Mitsubishi UK's Evo VI TME Sells For £100k, IX FQ-360 MR Hits Nearly £70k

With Mitsubishi leaving our shores, UK importer The Colt Car Company announced a few weeks back that it was to sell its entire heritage fleet based in the country. As it seeks to transform itself purely into an aftersales business, the fantastic collection of vehicles is merely a loose end to tie up.

Sad though this made us, we couldn’t ignore the rare opportunity this presented. Mitsubishi UK took an incredible amount of pride in these cars, the usage of which was tightly controlled. The sale at newly founded Automotive Auctions gave punters the chance to get hold of some of the best cared-for classic and modern classic models from the brand in the world, which was reflected in the hammer prices.

The defacto auction star, a 10k-mile Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI Tommi Makinen Edition, reached an incredible £100,100. That’s a world record hammer price for all Lancer Evolutions, the most expensive of which was an unused IX that sold for $138,000 (£99,000) in 2017. It’s not quite a record in terms of outright value, with that particular IX coming out at a few thousand more once exchange rates at the time and inflation are factored.

Still, the result is almost certainly a record for Evo VIs, and over four times the price achieved by a TME sold on Collecting Cars last summer. The Evo IX 360 MR, a car we drove along with Mitusbishi UK’s TME for a feature a little while back, also did very well. The stone grey Lancer, which has under 5000 miles on the clock, reached £68,900.

The Frost White Lancer Evolution X FQ-440 meanwhile managed £58,100, with Guy Wilkes’ 2007 and 2008 British Rally Championship-winning Group N Evo IX a little ahead on £61,700. Also on the motorsport menu was a Galant GTI rally replica, which fetched £12,500.

Mitsubishi coupe heroes from the 80s and 90s shone, with a 1992 3000GT ending on £24,500 and a 1988 Starion not far behind on £21,100.

It wasn’t all about fast stuff. Also part of the de-fleet was a trio of old high riders - a 1983 example of Mitsubishi’s Willys Jeep licensed copy (£20,600), a 1987 Mk1 Shogun short wheelbase (£16,000) and a 2000 Mk2 Shogun (£9,600). Representing Mitusbishi’s more recent fayre was a 2014 Outlander PHEV (£16,000) and a 2017 L200 ‘Desert Warrior’ (£30,100) built for Top Gear’s Tom Ford.

Right at the other end of the Mitsubishi timeline was the 1974 Colt Lancer, the first UK spec car the company ever registered in the country. It sold for £15,000, while a Colt Galant managed £11,600.