Mitsuoka: Trolling The Auto Industry Jap-Style

If you weren't familiar with Japanese car company Mitsuoka before, you probably were after reading Mr Kew's piece on the Mitsuoka Orochi the other day.

After all, clearing the mental image of such a car is as difficult as extracting chunks from your keyboard having vomited at the sight of the accompanying pictures.

Not all of Mitsuoka's products have had quite the same regurgitating effect, but nor are they strangers to harsh comment, either. If you didn't know better, you might think they were trolling the car industry.

Mitsuoka was formed in 1968, but it's the later 90s and 21st-Century stuff that's most recognisable. Mainly because much of it looks like it came from the 1960s.

Rebodied vehicles are the company's speciality. Most famous of these is the Viewt, now in its second generation, which attaches Jaguar MkII-style panels to nothing more salubrious than a Nissan Micra. From the front, this is actually quite convincing, but like those replica Ferraris based on MR2s and Fieros, everything goes to pot when you spy the compacted proportions or, God forbid, the standard Micra interior bedecked in wood from the famous Japanese Plastic Tree (Arborus Plasticus Laponia).

Similar crimes have been committed on larger vehicles too. Want to have a guess at what car the Ryoga is based on?

Yep, it's a Nissan Primera. You stay classy, Japan.

Other replicas have parodied the Riley Elf, a London Taxi (based, we think, on some form of Nissan microcar), and even a Morgan - the MX-5-based Himiko. And, if you thought the Orochi was ugly, cast your gaze towards the Le Seyde. Under a body so tasteless Liberace would describe it as "a bit much" is a Nissan 180SX. That would explain this drift, then:

It hasn't all been so crazy, though.

The company seems to specialise in microcars even smaller than Japan's native Kei-class. While the upright Microcar K-1 is about as appealing as an audience with Piers Morgan, the Messerschmitt-style Microcar K-2 looks a lot more fun, as does the company's retro Grand Prix-style Microcar K-4.

And, weird though Mitsuoka's vehicular offerings might be, we can't see the world being a better place without them. Just like Nissan's Pike factory cars, Mitsuoka takes something incredibly dull and turns it into something that provokes debate.

So tell us - which Mitsuoka would you have, and which wouldn't you dare touch?