I Bought Mitsubishi’s JDM Evo Minivan and Drove It 2,800 Miles Home. It Only Went a Little Wrong

I've been waiting a decade for this moment: I bought a 1996 Mitsubishi Chariot Resort Runner GT. Sometimes called "the Evo minivan," it has the legendary turbo 2.0-liter 4G63 engine, five-speed manual, all-wheel drive, and three rows of seats that fold flat. It's the fast version of the Expo I grew up with, and I've wanted one for as long as I've known they exist. Now I own one, though my 2,800-mile journey home across the U.S. after buying it could've gone a little smoother.

I landed bright and early in Charlotte, NC after a redeye, ready to pick up my Mitsubishi from Hoogie's Imports—which I'm shouting out for its customer service. The Chariot had relatively high mileage for a Japanese import (97,000 miles) but was supposed to be a one-owner car that'd passed its last inspection. It didn't have the dealer-option curtains I coveted or perfect paint, but it hadn't been smoked in. There might've never been a chance at another this good, so I wrote the check.

With the tank filled, I hit the highway for Knoxville, TN (barely missing the world's biggest Buc-ee's), where I'd pick up my copilot for the 2,800 miles back to Portland, OR. By the end of the first onramp, I realized this was gonna be a long drive.

For starters, its five-speed manual was geared for Japanese highways, so it was spinning 3,000 rpm at 60 mph. It didn't have cruise control either, and the pedal position wasn't great for driving without it. As the miles racked up, I noticed the gas gauge took a while to drop. Either the float was sticky, or something was up with the sensor. At least our ill-fated Australia crossing in a Kia EV6 had trained me to convert kph to mph.

After a torrential rainstorm in Illinois that let me establish the fog lights work, we reached our hotel to rest before what'd be the dullest leg of the drive: Missouri and Kansas. It was a mostly uneventful slog; the car ran fine, rode well, and aside from the 4,000-rpm drone of a four-banger was quiet enough to enjoy an audiobook. The gas mileage seemed to be dipping, but I chalked it up to a headwind and climbing elevation as we neared Colorado. Pulling into my dad's driveway near Boulder, I realized it might be something worse: Something was scraping.

Inspecting the brakes the next morning, I thought the pads looked thin, and some of the rotors were definitely glazed. It was clear they needed replacing, and soon. That's bad news in a JDM van when you're 1,300 miles from home, need to be at work in 48 hours, and can't fix the problem with a pair of handcuffs—the parts might not exist this side of the Pacific.