Good morning! We’re going to kick off this week with a couple of cars I found on the Facebook Underappreciated Survivors page. They’re both uncommon cars these days anyway, but these two up the rarity factor by not being ordinary sedans.
I made you choose which one of Friday’s finalists you would be willing to drive for a year, and you picked the least interesting one of the lot. I guess I can’t blame you. That Mitsubishi Galant does look like a nice, comfortable car, and there’s no reason it shouldn’t be reliable.
Placing myself in the same scenario, I have to think about what I’m most likely to need a car for in the coming year, and that’s probably going to involve a lot of home improvement. Only one of these would work well to haul stuff home from the lumber yard, and that’s the Mazda truck, which you all put in last place. If I were strictly choosing one for my own amusement, it would be a toss-up between the Toyota and the Mustang. But if I follow the same “I have to drive only this for a year” rule as I set down for all of you, I have to take the truck.
When I was younger, I used to love looking through car brochures, and I assume I’m not alone. My dad and I would go to the Chicago Auto Show every year, and I’d come home with a bag full of brochures, and pore over them for the next several weeks. I always enjoyed trying to spot the different variations of each car on the road, though some styles seemed impossible to find in the wild. These two are a bit newer than my brochure-reading days, but I have a feeling they would be easier to find in a brochure than in a parking lot. Let’s check them out.
1990 Mazda 626 LX Touring Sedan – $1,400
Engine/drivetrain: 2.2-liter OHC inline 4, five-speed manual, FWD
Location: Acworth, GA
Odometer reading: 320,000 miles
Operational status: “Runs and drives” is all it says
The few sedans that are left on the market have one thing in common: they should be hatchbacks. Those tiny mail-slot trunk openings don’t do anyone any good. Why not just make the rear window open up with the trunk lid, like Mazda did way back in the ’80s? Mazda calls this car the 626 Touring Sedan, but anyone else would call it a hatchback.
Whatever you want to call it, it’s a very well-made car that is capable of racking up some serious miles. This one has 320,000 on it already, and it’s still rolling along. The seller says it has new CV axles and a new battery to help it on its way, for what that’s worth. At this price, “runs and drives” is probably good enough.
I’m pleasantly surprised by how well the interior has held up, with that many miles. It’s a two-owner car, both owners in the same family, and clearly, they treated it well. It’s not torn up or even worn out inside. It does have those silly automatic seat belts, but at this price, I think I’d be willing to put up with them.
It’s not too bad outside, either, except for a couple of cracked light lenses and some bad spots in the paint. Being a Georgia car, it shouldn’t have any rust to speak of. Rock Auto has a replacement for the front side marker/turn signal, but you’ll have to scour junkyards for a taillight, or put up with red patch tape.
1996 (?) Mitsubishi Diamante Wagon – $2,000
Engine/drivetrain: 3.0 liter OHC V6, four-speed automatic, FWD
Location: Stuart, FL
Odometer reading: 166,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
The Mitsubishi Diamante is one of those cars I tend to forget exists, until I see one. And until I saw this ad, I had completely forgotten there was ever a station wagon. But I think the seller might be mistaken about one thing: as far as I can tell, there was no Diamante station wagon in 1996. Since it’s clearly a first-generation Diamante, it must be a 1995 model.
Like so many Mitsubishis from this era, this one is powered by a 6G72 3.0 liter V6. It’s mounted transversely, driving the front wheels through a four-speed automatic. It’s in good mechanical condition, according to the seller, and at only 166,000 miles, it should have plenty of life left.
The inside of this car has seen better days. The leather is cracked and worn, and it looks like part of the headliner is missing. The dash has some scuffs and what looks like tape residue stuck to it. But the seller says the air conditioning works, as do the power windows, so it’s not all bad.
Curiously, this one has a cracked taillight in the same place as the Mazda, and you’re even less likely to find a replacement for this one. It looks like it has already been taped up at least once. Apart from that, it just looks like a tired old car.
The rarity of these two cars is not much more than a curiosity at this point. Neither one is going to be a collector’s item. But they’re cheap, functional, and known-reliable models that you could certainly get your money’s worth out of. It’s all a matter of which one looks better to you.
The Mazda is a full lift back? SOLD.
I’m taking the Mazda. Price, manual, and that ’80s velour looks great.
That’s a good-looking Mitsu longroof, and it has only half as many miles as the Mazda. But the Mazda’s interior looks like it’s seen less than 100K miles, and the Diamante is showing what feels like 300K+. So it’s kind of a tossup on condition.
I strongly prefer a manual transmission on an older sedan. I can handle a clutch replacement if need be, but I get the feeling that the clutch in this rig is neither original nor in poor condition.
The Diamante looks better on the outside, but once you’re inside the car you can’t see the outside, and that’s where you spend most of your time as far as the car is concerned. I think, on the basis of one-family ownership and the interior condition suggesting meticulous care, that the Mazda is the safer bet today, odometer reading be damned. I’ll stir the gears myself and be satisfied.
I wanted to vote wagon but with transverse mounted v6 + auto, the high mileage Mazda suddenly looks better.
Had to ride in a Diamante that one of my salespeople had once. One of the most uncomfortable seats ever. Mazda for me.
not taking the transverse V6, sorry. That one has the same V6 as some 90s Chrysler minivans
I voted for the Mazda
Ooof! Tough decision.
The manual with nice interior has mouse-belts + 320K miles.
The ever-pleasant sounding Diamonte has an autotragic and a trashed interior.
I chose the Mitsu with more acceptable mileage.
I always thought that generation of Diamonte looked handsome. Even more so in the wagon. I bet the interior will clean up nicely enough for me.
I’ve always been a sucker for those almost shark-nosed Diamantes. I remember reading about one with the VR4 drivetrain in it back the day, that would be a hoot.
I agree. They have always looked sharp from the front view.
The Diamanté is the more correct body style, but I have to give a nostalgia vote to the 626. My dad had a 1990 sedan that I spent a lot of time riding in. I’d feel right at home looking at that blue interior as I waited for the motorized upper seat belt to go for my neck.
We need more blue interiors. Or I suppose any color more interesting than black, gray, medium gray, dark gray, dark black, etc.
This is a tough one. I LOVE The old 626’s and owned both a later Mazda6 (V6 maual) and a similar vintage Galant (manaul but not a VR4 sadly). The Diamante looks in good order but damn that 626 despite the miles calls to me a bit more. Voting with the heart today
Wagon. The first gen Diamante was actually pretty nice, and the wagon just made it even better. The 626 is also a pretty decent car, but with that many miles and the rust I feel like it is pretty close to being ready for the scrap yard.
I couldn’t live with those insane seatbelts, so it’s the Mitsubishi
I’m in the UK and we never had those type of belts. How do they even work?
They were on a track and when you closed the door they slowly slid back and locked into place behind your shoulder, despite what everyone says they were pretty nice.
They were horrid in my opinion and I had several cars with them in the 1990s. If you tried to get out of your car quickly you risked getting strangled.
I’ve owned 5 different cars with them almost never had the strangulation problem.
Then you are more patient and deliberate than I.
I disagree that they were nice, but it’s not the deal breaker for me that it seems to be for so many others.
Until you had one fail, and the cable popped out and covered you and your clothes with graphite-laden grease
Ok that would be annoying but for everyday use they weren’t that bad. Get in and out of the car 2-3 times and you forget they’re even there.
I never had them but I had the GM door-mounted ones on a Geo Metro (circa-1990 Suzuki Swift to non-North Americans). I just used them as a normal seat belt. It locked the doors automatically at 5mph but had no other power-door-lock functionality, and it was a 2 door; on a 4 door the belts must’ve been too far forward to be effective for all but the shortest drivers.
My first car had them, no big deal if you ask me. Though at 5’9” I’m right around the average American male height that these things were designed for. You could always disconnect them too if you wanted to break your neck hitting the steering wheel to stick it to the man.
The 626 would have been the answer – if it weren’t for the excessive mileage and rust.
So it’s the Diamante wagon and a bottle of leather conditioner.
I don’t think soaking those seats in a vat of mink oil for a month would save them.
Rare Australian-built near luxury wagon – Mitsubishi was really swinging hard with the Diamanté.
You nearly never saw the wagons – and it’s not as if the sedans were a common sight.
I will take the one without the horrid motorized mice seatbelts and it is a wagon.
Given the choices, my standard answer. Manual and rallycross fun.
I’ll take Stick over admittedly tempting Legnum-ish longroof.
I prefer Mazda’s styling, so I went with that one. And in adittion to that, it has a stick which is very important to me. That is why I chose the Mazda truck last time. Also ’cause it is BOF.
I unabashedly LOVE this generation of Diamante. I even love the name! Gotta say it with some flair, though.
Dee-ah-MON-tay!!
That Mazda does get points for being a hatchback and a stick.
Still, DiaMANte for me.
The Mitsu was hot stuff when it came out. I didn’t know there was a wagon version!