There have been a number of odd rebadge jobs over the years. Some are unsurprising since several automakers are all under one umbrella (we’re looking at you, General Motors), while others have been a result of joint ventures…such as Honda and Isuzu.
That brings us neatly to the Dodge Attitude. If it looks very familiar, that’s because it’s quite literally a Mitsubishi Mirage G4 with no attempt to hide its roots. Heck, the whole history of the Attitude is pretty convoluted, but we’re here to focus on the Mirage-based version.
It all started in 2015 when this model was launched. It’s exclusive to the Mexican market, and, at the time, Mitsubishi didn’t sell the Mirage G4 over there. At the same time, Dodge (for some reason) needed a cheap, subcompact sedan to lure in customers looking at Yaris sedans (aka, Vios) and the City. Sounds familiar?
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Prior to that, the Dodge Attitude was a mildly reworked Hyundai Accent, and that had zero effort in hiding the fact that it was a Hyundai. It even kept the badges and had the word Dodge slapped on the truck. But the Mitsubishi Mirage-based Attitude at least had some styling changes.
The most obvious, of course, is the addition of the crosshair grille at the front. Well, there has to be some ties to the Dodge, brand, right? It’s similar to what the Charger and Challenger had at the time, and so did the Ram pickup. Obviously, you won’t mistake it for a muscle car or pickup, but at least the connection is there.
Inside, it’s a case of copy-paste with the Mitsubishi badge replaced by a Dodge script. Yup, that’s all they did to the interior. There are no mechanical changes, either, using the same 1.2-liter, three cylinder engine with 77hp and 100Nm, and transmission options were a five-speed manual or CVT.
We genuinely curious if it actually sold well, but only our few Mexican readers can answer that. Later on, Mitsubishi finally sold the Mirage G4 in Mexico, effectively making the Attitude redundant. This version of the Attitude sold until 2024 until it was replaced by the third-generation model.
Mind you, this isn’t the first Dodge-badged Mitsubishi. Automotive historians will mention the Dodge Colt (Mitsubishi Galant then later, Mirage), the late-‘70s Dodge Challenger (Galant Lambda), and Dodge Raider (Pajero), to name a few. That said, it’s likely the Attitude will be the last Mitsubishi-Dodge collab, as the latter is now under the Stallantis Group.
These days, the Mirage as we know it was given yet another update, but there’s no all-new model on the horizon. As for the Attitude, it’s now a rebadged GAC Empow. Yes, you read that right, a Chinese car now wears a true blue American badge associated with muscle car. Oh, what a time we live in now.
