Which Rarity Would You Rather Have? 1990 Mazda MX-6 vs 1994 Eagle Summit

“Captive import” is the term for a car made in another country, but sold by a domestic brand. But what about cars that go the other way around, that are made in the US, but wear the badge of an import brand? Is there a term for them? I don’t think I’ve ever heard one. Regardless, I’ve got one of each for you to check out today: a captive import, and a whatever-you-want-to-call-it.

Yesterday, we looked at two Dodges that weren’t really Chrysler designs. One was a Renault by way of AMC, and the other was mostly Mitsubishi. It was a closer call than I thought it might be; the Dodge Monaco’s price put a lot of you off, but it still put up a good fight. But as of this writing, the Stratus coupe holds a small but decisive lead, so I’m declaring it the winner.

That would be my choice as well. The Monaco is interesting in theory, and it’s supposed to be a really nice car to drive, but it just doesn’t hold enough interest for me to choose it. The Stratus isn’t that interesting either, but it’s cheaper and it should be easier to keep on the road as time goes by, so it gets my vote.

In my past life working in a service station, I had a co-worker who was staunchly “buy American.” He actually got in trouble a few times for insulting imported cars, and sometimes their owners. At the time, I drove a beat-up old Nissan/Datsun pickup, which he, of course, scoffed at. But apparently he liked the idea of a small pickup, so much so that he showed up one day in a beat-up old Chevy LUV. My boss and I looked at each other, smirked, and said nothing. What made it even funnier was that my Nissan was built in Tennessee. That guy was fired not long after that, so I don’t know if he ever found out that his Chevy truck was built in Japan. I certainly wasn’t going to tell him.

Anyway, let’s look at a Japanese car built in America, and an American car built in Japan.

1990 Mazda MX-6 GT – $3,950

Engine/drivetrain: Turbocharged 2.2-liter OHC inline 4, five-speed manual, FWD

Location: Modesto, CA

Odometer reading: 131,000 miles

Operational status: Runs and drives well

By now we all know the story of the Ford Probe: how it was almost the 1989 Mustang, how Mustang fans cried foul and persuaded Ford to keep the Fox-body Mustang in production, and how the new car was released alongside it as the Probe. But the Probe’s sister model, the Mazda MX-6, doesn’t get nearly as much attention these days. Maybe it’s because its styling is much more subdued, or because Mazda didn’t sell as many MX-6s as Ford did Probes. Whatever the reason, seeing a first-generation MX-6 is a real rarity these days, especially a GT like this one.

Like the Probe, the GT version of the MX-6 received a turbocharged version of Mazda’s 2.2-liter four-cylinder engine, bumping the horsepower from 110 up to 145. It also got disc brakes in the rear and some suspension tuning. There was also, briefly, a four-wheel-steering option, but I don’t think this car has it. This one has only 131,000 miles on it, and the seller says it runs great. That’s all the info we get, though; this car is being sold by a wholesale dealer, and they’re not big on descriptions. I can tell you that it leaks oil from its valve cover, which is an easy fix, but a negotiating point.

Sadly, this being a 1990 model, it has passive restraints in the form of automatic shoulder belts. One year older, and it wouldn’t have been subjected to this foolishness. There are a few cars for which I might be willing to put up with motorized belts, however, and this is one of them. I used to have a 1989 Ford Probe, and it was a fantastic car to drive. This MX-6 should be the same, only quicker. The worn spot in the seat bolster is unfortunate, and the duct tape covering it even more so, but overall it’s not too bad inside.

It’s a sharp-looking car outside, with just a few blemishes. The paint on the hood is scorched, and it appears to be missing a badge on the trunk lid, but those are minor quibbles. It’s a Japanese sports coupe (built in Michigan) from an era that is rightly celebrated for its designs. This is one of those cars that I hope finds an owner who appreciates it.

1994 Eagle Summit LX wagon – $4,995

Engine/drivetrain: 2.4-liter OHC inline 4, four-speed automatic, FWD

Location: Salem, OR

Odometer reading: 152,000 miles

Operational status: Runs and drives well

When Chrysler bought AMC in 1987, it created the Eagle brand for AMC’s legacy models, hoping to ride the popularity of AMC’s most popular model, the Eagle wagon. To give Jeep/Eagle dealerships a full range of cars to sell, Chrysler stuck Eagle badges on some of its captive imports, like this Mitsubishi-built Eagle Summit wagon – also sold as the Dodge/Plymouth Colt Vista and Mitsubishi Expo LRV.

The Summit wagon was powered by either a 1.8 or a 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine. This being the fancy LX model, it has the larger engine. You could get either a manual or an automatic transmission; this one has the automatic. The seller actually doesn’t make any mention of how it runs, typical of a dealership, but I have to assume if they’re asking five grand for an economy car from the 1990s, it runs and drives flawlessly. It had better, anyway.

Eagle called this a wagon, but it’s really laid out more like a small van. It has two normal front doors, a sliding door on the passenger’s side only, and a rear hatch. It’s a pretty versatile and roomy little car. It’s in fine shape inside; it hardly looks used at all. This car has a weird arrangement to meet the passive restraint requirement: it has an airbag and a standard three-point seatbelt for the driver, but the passenger’s seat has an automatic shoulder belt and a manual lap belt.

It’s generally in good condition outside, but there’s some strange wear on the B-pillars that I don’t quite understand. Is it just sun-bleached paint? Nothing could have been rubbing against it there and wearing out the paint that I could imagine. But you could easily repaint the pillars black, if you so chose. At least there’s no rust.

Does it matter where a car is built? It shouldn’t, but I understand why it does to some people. If your livelihood is building cars, you want people to drive the cars you build, not the ones built somewhere else. But that ship sailed, metaphorically and literally, a long time ago, and cars come from everywhere now. And badges are no longer any help in telling you where a car actually came from. So I guess what really matters is, do you like the car? And more specifically, for our purposes here, which of these cars do you like?