mmarshall

Gotta hand it to the folks at Mitsu......despite ever-shrinking sales, fewer and fewer dealerships where you can actually see, test-drive, or purchase/lease one of their products, and a base-level Mirage so crude and devoid of equipment that it seems like a throwback to the compacts of a half-century ago, they hang in there, and simply refuse to roll over, play dead, and run back home to Japan, like their predecessors at Daihatsu, Isuzu, and Suzuki. At the upcoming Los Angeles Auto Show, they are going to introduce an all-new compact SUV/CUV.......the Eclipse Cross. (I won't go into that vehicle in detail here, as Hoovey already did an earlier thread on it several months ago). Mitsubishi, however, has added it to their American-market website.

https://www.mitsubishicars.com/eclipse-cross

Hard to tell what the real problem is, though, with Mitsubishi in the American market....the tail wagging the dog, or vice-versa. Are the dealerships thinning out simply because of poor sales, or is the lack of dealerships (as with Suzuki and Isuzu) causing the low sales? I tend to think the latter.........I'm a firm believer in the idea that one cannot sell what one does not offer, and, to actually offer something, you have to have retail outlets where customers can buy them. A friend of mine, who lives in Carson City, NV, after asking me for advice on the phone, expressed some interest in a new Mitsubishi Outlander Sport (its low 19K base price looks attractive, without a lot of options). I did a dealer-locator search for him, and it turned out that the nearest Mitsubishi dealership where he could even LOOK at one (much less buy one) was some 70 miles away in California (providing, of course, that even that shop hasn't closed up by now). That pretty much put a damper on a new Outlander Sport for him, but I can't help but wonder how many other potential customers wound up in the same boat. Even here in the D.C. area, several years ago, in the Northern Virginia suburbs where I live, there were three or four Mitsubishi dealerships...today there are none, that's right, zero, although some former places that had a double-franchise may still do service and warranty work. There are a few still left in the Maryland suburbs, but, even there, the number is down the last several years. By the time Suzuki and Daihatsu had gotten into a position like this, of course they packed up and left. I'll consider Isuzu's case a little different, since by the time they left the American market, they weren't even selling their own vehicles.....all they had left was rebadged versions of the GM Trailblazer SUV and the terrible (and I mean AWFUL) 1Gen GM Colorado/Canyon pickup. But Isuzu also suffered from the same problem in lack of dealerships....you really had to hunt to find one.

So, in a nutshell, it turns out that the doom-sayers (including me, to an extent) were wrong about Mitsubishi's imminent death in the U.S....every January, I think it will be the last year for the company, and every year, that gets proved false. Of course, we don't have a crystal ball, and we don't know what next year will bring. But, every sign (starting at the upcoming L.A. Show) indicates that this company, unlike its its predecessors, isn't going down without a fight.

More power to them.

Aron9000

They also now have a powerful corporate backer with Nissan/Renault buying a big share of the company. Mitsubishi is very popular in certain south Asian 3rd world markets, which is why I think Nissan/Renault bought a huge(maybe its a controlling interest, I can't remember) in Mitsubishi automotive. Also keep in mind Mitsubishi automotive is just one finger of a huge Japanese conglomerate that makes everything from air conditioners to mining equipment, with the company also being a bank.

mmarshall

Years ago, we had some Mitsubishi computers in the office I worked in. They also produce regional airliners in the Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation.

chromedome

I'm surprised why the Outlander PHEV isn't sold in the US. It's a decent seller in the UK and Europe, with decent electric range for a price that's much lower than XC90s or X5 PHEVs.

Fizzboy7

That's an interesting perspective on a company we don't often think about. In a way feel a bit bad for them. Considering how big they were in the 80's and 90's, to where they are today.

But you bring up a good point about fighting and not giving up. I believe it would take one very successful vehicle, and they'd be back on track. People still have a positive memory of their 80's and 90's offerings (sporty Eclipse, stylish Galant, and rugged Montero/Sport), and would likely give the company their trust if they had something competitive or worth-while. Yes, they'll need dealerships, but I don't think such an investment would come until they had the sales to support the business.

Point: The upcoming Eclipse SUV will not be the unit to achieve the above.

KahnBB6

iTrader: (5)

I might be attending the L.A. Auto Show in a few days. It sure would be interesting to stop by the Mitsubishi booth to ask their rep a lot of questions as to what it is they see themselves actually selling these days. Also when they plan to stop making their U.S. offerings suck. And why on earth their new hybrid SUV is laughably named after their very well known sports coupe nameplate. The Mirage and the couple of SUV's they still make are OK... but they're just barely OK as the minimum effort required to actually be able to say they are a major automaker. They're focusing all of their energy on just one poorly named SUV and yet they have an entire lineup to fill and revamp.

They're in transition and have just been taken over by Nissan and Renault so maybe that's why they seem to be... unsure of themselves right now.

If they suddenly turned around with better products (hopefully not in the same way Nissan was "turned around" under Carlos Ghosn) it is possible they would seek to establish a different caliber of dealership franchises along the remaining existing ones still operating around the country.

But they need something new to actually sell. And that needs to be more than a single SUV.

I checked their website last week and they still list the Lancer Evolution and its build/option pages even though you cannot order their flagship rally sedan any longer. That's just cruel of them. Maybe it's still there for any remaining stock in dealer inventories but I would be extremely surprised to still find any never titled last year Lancer Evolutions for sale as brand new cars.

Speaking of the Evolution nameplate, Mitsubishi brass have made mention of how "important" that performance branding is to them. If they're so focused on SUVs these days they should make another two-door Pajero Evolution with fully independent rear axles, the trick suspension, Brembo brakes and at least 300-350hp from whatever hybrid-electric powerplant they want to use so long as it is aggressive and loves to rev. We never got those Paris-Dakar factory homologation specials in the USA but that would be a valid application of their storied "Evolution" model branding.

mmarshall

Enjoy the show. Give us an update when it's over.

Agreed. That probably explains at least part of it.

Their overall situation in the U.S., though, appears somewhat different from Nissan's at that time. Nissan has always been a large-volume automaker in the U.S., at least since the 1980s. They were, at the time, simply losing money on all of those sales, but still have a large dealer network. Mitsubishi, in contrast, simply doesn't have the volume or retail outlets anymore....it is essentially a niche automaker, today, in the U.S.



Actually, in the American market, they still sell the Outlander, Outlander Sport (which is slightly smaller), subcompact Mirage sedans and hatchbacks, and last year's (2017) Lancer sedan. Interestingly, for whatever reason (as you also noticed), they still have the 2015 Evo on sale on their latest 2018 website...perhaps there's still some left that were never sold.

Aron9000

Yeah I forgot Mitsubishi did aircraft, they made the Zero fighter plane during the war.

The dearth of new product has been Mitsubishi's undoing, but I suspect the downward slide began around 2000 with the then new Eclipse. Gone was the AWD option, the turbo option, instead it was more like a Galant with a sporty(IMO ugly) body, with the same V6 engine in top trims. Main thing was the 2000 Eclipse was a giant pile of crap quality wise, paint fell off of them under warranty, leaks, rust, all kinds of mechanical maladies. That car was a particularly egregious outlier(every company makes a lemon now and then), but I've never been sold on other Mitsubishis being a quality product on the terms of Honda, Toyota, or pre-renault Nissan. Their quality, or rather perceived quality is also part of the problem with Mitsubishi today IMO.

mmarshall

Not all Mitsus suffered from quality problems. The main culprit was that awful Diamond-Star plant in Normal, IL.....also shared wth some Chrysler products (production stopped there in 2015). That plant was notoriously bad. I can remember 90s-vintage Eclipses, Plymouth Lasers, and Eagle Talons coming out with rattles/squeaks, loose-fitting parts, stereos (and stereo controls) that didn't work properly, and other problems. They didn't even keep the paint-room clean...I saw cars from that plant, sitting in the showroom, with bumps and burrs in the paint from the paint being sprayed over dirt-particles. In addition, the plant had numerous labor, supply, racial, and even sexual-harassment problems. Mitsu finally gave up on it and shifted production back to Japan.

JDR76

Just to be clear, the MRJ (Mitsubishi Regional Jet) is struggling in development/testing and has yet to start deliveries.

As for their cars, I've always had a soft spot for them. I'd like to see them return to a stronger portfolio.

UDel

Mitsubishi has dipped its toe in many products, they were I believe the only manufacturer to make a 40in CRT TV, at least the only one I saw. My friend got a Mitsubishi flatscreen tv a while ago and loves it to this day.

Mitsubishi should have become a performance car company. Make a real eclipse with a turbo awd, 3000GT that can take on a Corvette, bring a improved FTO to the US, keep doing the EVO, and offer 1 or 2 other performance cars. It could be a niche that grows since so Japanese companies are mainly abandoning their sports cars.

mmarshall

Actually, at one time, Mitsu DID have those things. In the 90s, you had the Eclipse GS-X, with the turbo and AWD (GS-T with turbo FWD), and the 3000 GT VR-4 with a twin-turbo V6, a folding hard-top, AWD, all-wheel steering, and even an adjustable exhaust note. The Evo essentially took the place of the turbo AWD Eclipse.....and, of course being a sedan, offered more room inside. I agree, though, that later versions of the Eclipse were disappointing...and the more exciting ones of the 90s, from the Diamond-star plant, were poorly-built.

MattyG

Don't forget that the good times for Mitsubishi were also the same time the company had a good domestic customer that helped the company circumvent tariffs etc and still pad the bottom line to do interesting vehicles.

The Chrysler era of Mitsubishi was a kind of subtle nod to the fact that Detroit simply did not know how to build good FWD cars for the masses. So that's why you had Dodge, Plymouth, Chrysler and Eagle. They were either rebadged Mitsubishis, or they were using the company's drive trains in Chrysler Corp vehicles.

Allpar's history on the Mitsubishi involvement in Chrysler is quite interesting to read.

https://www.allpar.com/history/mitsubishi.html

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Saw a Mirage on the road today. What a dowdy looking car. Mitsubishi is heading towards converting their line-up to crossovers and potentially electric.

UDel

Yes, and they sold a ton of cars in the 90's when they had good Eclipse's and 3000GT's. I had a Eclipse from the 90's. The EVO was expensive and ugly inside and out and had a punishing ride, it was not a good turbo Eclipse replacement but it would have been great if they imported the Japanese EVO and FTO from the 90's to add to the lineup.

There is a newer Wheeler Dealers episode where they fix up a last generation 3000GT which was surprisingly pretty easy and inexpensive to fix the active aero, active exhaust, 4WS, and valve tap.