unveiled a new generation Colt hatchback for the European market, it will go on sale in October.
Europe is a third-rate market for Mitsubishi Motors – such is the current distribution of roles in the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance. In 2020, the management of Mitsubishi Motors generally decided to gradually curtail work in Europe, but a year later changed its mind: for now, the Mitsubishi brand remains in Europe and has prepared a couple of new products for it at minimal cost. At the beginning of this year, the new Mitsubishi ASX, a slightly restyled subcompact crossover Renault Captur, appeared in European dealers, and today the new Mitsubishi Colt is officially presented – a clone of the fifth generation Renault Clio hatchback, which has recently undergone a planned restyling.
The press service of Mitsubishi Motors calls the new Colt the seventh generation, a name referring to Colt's European career. In fact, Colt has more generations, for the first time a car with that name appeared in the Mitsubishi range in 1962 – it was a small two-door rear-engine sedan in the spirit of the Soviet Zaporozhets. Then the Colt name was carried by a variety of global and regional models, so you need to count generations for each specific market. In Taiwan, for example, the Mitsubishi Colt Plus compact van is still produced and sold, and the last global Colt was the subcompact hatchback of the Z30 generation, it was officially sold, including in Russia, and left the European market nine years ago.
1/3 2/3 3/3The new Colt is a textbook example of badge engineering, there is not even an attempt to drape the original Renault Clio style here: three Mitsubishi diamonds do not fit too elegantly into the Renault diamond cutout on the front edge of the hood, chrome squiggles are added to the grille between the headlights to somehow it looks like Mitsubishi's signature X-face, the rear is the same as Clio's, only the nameplates have been replaced and the rear-view camera is bare, which Renault has inscribed in the emblem.1/2 2/2
Changes in the cabin are even less: Colt differs from Clio with a blotched steering wheel hub and a slightly revised range of finishing materials, but otherwise everything is the same. The virtual instrument panel has a diagonal of 7 or 10 inches, a multimedia screen – 7 or 9.3 inches, depending on the configuration. For the Colt, as for the Clio, a full range of modern electronic driver assistants is available, up to adaptive cruise control with traffic mode.
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The Colt's engine range has been reduced compared to the Clio: there is no diesel and gas engine, there are 3-cylinder 1.0-liter gasoline engines – atmospheric SCe (67 hp) and supercharged TCe ( 91 hp) in combination with 5- and 6-speed “mechanics”, respectively, and at the top of the range is a two-pedal hybrid Colt with a renoshny E-Tech power plant, made on the basis of a 1.6-liter gasoline “aspirated”, its the maximum combined power is 145 hp, there is no possibility of charging from an external source.
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The price list for the new Mitsubishi Colt has not yet been published, because in Europe sales of the original updated Clio have not even begun. Related models will be produced together at the Turkish plant Oyak Renault in Bursa. We add that last year Mitsubishi sales in Europe, according to JATO Dynamics, amounted to 56,242 vehicles, which is 23% less than it was in 2021. The new ASX and Colt should strengthen Mitsubishi's position in the old world market.
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