There was a time when so many of the world’s automakers cranked out awesome pieces of automotive treasure one after another. Remember when you could buy a Mitsubishi super sedan to go up against a super sedan from Subaru? Apparently, Mitsubishi remembers.
Yesterday’s Morning Dump included a story about Mitsubishi President Keisuke Kishiura’s love of cars. Rad Barchetta:
Models such as the Lancer Evolution, Diamante, and Galant are very important cars for Mitsubishi Motors, and we consider them treasures.
Makes sense, since they buried them.
The Bishop wrote about how Slate could offer more value for not much more money. I very much agree with V10omous here:
The best way they could have added a lot more value for not much money is with a stereo and power windows.
Goose:
Power windows are at least an available option. It just seems crazy to me to not axe the manual windows all together, save some P/N management and inventory issues, and go with power windows only. I’ve got to imagine the cost would be minimal to the company, if not even save money.
TK-421:
See, manual windows appeal to me.
V10omous:
Every single person for whom that’s true is either over the age of 80 or can be found in this comment section.
Matt also wrote about how the Toyota RAV4 sells so fast that Toyota made up a new metric to measure it. TheDrunkenWrench:
On a long enough timeline, every vehicle (that people want) becomes a Rav4, apparently.
I love how Stellantis is like “V8s in everything! It’s what the people want!” with 148 days of inventory, and Toyota goes “Get a hybrid or get fucked” and consumers are stabbing each other to get an allotment.
Finally, Jason wrote another 2CV update. Stephen Walter Gossin has such a sweet comment:
This is so fantastic. I didn’t own it long enough to put the top down (after installing the replacement top), so seeing it now makes me so happy.
This car just keeps on bringing smiles and not just to Jason and Otto.
Jason really is the perfect owner for this 2CV.
Canopysaurus:
Roll, roll, roll your roof,
Gently to the rear.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
It’s happy motoring from here.
Have a great day, everyone!
Top graphic image: Mitsubishi
Crabs All the Way Down, automotive edition is just Rav4 All the Way Down.
thats what i liked about my JKU. my windows unzipped because half doors! take off the uppers entirely for the full experience.
My ’91 F350 longbed dually crewcab has BOTH! Electric windows up front, manual in the back. And the same applies to door locks as well.
Thanks, Mercedes!
I’m tall enough to have been able to reach all 4 window cranks in my 2001 Corolla. The rear passenger side was a bit inconvenient though.
Thanks for the memories of hand-cranking the 4 windows in my ’89 Tracer from the driver’s seat.
Fun times.
Woo! Thanks Mercedes!
Roll down windows work in a small, bare bones two-door truck like the Slate. You can just lean across the cab and roll the window down. Less so in a sedan or larger car where you have to stretch dangerously from behind the wheel to reach the crank.
Simplicity and repairability are very much in the Slate’s vibe. It’s possible that with economies of scale the power windows might be cheaper, but I bet the mechanism is not user-repairable.
But when you drive into a lake, your power windows won’t work, the water pressure will keep the doors from opening, and unless you can quickly find your escape tool – you’ll die from drowning.
Tradeoffs, I guess.
Power windows are designed to work submerged so someone can get out in an emergency. I’d trust that over a plastic or die cast crank not to break when grabbed in a panic.
Hahahahahaha – No.
While power windows will work for up to a minute after the car is submerged – they are not designed to do so. The electrical system will short out in short order, and water pressure will also prevent the windows from rolling down as the glass is pinned against it’s tracks – the motors are not strong enough to overcome this.
It will be harder to wind a window down manually than normal due to the water pressure – but many people are strong enough to overcome this.
Honda designs their power windows to be water proof for exactly this unlikely scenario and I doubt they’re the only one. If the car is fully submerged to the point that water pressure is pushing on the glass, no they won’t work because there’s too much pressure pushing on them for the motor to overcome, but they’ll work when the component is submerged prior to the water engulfing the glass, which also very likely means there’s not much opportunity for anything else to be shorted out as the computers aren’t likely to be flooded at that point. While maybe not power windows, lights will work when completely submerged, but that doesn’t matter because if you want to claim cranks are better for this specific scenario, if the car is submerged to the point where the glass is underwater, you’re also not rolling windows down with a crank because, even if you had the strength to overcome the force the water is applying on the glass, the cranks do not and the inner mechanism probably doesn’t, either. That one was on Mythbusters.
On the rollup window debate, there has to be some merit to the costs of power windows. There are still a number of vehicles in europe that still offer manual windows on the rear at low-ends of the trim range, implying that it’s done to reach price targets (and not so much about convenience for the driver).
There is absolutely a market for crank windows. It’s easier when there’s only 2 windows as well.
However, is the market share in the US big enough vs. people just wanting power windows?
Chevy only really made the Canadian market bargain basement “$9995” Spark available in Quebec, cause they were the only demographic that would actually buy a base model stick shift. They simply didn’t sell elsewhere in the country.
Lowered cost doesn’t mean much if it doesn’t move units.
Judging by this site, alone, on attention to the Slate and Ford’s small trucks: a bone-stock basic manual pickup truck with two doors seems to get a lot of attention.
Judging by what’s on the road, and by sales numbers, it’s CRVs, RAV4s, and full-size-crewcab-pickups by a landslide.
I’d check what dealers are doing before concluding they’re unwanted.
They were offering negative financing near me, trying to move RAMs. An actual “-0.5%, we pay YOU!” ad campaign.
First time in my life I’ve seen that.
That’s very creative of someone!
Only in the rear and in very basic cars (Sandero? Chinese? Maybe the C3 / Grande Panda?). And maybe even none at all, currently…
Kind of the point that it’s on the most basic, cheapest, models if it’s cost-related. I checked the Sandero, and it notes that it has manual-rear; the Ford Puma didn’t say anything on window motivation, though the Kuga proudly states that it’s got power windows on all-four
I’ve taken many an Uber/Bolt where it’s still kitted with manual windows in the back.
I have done a quick check (non-exhastive). C3 and Sandero have manual windows in the back on base versions. From mid-trim though, it’s electric on all four.
A Clio has electric on all four. I am guessing this is the case with regular B-segment cars and above.