Lao Liu History Lesson, Japan's "cottage car" Mitsuoka Motors

2021/02/0706:24:04 car 2926

[Aika Auto Culture Original]

Although Zotye Automobile, which has just gone bankrupt, is not the initiator of the "cottage car", it has developed the "cottage car" to the extreme. Starting from the copycat Audi Q5, "Postech", Lan Yuntai"...Many world-famous cars have suffered this attack. Fortunately, Zotye Automobile went bankrupt in time, which allowed more famous cars to escape. But today we are not talking about Zotye, but a weird car brand in the island country of Japan-Mitsuoka. What is the connection between it and copycat cars? Let me speak slowly to you.

Mitsuoka Buddy (Inquiry module, please do not edit manually, if you need to delete, please right-click on the picture to delete the inquiry)

I believe most people do not think Mitsuoka Motor (Mitsuoka Motor) Understand, because it is too rare in China. But if you look at Wikipedia and the official website of Guanggang Automobile, you will find that Guanggang was actually established as early as 1968 and has been developed for more than half a century. Today, Mitsuoka is the tenth registered car manufacturer in Japan, but Mitsuoka is taking the road of customizing the appearance of mass-produced cars of other brands and bringing it to the market. It is larger than the refitting factory, but it is also It is much smaller than the automaker, and has insisted on its own unique styling aesthetics for decades, so even in Japan, it is a strange existence.

It can be seen from the logo of Mitsuoka Motors that this Japanese car company is not unusual", but in fact Mitsuoka does. Mitsuoka started with car sales. In 1968, the founder of Mitsuoka Motors was the third Susumu Mitsuoka founded Mitsuoka Jidousya Kogyo. In 1970, he began to sell luxury cars in Europe and the United States in Japan. The business includes new and used cars, and gradually developed to more than 50 sales stores. As the car sales business continues to grow, Guang Oka intends to get involved in the field of automobile manufacturing, but at that time the Japanese automobile market was already occupied by giant companies such as Toyota and Honda, and the market segments were also occupied by companies such as Suzuki, Daihatsu, and Subaru, and it was not easy to start independent development of cars. It needs huge financial support. Obviously, under Japan’s complete market economy system, Mitsuoka does have more than enough energy.At first, Mitsuoka's direction was low-priced mini cars.

In 1982, Mitsuoka launched the BUBU501 and 502, both of which are miniature inverted tricycles equipped with a 50cc motorcycle engine, which can only take one person, mainly for housewives and elderly people. It can be said that the BUBU501/502 is simpler than the “remnant motorcycles” that run across the streets in China’s urban and rural areas. The safety and power are naturally incomparable to cars, but they meet the needs of the Japanese market for cheap short-distance vehicles at that time. The ground space is small.

In 1985, Mitsuoka launched the BUBU505-C, which is a miniature retro car that can only take one person. The specific size and power system are unknown, but it is this car that made Mitsuoka go on. Retro car on the road.

This is the re-engraved Porsche 356 launched by Mitsuoka in 1989, named BUBU 356 Speedstar. It uses a Volkswagen engine, and in order to reduce mold costs, a steel tube frame and a fiberglass body are used.

is also the BUBU CLASSIC SSK launched in 1989, which is obviously a copy of the SSK model launched by Mercedes-Benz in 1929. Maybe at that time, Japanese wedding companies also needed such a car. Therefore, during this period, Mitsuoka was alive and well, so he was out of control on the road of retro cars.

Throughout the 90s, Guanggang reproduced many classic cars, such as this Le-Seyde. After three generations of evolution, the appearance is completely a classic car, and it can be vaguely distinguished from the middle of the body. A Nissan Silvia S15, and Ford's contemporary Mustang was also used to convert into a classic car.

The prototype of this viewt produced between 1993 and 2013 is actually a Nissan March.

Guanggang also launched a batch of large luxury classic cars,For example, this first-generation Galue was modified by Nissan Crew. Galue has been in production until now, and prototype cars have used Nissan Teana, Duke, Toyota Corolla Axio, and even Ford Mustang. The common feature of these models is that the front face is changed to a large vertical like a Les Royce classic car. The grille and round lights are therefore known as "Dongying Rolls Royce". Of course, neither the power nor the interior decoration can be compared with Rolls-Royce. It is just a niche retro car with a personality.

Mitsuoka's imitation subject matter is very wide, even the small British factory Caterham has not escaped Mitsuoka's imitation. Visible Guangoka is indeed experienced in the field of replicating and modifying classic cars, unique in Japan The auto industry policy and consumer market have also allowed the car brand of Guanggang to survive until now.

started as a mini-car and was fascinated by retro cars

Hikaru has always been modeled on mature models, retaining power, suspension and interior, focusing on retrofitting the front and rear styling of the body, which can speed up on the one hand On the other hand, the development cycle of new cars and the reduction of manufacturing costs are also Kuangoka’s helpless actions. The development of Hyundai cars requires huge expenditures of manpower, material and financial resources. Even if it develops to the present, the total number of employees in the Kwangoka Group is only a mere 470. Supports the development of complete vehicles, but Mitsuoka has also tried to manufacture cars independently, this is Orochi (big snake).

At the 2001 Tokyo Motor Show, Mitsuoka launched a two-door roadster named Orochi (big snake), which is said to be built on the Honda NSX platform. The name "big snake" comes from a Japanese myth: the eight-headed snake. The design of the entire car is based on the "snake" as its soul. It is said that in order to pray for the success of this car, a soul-entering ceremony was held, hoping to teach the "soul" into the car body. However, from the final effect, the proportion of the body of this big snake is a bit out of balance, the detailed design is too exaggerated, the lines are messy, and the design aesthetics is not mature.

Dashe is a mid-rear engine, rear-wheel drive sports car,In terms of structure, it has the foundation of a super sports car. The body size is 4560×2035×1180mm, and the wheelbase is 2600mm. It uses Toyota's 3MZ-FE 3.3L V6 engine with a 5-speed automatic transmission. The maximum power is 172kW (233 horsepower), the maximum torque is 328Nm, the maximum speed is 240km/h, the acceleration time of 0-100km/h is 7.2s, and the drag coefficient is 0.32.

But from the data point of view, Da Snake can only be regarded as an entry-level sports car, and it has nothing to do with supercars. The big snake has a weird shape and a high degree of recognition. Therefore, some Japanese customers bought this car for 10.92 million yen (about 700,000 yuan) in the Japanese market. At the Beijing Auto Show in 2010, Guanggang Motor had landed on the Chinese market. The first car was the Guanggang Dashe, which was sold at a high price of 2 million yuan based on the Dongying supercar and hand-built. But obviously Chinese consumers have not bought Mitsuoka's account, and there has been no news in the Chinese market since then.

Da Snake is the first mass-produced car developed by Mitsuoka in its history, and it is also the only one. The Mitsuoka brand now sells Viewt, Ryugi, Galue, Himico, Rockstar and the latest The Buddy produced are all "facelifted" on the current models. Let's focus on Buddy next.

Buddy is Mitsuoka's first SUV product recently. Buddy means "buddy, partner" in English slang. Both the name and the style inherit Mitsuoka's "non-mainstream" tradition. Buddy is based on Toyota RAV-4, which may be the reason for the squareness of the prototype. The designer's originality turned out to be an American classic car. Mitsuoka transformed the RAV-4 front into a 1981 Chevrolet Trailblazer, whether it is a large area. The grille is also a chrome-plated independent bumper, which has a strong American style of the 1980s.

The vertical taillights at the rear of the car are in Cadillac's style. The two-color design of the tailgate makes it feel like a journey back to the 1960s and 1970s.The side of the body is no different from the RAV-4. Buddy's power system is exactly the same as the RAV-4. It is a 2.0L naturally aspirated engine and a 2.5L+ hybrid configuration. It is also divided into two-wheel drive and four-wheel drive versions.

As a model that is mainly sold in the Japanese market, Buddy Mitsuoka packs itself into a nostalgic American style. Even the promotional film is a California beach style. Maybe there are indeed a group of Japanese consumers who advocate American culture. They are the target customers of Mitsuoka Buddy.

As a small car company, of course, it is unable to make substantial modifications to the interior. Therefore, Buddy’s interior is exactly the same as RAV-4, but the manufacturer can provide more optional interior and exterior trim parts, visible light How strong is Gang's desire to survive.

Editor's comment: Mitsuoka Motors is a rather unique existence not only in Japan, but also in the world. From the perspective of its development history, it does have its own uniqueness, that is, it is sufficient to meet the needs of a small number of consumers. At the same time, although the shape is "cottage", the quality is also unambiguous. It is not a crude product at all. The rigorous craftsmanship of Japanese industrial products is completely different from China's "cottage" in this respect. In addition, the existence of Mitsuoka also proves the maturity and tolerance of the Japanese auto market.