What Is It?
Mitsubishi Concept-Sportback
What's Special About It?
Although the compact five-door hatch is still treated with some suspicion in the U.S., the form and versatility of a "sportback" design is being enthusiastically embraced in Europe. So it must have seemed logical that Mitsubishi Design Europe would create a concept for the Frankfurt show that used this layout for its inspiration.
The Mitsubishi Concept-Sportback does a good job of making a five-door look like a coupe, but be warned — it photographs a little better than it looks. The huge, meshed-out grille (and blacked-out roof, too, for that matter) and bold roof spoiler play up the car's concept credentials, while there's talk of both front-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive iterations and a range of four all-new four-cylinder engines — including the pièce de résistance unit which unharnesses as much as 200 horsepower.
Some concept cars are radical departures for manufacturers, others can strongly hint at future directions in styling, and yet others seem like a good idea at the time, but they really don't push the needle into new territory (to mangle two metaphors). The Mitsubishi Concept-Sportback resides in this third category, just as the company's HCR concept series kept promising a radical new future for Mitsu, but in the end came to very little indeed.
What's Edmunds' Take?
Endowed with a lot of good angles, but no great ones, the Mitsubishi Concept-Sportback received little fanfare at the Frankfurt show. In the end, it seems at best a stopgap measure between now and the time Mitsu starts delivering real cars, and at worst a vanity project for the company's Frankfurt design team. — Richard Homan
Mitsubishi Concept-Sportback
What's Special About It?
Although the compact five-door hatch is still treated with some suspicion in the U.S., the form and versatility of a "sportback" design is being enthusiastically embraced in Europe. So it must have seemed logical that Mitsubishi Design Europe would create a concept for the Frankfurt show that used this layout for its inspiration.
The Mitsubishi Concept-Sportback does a good job of making a five-door look like a coupe, but be warned — it photographs a little better than it looks. The huge, meshed-out grille (and blacked-out roof, too, for that matter) and bold roof spoiler play up the car's concept credentials, while there's talk of both front-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive iterations and a range of four all-new four-cylinder engines — including the pièce de résistance unit which unharnesses as much as 200 horsepower.
Some concept cars are radical departures for manufacturers, others can strongly hint at future directions in styling, and yet others seem like a good idea at the time, but they really don't push the needle into new territory (to mangle two metaphors). The Mitsubishi Concept-Sportback resides in this third category, just as the company's HCR concept series kept promising a radical new future for Mitsu, but in the end came to very little indeed.
What's Edmunds' Take?
Endowed with a lot of good angles, but no great ones, the Mitsubishi Concept-Sportback received little fanfare at the Frankfurt show. In the end, it seems at best a stopgap measure between now and the time Mitsu starts delivering real cars, and at worst a vanity project for the company's Frankfurt design team. — Richard Homan
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