I totally agree! haha.. He geeks out over the weirdest stuff and I do the same, like that little insignificant chrome piece that 99% of people could care less about, love it! lol
EuroAsain Bob (and friend of Tyler Hoover/Hoovie Garage) found this first. Bob and CarWizard have already gone over it. I'm assuming its the same one. Bob bought it from deceased estate. Im guessing it recently made its way to Cali.
These type of videos are why I'm into cars! Doug, please keep making these for those of us into weird, obscure, and otherwise "boring" cars! Also, the world is lucky I don't have $10k to drop on this, because it's just my style 😅
When I was a young lad in the 1990s I purchased a 1984 sigma (I live in New Zealand) just like the galant in the USA It had a digital dash, the climate control display was in the dash along with speed and Revs as a bar graph. I miss that car, it was cool.
My parents bought a diamante off the showroom floor back in 92 with mmc badging on it.Mitsubishi made great cars back then, wish doug would do a review on a diamante
You didn't mention a quirk under the hood: Look at where the brake master cylinder and brake booster are and how the braking system operates via a linkage from the left/driver's side of the engine compartment over to the where the brake master/booster is located on the passenger's side of the engine compartment. Very quirky. I think this was done so that the firewall section did not have to be stamped differently for the markets in which the driver is on the left side of the vehicle.
The gear selector was meant to signify what the car's reaction/direction would be, P is a square because the car is static, R is a backwards arrow because it is going to make the car go backward, D 2 L is a forward arrow because those all correspond to the car's forward motion, and N is a square but since the car is not static, but is disconnected from the engine and is free to move according to what the road surface causes so it is green I guess
@Jhonson Teo, I hadn't actually thought of it that way. I had an 86 Galant as my first car with the same shifter, and my theory was that the arrows signify which way you were able to push the lever without pressing the button side button, which I would do on occasion.
These are my favorite type of videos. The below average, the obscure and slightly interesting. Everyone will do the new golf R. Only Doug will do the Mitsubishi sigma. My first car was a Diamante wagon and I swear that car had the most comfortable seats and had enough cargo space for me and my awful emo band to load up all our gear and do small tours across the Midwest. It also had the strangest color. No one could agree on what it was. It looked purple at night and gold during the daylight. This car reminded me of that. Good times.
Not True. This is the second sigma video in few days I have been suggested and watched. First was car wizard's one. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-A79Qhmw19kc.html
Those Diamante wagons were made in Adelaide Australia at the old chrysler Valiant plant and exported to the USA. Im not sure the quality was up to Japanese.
Agreed with other commenters - these are my fave videos. Old, weird, obscure cars from the past. One misstep here is his misunderstanding of the indicators on the gear shift lever. I don't think they are arrows pointing to nutral, but rather arrows indicating the direction of travel of vehicle when that gear is selected. It isn't up or down to neutral, but rather forward or reverse by gear.
Yes exactly, I was about to write the same thing about the gear indicators; the arrows indicate the direction of the gear (or lack thereof, in neutral and park).
Either he is purposefully obtuse or he (most likely) grew up as a kid with parents who drove Volvos, Benzs and European luxury cars. He just comes off as someone who has never experienced basic stuff. “Wow, this seat doesn’t have 7 way adjustment. That was so common at the time!”
My mom bought one of these brand new in red in 1990, and we still have it today, its been driven for the last 30 odd years by various memebers of my family and it has been to a garage only twice in that time. These japanese cars from this era are really overlooked and are the most reliable i have seen. Ours is still going strong and i hope the last few that are out there survive.
Not to mention these videos are 100x more interesting than the latest luxury performance suv or one off super cars that are all very similar to each other
These are my favorite videos because often there aren’t any other detailed reviews or explorations of these cars. There are always tons of other videos of the latest luxury & sports cars.
Thank you Doug for staying true and covering cars like this Sigma. It's honestly why I started watching you ages ago, and still do, enthusiastically too!
The “weird old car” is so much more interesting personally too me than the fancy million dollar cars. I like these because it’s a piece of cool history and it would slide right under your nose if you didn’t know what you’re looking at. Thanks Doug for telling a cool story about a legit fascinating and awesome quirky car that everyone forgot!
4:50 The arrows indicate which way the car moves in each gear. Park and Neutral are rectangles since they don't move the car, Reverse points backwards and the 3 Drive gears point forward.
Doug is always embarrassing. That's what makes him entertaining. He sounds like someone trying to explain things he doesn't really understand. Guess the Jokes on us. I work hard every day for $50k a year while Doughboy makes millions being a buffoon. @@Kamina1703
I absolutely love these 80's boxy Japanese cars with those huge taillights. I grew up in the 80s and remember seeing cars like this everywhere. I wish auto makers would bring back those huge taillights, as I think taillights and brake lights have become way too small in recent years.
Well I think they were only "big" because they needed to put a big enough light bulb to illuminate enough. Now with LED lighting they don't need to be so big
@@aayonce4 One of the main reasons for taillights getting smaller is the trunk openings getting larger. On old cars, you had the trunk lid with the taillights under it. On most cars nowadays, the trunk opening is expanded all the way to the rear bumper to allow easier loading and unloading, leaving less room for the taillights. I would gladly trade trunk space for bigger taillights, as larger taillights increase visibility to other drivers from a greater distance at night.
The triangles obviously aren’t “pointing towards neutral”- they’re pointing forward and backward… as in the direction the car will go in that gear. Then park and neutral are rectangles because they don’t make the car go either way.
I believe the “bragging” of having a 4 speed auto was a jab at companies like Buick, who during this period offered 3 speed autos on their luxury cars, like my 92 Century.
I had one of these!! One of my favorite cars! It is underpowered by today's standard, but at the time it was great. One of the things Doug didn't mention is that the front seat backs split basically in half. The top portion would come forward and you able to actually lean back into the seat, so comfortable!!
Mits was killing it in the '80s, their interiors were second to none in '80s aesthetic for affordable vehicles. PLEASE do a Starion/ Conquest review. Please!
I know the big supercars primarily pay Doug's bills, but dammit I love I obscure cars being covered like this. Please never stop covering quirky cars, Doug, we love them.
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THE OBSCURE WEIRD CARS YOU FIND. I like these videos SOOO much better than brand new Porsches and Maseratis. They’re so entertaining and it’s so fascinating to see old cars in pristine shape. And no, I had never heard of the Sigma.
6:43 To move the seat up or down you first extend the "wand" by pulling the knob on the handle OUT/UP THEN youve got the leverage you need to adjust the height of the drivers seat without hopping up and down like a crazy person.😆
I'm aghast that he didn't note that as one of the many quirks. I was waiting. You can even see the exact moment when he ALMOST figured it out! (But then he's like "uh oh, I almost broke it, I'll just push that back where it was and keep my mouth shut.")
A month ago Car Wizard had this car in his shop and i was like Wow, never heard of it. Then i wondered if Doug would review on of these and here we are. THIS IS THE SIGMA!!!
Haha! I wanted to see how far I would need to scroll through the comments before seeing that the car wizard had it in his shop. I didn't have to scroll far.
Wow! What a cream puff! I hope the next owner takes good care of it. I remember finding a galant sigma at the junkyard and thought it was cool. I remember seeing it had electronic magnetic controlled suspension
4:44 - The arrows aren't pointing to Neutral. The down arrow is supposed to replicate back, meaning reverse. The up arrows are supposed to replicate forward, meaning the forward drive gears.
18:06 actually, it’s the reviews of these quirky cars brought me to this channel. I’m fascinated how car companies have experimented with various approaches to deliver a car that would reflect the zeitgeist
I appreciate the effort to explore this obscure car. They sold plenty in Australia but I can't remember the last time. I saw one. A real trip down memory lane...
These were sold under the Magna brand name. I owned a similar one with the inferior astron engine that would blow a head gasket seemingly every week. Very nice to drive though. Used to deliver pizzas in one of these bad boys....
I remember as a kid, Chrysler & Mitsubishi Sigma's were everywhere. Can't count how many people I knew who owned one back in the early 90s. One of my mates had one in early 2000s as his first car, was far from quick with the Astron 2 litre and 3 speed auto but the thing was a tank.
4:34 While many Japanese cars from 1990 may have 4 speed auto transmission as the new standard it was still uncommon for the normal person to see. They were still not available on some base models and this being a top of the range, bragging that it has 4 speed automatic transmission IS a BIG DEAL. A great majority of the automatic cars still running (from 60's, 70's and 80's) were only 3 speed. Also many base model cars sold in the early 90's still had 3 speed automatics example 1990 Ford laser also sold as 1990 Mazda 323, Ford Falcon etc.
The arrows on the base of the gear selector aren't pointing to neutral. They are pointing in the direction that the gear you select takes you. Reverse is pointing behind, and all the other front facing arrows are for forward gears. The parking and neutral are stationary selections, so they got rectangles.
My dad had one. It really was very cool for it's time. It had speed sensitive wipers, height adjustable suspension (which was always problematic), reclining rear seats, and automatic climate control. Pretty cool for its time.
mitsubishi has so many cars nobody knows about. the galant amg, the mirage asti rx and many criminally underrated cars like the starion, the fto and others. i hope doug gets to review more mitsubishi products
@@aubreyseaweed7182 GM? Mitsubishi made stuff and Chrysler badge engineered and sold it, there was a little development together but not much. Where are you getting General Motors from?
Surprised at now damn NICE that interior looks, love that leather. Although the rest of the car kind of looks dated for 1990, if this had came out in 1982/83 it would have been a space ship. Think about how sleek the 1992 Lexus ES300 was, or the 1991 Acura Legend. Even the boxy 190e or 300e Benz cars had a lot more style than this thing(I know they were A LOT more $$$)
I had one for years and years , my dad had the sigma before me. The most lux car in the 80's i ever saw was the Sigma Super Saloon that had the most comfy front and rear seats all with individual night lighting that was adjustable with curtains in the back lol. Sadly Magna auto gear boxes partly brought about it's downfall.
The Sigma name dates from 1979, it's what antipodean Galants were called, up until 1985 when Australian engineers created the world's first wide body car when they widened the Japanese Galant by some 4 inches to make the Magna. Toyota eventually did the same to the Camry. Diamante is an Australian Verada, the luxe version of the Magna.
mitsubishi in the 90s was truly innovative geniuses, although their tech doesn't seem to last in these 90s cars, it was still ahead of the time, like the 1990-1993 3000gt active aero, if I'm not mistaken they did active aero before active aero was cool
They offered it until something like 96 too. They also had 4 wheel steering, and electronic suspension and exhaust. Also don’t forget things like active yaw control on the evo. Amazing tech for the time.
My mom had an ‘86 Galant and this is certainly very similar. Doug, the handle to raise the driver’s seat has a rod that extends to make it easier (i.e. leverage) to use that feature. The Galant had a really cool luxury feature that this car is missing. In the center armrest of the rear seat was a handle. Pull up on it and the rear cushion would recline about 10-15 degrees.
I'm impressed by how nice this car is, especially the interior. There are aspects that look really good even by today's standards. Compared to the Altima that Doug recently reviewed, I think I'd rather have this car... if this was the 90s of course.
Today’s standards optimized for cheap production and sell it for high prices. Look at all the interior details and materials it’s amazing compare to today’s luxury with “eco leather” and hard plastics
These are honestly the only type of Doug's vids that I actually watch. I simply don't find any of the new and recent cars interesting, they are all the same. These old cars are so much more entertaining .
For real. Just go to the Doug score and see what car is the best. That system that was tedious at first then became a whole encyclopedia for almost every car and what the benefits and downfalls are
@@theironemald8779 it’s a pretty dumb system lol he measures every car based on its practicality and fun levels. So the best SUV in the world is going to score low because it’s not fun for joyriding, and the best hypercar in the world will score lower because you can’t take it grocery shopping. A fun gimmick but by no way actually measures the quality of vehicles lol
Equalizers are so very 80's-90's. Every cool stereo on the sales floor had one, be it an inexpensive all-in-one system, boombox, or hi-fi component system had one. They usually also had plenty of indicator lights, flashy LEDs for the VU meter, and intricate vacuum fluorescent displays. Automakers got in on the trend too.
I think it was the Mistubishi Eclipse! (I just found Doug and I've been combing through his "Weird" playlist). I guess Mitsubishi was especially into equalizers.
Bought a white, 88 model at auction way back in 97. The best car I ever owned while in college. Comfy with the plush brown seats, buttons upon buttons on the dash panel, and a fantastic engine. On long trips, the car always delivered. Wish they were still around.
6:15 That's definitely a quartz clock. Quartz timepieces are as cheap as they come, and very accurate too. Basically all digital clocks are quartz.That cheap clock is probably more accurate than the mechanical clock in a Rolls Royce.
I remember this car being that I'm 44. One of my classmates' father owned one. I thought it was different from the mainstream, with its unique level of flair and plushness. However, the 1st generation Diamante was my favorite Mitsu sedan. It was muscular looking but sophisticated. It kind of reminded me of a BMW, with the rounded reflectors in the halogen headlamp unit. And the grill split also reminded me of the BMW as well. It also added more of the plushness the Sigma had. I used to love the sound of the V6 ! I enjoyed this review Doug!👍🏾
The 1988 version which I had actually I'd say was WAY quirkier than this with massive amounts of analog buttons, the steering column and center area was very different and strange. It also had an option which you could get to alter suspension as well. The turn signal stalk was extremely odd. I felt it was oddly overpowered, at least the 88 version felt that way. It had a 3.0 Chrysler V6 and it HAULED. So quick for what it was. The 88 also had a sigma logo instead of it being written out. I hope I can find one again because I think Doug would love to see how strange it was in contrast to this one. What a weird car.
My grandfather had an 89 and it was a super quirky car. I can definitely back up the claim that the V6 in this car was awesome and it even had a digital dashboard for the time.
Doug, to get an insight into how the US Galant and Sigma came about, look up our Australian 1985 TM Mitsubishi Magna. Up until then the US and Japanese Sigma had been a narrow body car. Mitsu Australia realised when they killed local manufacture of our Australian Valiant that the Sigma we were making and selling here needed to be wider. So they took the Japanese spec car and literally grafted several inches of width into the car. Overnight this changed the medium sized sedan market here in Australia and sent GM, Toyota, Nissan and Ford local designers back to the drawing board. Out Oz TM Magna was literally responsible for the dimensions of the Diamantes you and the Japanese and UK markets got later - in fact they were manufactured here in LHD form and exported to those markets.
Doug: "This video probably won't get many views." Me: "Another supercar video, meh... What's this? An old Mitsubishi I've never heard of? Tell me more!" Really, these videos about regular cars from the 1980s and 90s are some of my favorites.
imo supercars are kinda boring, and all about the same nowadays. 4 liter twin turbos in everything. blah blah infotainment screens blah blah launch control. blah blah last gas powered model by such and such.. i want more obscure oddball cars!
Until today my father's Mazda 929 Limited was the only car I had ever seen with a factory EQ. The stereo in that car was amazing, stainless steel, EQ and the only car I can think of that had an upright tape deck like a home stereo.
They aren't pointing at neutral position, they refer to movement direction, d , 2 and 1 are obviously about moving the car forward and r stands for reverse direction.
The direction of the arrows on the gear selector means the direction in which the shifter can be moved without pressing the button on the gear lever. So you can move the gear lever from reverse into neutral by just pulling down on the shifter without pressing the button. And you can move the gear lever from first right through second and drive up into neutral by pushing up on the gear lever without pressing the button on the gear lever.
These came out in australia in 1987 and was called the magna. Interestingly, it replaced an outgoing model called the sigma which we had from the late 70s (around the time that mitsubishi took over chrysler in australia). The luxury model was called the magna elite. Mitsubishi ended up doing a luxury model later on called the verada
TM Magna came out in 1985 featuring a widened body. Certain 1990s era Mitsubishi Diamante models sold in the US were built in South Australia, perhaps the last export until the 2003 Pontiac GTO.
Ahh the good ole Aussie Magna. A decent car for it's time. I also remember the Sigmas, and they were known a bloody good cars, in terms of reliability, back in the day. If I recall, the 2.6L was the engine of choice. A shame the auto trans had a plastic spring that was known to fail eventually, requiring an expensive repair to retrofit a metal one, in later models. The one Doug is showing looks similar to the Magna GLX (top spec IIRC) from that era.
I was scanning the comments to see if anyone had posted this. I'm old enough to remember that the Mitsubishi Sigma we got here started life as the Chrysler Sigma. The Magna became a really good car, and I remember when I first saw it's replacement (the 380), thinking Mitsubishi were done. And sadly, it proved to be, with them shutting down their local manufacturing not long after.
@@Neilios1000 a real shame too IMO, as to me the 380 was a decent competitor for the other big 6s at the time, Commodore, Falcon, and V6 Camry. Watching this video takes me back to my HSC year, and loving that boxy look of the Magna and R32 Skyline of that time, yes even the bog standard Skyline.
My first car was a 1980 "Chrysler" Sigma GH SE purchased in 1990, with a 4cyl 2 litre engine. Had that for 8 years. Had velour seats and a great "sports" steering wheel.
I had one w 2.4 liter 4G64, auto-leveling air suspension, dark blue plush seats and a bit different switches on the dashboard but basically the same, and here in Europe it was the "Mitsubishi Sapporo" despite it had nothing similar with earlier 2-door Sapporo Coupe just the name. And yes, it was a rare, lovable, easy-to-drive and pretty comfy car in the 90s, I loved it.
My parents had a 1978 sigma in New Zealand and when the automatic transmission died the only country selling a brand new replacement was south Africa and it took 3 months to arrive 🤣🤣🤣
I owned this car, except it was the 1988 version. I always expected to see this car here. What a weird experience it was and yet simultaneously cool too
I remember the Mitsubishi Sigma being very popular here in New Zealand in the early 1980s - I imagine they were locally assembled - though I never realised it was a variant of the Galant (I do remember the Galant being available during the 80s and 90s as well, perhaps as imported used JDM cars). Intriguingly, there was also a variant made by Chrysler Australia known as the Chrysler Sigma.
Doug really rushing through these... 1) The seat heigh adjustment is on a telescoping handle that allows you to smoothly set the height without really having to throw your weight. 2) No mention of the weird placement of the Brake booster and reservoir under the hood -- obviously done because of its original location in right hand drive models 3) The gear position indicators are in triangles to point in the "direction of travel" - I don't think they really indicate a homage to the neutral position. 4) No mention of the driver's side airbag - which would've been a rare item in a Japanese car like this in the early 90s.
Yeah I was surprised he didn't mention the airbag. Most Japanese cars didn't have one until a couple years after this. Always surprised me that Chrysler was the brand to pretty much pioneer having a standard driver airbag throughout most of their lineup in 1990, even being an option in a couple of their late-1980's cars. Had to be an expensive undertaking back then.
There was a very good Sigma Turbo too, along with the Mirage Turbo, Tredia Turbo, Cordia Turbo, Mitsubishi of the mid-80s had a formidable range of affordable performance cars.
Gear selector arrows denote when the gear selector button needs to be depressed in order to move the lever. Otherwise, the lever can just slide from one spot to the next. So, you can start in gear 1 and just push the lever up into 2 and 3 without having to depress the button. Going from Park to Drive, however requires a button press - hence no arrow point from P to D.
Thank you for reviewing this amazing survivor! A Sigma recently came up for sale in one of my car groups and until that point I had never heard of it. I'm a pretty big 80's car buff, so I was shocked to see something that looked so normal (not a specialty car) that I had no idea ever existed in America. Great video Doug!
I love how Doug can remember even an obscure car like this from his childhood and relate it to a specific time in his life. I can barely remember what my own parents drove.
@@jwalster9412 They probably don't have a license or they don't want to drive after they've been in a car accident. Some people don't want to drive, even if they have a license.
Not everything is pointing to "neutral" as their gear God! I think the logic behind it is [ D,2,L] are all FORWARD motion processes pointing forward, [R] is pointing backwards as it is a reverse BACKWARD motion, and [N] is green SQUARE because it is a neutral process pointing nowhere and [P] is an orange SQUARE pointing nowhere too as it is the absence of motion and symbolizes the immobilization of the car. And it ergonomically makes sense to tuck the neutral button between the opposite motion processes; R D-2-L.
Almost all jdm luxury models had floating roofs in 80s and early 90s. My dad had nissan laurel he imported from Japan and it was the coolest thing ever. Roll all the windows down and you feel almost like in a convertable.
Before i even started with the video I said this is the car we owned in the early 90's to mid 90. It was called Mitsubishi gallant in the middle east lot of quirks especially the digital display , cruise control, and the card style indicators. Thank you Doug, this video got back a lot of childhood memories..
Galant is a different car. I live in the Middle East and I bought a Galant brand new back then. There was a Sigma and a Galant in the showroom and I still have brochures for both of them.
Being from Bahrain, i recall the Sigma being sold alongside the Galant over here but maybe different markets, different names? I know that the Sigma was eventually replaced by the Magna which was built in Australia.
Go back and watch the 1990 Mitsubishi Eclipse video, circa 2018? Doug was struggling with what an equalizer was - levers with numbers that change the sound. I think that encapsulates it. He got this one, however. Understandable. Most folks in the 32 and under bracket have limited exposure to such things in their memory years. The Technics, Kenwood, or Pioneer receiver with equalizer. Playing off of Cerwin Vega speakers. Or even a solid Walkman or Aiwa with equalizer. Bought at Circuit City. I’m not that much older than Doug. Levers with numbers?
So, I knew this one. In Germany (or maybe whole Europe) Mitsubishi called this thing "Sapporo" and the only engine available was the goddamn 2.4l Inline four. I even still have a brochure of it. The next generation here wasn´t called Diamante, here it was the Sigma which had here another c pillar. But this one had, thank god only V6 engines. I couldn´t believe my eyes that this thing has an AIRBAG!!! I don´t know exactly, but I think in europe they didn´t offer this thing with an AIRBAG.💀😄
For the seat height adjustment, if you extend the telescopic handle you would have more leverage to adjust the height, another quirk was the interior temperature sensor in the headliner behind the sunroof. Also, I believe the rear seats are adjustable to move up or down thus the split in the seat cushions.
Bit of useless info for you…here in NZ the early 89’s the sedan was called Galant, then facelift was called Sigma. The version you are in was imported into NZ as the Eterna (hard top). Tho to confuse things they used the Eterna nose cone on the Sigma on the final facelift V6 3.0l. Most Sigmas in NZ were powered by the 2.0l Astron engine, then later the 2.0 Sirius engine…the v6 wasn’t technically called sigma here, but called the V3000. Our top line models looked very much like yours, but had LCD dashboards which was funky as heck. Very few here had leather…burgundy velour was the flavour of the day. The 3.0l was a very underrated car…NZ police even used them but were critised for wobbly high speed handling, but they had the grunt to keep up with most. The most interesting engine was a Sirius Dash…a 2.0l turbo intercooler 4cyl, with a computer controlled shift from 8 valve to 12 valve. To get even weirder…there was a version called the Magna where the Aussies cut one down the middle and added 2 inches (I think) down the middle to widen it for far Aussie bums
There are definitely cruise control setting buttons. They are on the right stalk. Also the arrows are pointing in the direction the car would be going. The eco button only affected the shift points of the transmission. So many things wrong.......
