2016 Mitsubishi Background Info
The 2016 Mitsubishi Vibe
By 2016, Mitsubishi was serving up a real mixed bag. On one end of the lot, you had the legendary Lancer Evolution X taking its final bow in colors like Octane Blue Pearl and Rally Red Metallic-the kind of shades that made you want to break a speed limit just looking at them. On the other end, the Mirage was lean, mean, and painted like a pack of Easter eggs. With 27 colors in our database for this year, they weren't shy about variety. Whether you were rocking Plasma Purple Metallic or the surprisingly sharp Kiwi Green, Mitsubishi was leaning into a "love it or hate it" palette that made the morning commute a lot less gray.
Paint Health Check
Welcome to the Thin Paint Era. By 2016, the factory robots had become absolute masters of "just enough." They weren't spraying paint so much as they were misting it with the precision of a jeweler. While this makes for a beautiful, high-gloss finish on the showroom floor, it leaves you with a clear coat that's thinner than a diner napkin. If you're driving an Outlander or a Lancer from this vintage, you've probably noticed that the front hood looks like it's been through a gravel storm. The paint is "soft," meaning it chips if a grasshopper kicks a pebble at it, and there's very little depth for heavy buffing once those scratches set in.
Restoration Tip
Because these factory finishes are so thin, you have to throw the "sand it till it's flat" mentality out the window. If you go too aggressive with a buffer or high-grit sandpaper on a 2016 Mitsubishi, you'll burn through the clear coat before you can even say "Pajero." When you're touching up chips in colors like Sapphire Blue or Mercury Gray, the secret is building layers slowly. Don't try to fill the crater in one shot with a giant blob. Apply a thin layer, let it shrink and dry, and repeat until it's level. You want to mimic that robot-thin efficiency yourself-precision is your only friend here because the factory didn't leave you much room for error.