Moving from the luxury that the drop-top BMW offers, to absolute day-to-day basicness. This 1982 Mitsubishi Galant is the 1600cc basic model, and I don’t think there’s much else there than door locks and steerable front wheels.
And this is pretty much how a 30-year-old Japanese car looks like in Finland; it’s not mollycoddled, but welded and bondoed up whenever necessary. It’s a continous fight against rust, and I’m sure this Galant will be fixed up year after year, inspection after inspection.
Accidentally debadged, the Mitsu looks surprisingly anonymous. You could probably pass it off as a Lonsdale.
The front passenger door has been swapped to a green one, but the windshield is at least from 1996 – as denoted by the remains of the tax sticker.
The rear fender is having a tough time, and it’s probably been redone countless times.
Somehow, there’s something I like about these Galants. There’s one some way up north from me, for sale for 700 eur. One retired teacher owner, significantly less rust, valid inspection. Same wheel silver colour, of course, but clean.
Since the Sapporo you see lurking has now been sold (and will be delivered to the next owner in a week), I’m again free to look at another car with a certain amount of seriousness. And a classic Galant might be in the cards – but basically anything is.
[Images: Copyright 2013 Hooniverse/Antti Kautonen]
