Mitsubishi Diamante

The Mitsubishi Diamante is an automobile that was manufactured from 1990 to 2005. The first series was a hardtop introduced to the public at the Tokyo Motor Show in 1989. It went on sale in Japan exclusively in May 1990 and won that year's Japan Car of the Year award. It was created by splicing an extra 6.6 cm (2.6 in) right down the middle of the Mitsubsubishi Galant, which itself had won the Japan Car Of The Year award in 1987. The name Diamant was derived from the Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian word for "diamond" and was adopted also as homage to the MitsUBishi badge which is composed of three diamonds. The Diamantes come in three models: a four-door hardtop with frameless windows that was solely built in Nagoya, Japan, and only sold in Japan and North America. It became the basis of the second generation Magna independently built in Australia. Its Australian luxury derivate, sold as the Verada, became the Diam Dante for export markets including New Zealand and North American a year later.