https://www.google.com/maps/place/George+St+%26+Rose+St,+Fitzroy+VIC+3065/@-37.7963446,144.9827044,3a,75y,209.88h,75.06t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s4v3DAWVts9titeoTasNVAg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!4m5!3m4!1s0x6ad64321f1ded509:0xfa5d6bfb6383a5d4!8m2!3d-37.7963135!4d144.9822876 I might have been red once upon a time

But we aren’t talking about FCA are we. VWs that work great out of warranty (I’ve had one out of three) are the anomaly here. FCA doesn’t market itself as being technically superior like the Germans try and BTW - you are trying to pen the whole of FCA reliability on a junior engineer?

Quite popular in Australia for a while only remember them in silver. The other popular model was the Jumbuk Ute.

I remember seeing very few Japanese cars in the south of Europe when I travelled a lot in the early 2000's and even fewer each time I have gone back since. Except quite a few Subarus in the swiss /italian alps.

Yeah I don’t think they were awful for the time. compared to the Holdens and Fords that everyone was driving then just smoky. Mitsu were still using the Astron in 1989 for the Magna But by then Toyota started making the Camry V20 here and just made everything else look minor league.

I’ve missed these roving car spotting reports in new cities. Got to say the Shibuya area of Tokyo always suprises.

most Architects I know can only afford “A” bicycle

Is there a US army base nearby? personal import?

NP.
Someone out there wants the most prestine Saporro (or scorpion down under) in all the land. This is for them. Not for us mere mortals.

Here in Australia my family all worked at the Mitsubishi plant (ex chrysler and produced Mits Galant and chrysler Valiants at the same time!) and I remember the 2.6litre Astron with its ‘balance shaft technology licenced to Porsche” in the advertising of the day. These motors usually got bad rings and died early…

The image on the click through could be for a new Sandi-Noir tv series.

Even the VW Golf is back to a torsion beam in the non GTi models. Its fine for most.

I have one of those and it is an incredibly reliable faithful car.

They have one of those in the Europe called Corolla Trek.  Tie in with the bike manufacturer. 

Clarkson has entered the conversation

Lack of power? my 1988  Corolla Cross (Alltrac / Corolla Break / Corolla 4wd / Carib Sprinter) with AWD has only 100hp and keeps up with traffic just fine. Just slow car fast and it can be a lot of fun especially on dirt roads.

Disagree. don’t car what it looks like (its always looked like what you discribed) just like the large, airy greenhouse to look out and boxy shape for carrying things and it actually does trail stuff better than any other SUV in its class

the 2019 outback with CVT I tried was OK as auto trans go. I was ready for it to be awful but no. felt sprightly!

I’ve driven a 2019 Outback and it is just fine as an auto (and a lot better CVT compared to earlier models). Not terrible. I honestly didn’t notice tha it was a CVT. CVT does give you pretty good economy and the X mode has been helprul in a some situations.