The Mitsubishi Carisma is a large family car

Large family car

A large family car, also known as a D-segment car, is a European automobile classification which is larger than a small family car and smaller than an executive car. Multi-purpose vehicles based on a large family car design are often called large MPVs, while similarly-priced models from luxury car...

 produced for the Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an market by Mitsubishi Motors

Mitsubishi Motors

is a multinational automaker headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. In 2009 it was the fifth-largest Japan-based automaker and the 17th-largest in the world measured by production...

 from 1995 to 2004. The model name was derived from a combination of the English car

Čar

Čar is a village in the municipality of Bujanovac, Serbia. According to the 2002 census, the town has a population of 296 people.-References:...

and the Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 kharisma, meaning "divine gift". It was co-developed with Volvo

Volvo

AB Volvo is a Swedish builder of commercial vehicles, including trucks, buses and construction equipment. Volvo also supplies marine and industrial drive systems, aerospace components and financial services...

, sharing its chassis

Chassis

A chassis consists of an internal framework that supports a man-made object. It is analogous to an animal's skeleton. An example of a chassis is the underpart of a motor vehicle, consisting of the frame with the wheels and machinery.- Vehicles :In the case of vehicles, the term chassis means the...

 with the first generation of the Volvo S40

Volvo S40

The Volvo S40 is a small family car produced by Volvo. It introduced the first generation S40 and V40 cars in 1995...

, and built at the NedCar

NedCar

NedCar, officially Netherlands Car B.V. and a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Motors, is the only large-scale automaker in the Netherlands. Based in Born on a 927,000 m2 site, it has a capacity of approximately 200,000 vehicles, and produced its millionth vehicle, a Mitsubishi Space Star, on October...

 factory in Born, Netherlands, which the two companies co-owned at the time. Over 350,000 were built during its production run.

Available as a 4-door saloon or a 5-door hatchback

Hatchback

A Hatchback is a car body style incorporating a shared passenger and cargo volume, with rearmost accessibility via a rear third or fifth door, typically a top-hinged liftgate—and features such as fold-down rear seats to enable flexibility within the shared passenger/cargo volume. As a two-box...

, it featured gasoline engines from 1.3 L (introduced later in life) to 1.8 L, a 1.8 L gasoline direct injection

Gasoline direct injection

In internal combustion engines, gasoline direct injection , also known as petrol direct injection or direct petrol injection, is a variant of fuel injection employed in modern two-stroke and four-stroke gasoline engines...

 engine, and 90 hp 1.9 L turbodiesel

Turbodiesel

Turbodiesel refers to any diesel engine with a turbocharger. Turbocharging is the norm rather than the exception in modern car and truck diesel engines...

 powerplants sourced from Renault

Renault

Renault S.A. is a French automaker producing cars, vans, and in the past, autorail vehicles, trucks, tractors, vans and also buses/coaches. Its alliance with Nissan makes it the world's third largest automaker...

, later with the 100 hp 1.9 DI-D common rail diesel engine, the same as used in both Volvo and Renault cars.

In spite of its name, the Carisma had a fairly neutral design as a result of being Mitsubishi's first attempt to target the traditionally conservative European company car market.