i mean, Mitsubishi is one of the world’s largest companies. Yet, their car division is pretty invisible in the USA. I had one, years ago…it was nothing special (good engine, but body rusted out). Any way, I hardly ever see these cars on the road-are they a weak company that probably won’t survive this recession?
One guy i knew had one-it was an oddball (car was assembled in Autralia, with engine and transmission from japan). Decent ride, but resale was horrible.
Anybody know more?
Remember that the Mitsubishi Group is a huge conglomerate with interests in many areas. Mitsubishi Motors is merely one of their subsidiaries. The companies in the group are among the large foreign companies that choose not to trade on the NYSE, so you cannot get at their financials through SEC filings. Mitsubishi Motors trades in the US on the pink sheets, for instance, under MMTOF.PK.
(“Pink Sheets”, usually associated with bankrupt or woefully undercapitalized companies also contain some very large foreign companies who do not wish to comply with SEC reporting to list on the NYSE. There are no reporting requirements on the pink sheets.)
The Galant is ugly and can’t compete with the Accord and Camry.
The Eclipse is underpowered.
The Lancer is ok
The EVO is kick ass.
Everything else they make is a bland SUV
It may have to do with the execs covering up their safety problems:
My father was in the auto business a few years back and he told me that when Mitsubishi came to the US these safety issues came to light where they were covered up in japan.
The Evo (short for Lancer Evolution) that MrFloppy mentions is an iconic car here in the UK - along with the Subaru IMpreza WRX they are THE two cars for gearheads into very fast rally type cars. Usually seen doing 90 mph overtaking you on a single carriageway A-road.
I think both of those cars have won the world rally championship several times each.
They also place 1st and 2nd in the ugliest car competition.
Mitsubishi isn’t terribly prolific in the U.S., but they’re around. Next time you’re around an older Dodge or Plymouth, take a look under the hood—a lot of older Mopars, especially cheaper ones, had Mitsubishi engines. The old 6G7 3.0 L V6 was especially prevalent, being used in everything from Acclaim to Voyager—hitting LeBaron and Stratus along the way. Also, those engines are known (at least, on the used car lot I used to work for) as bad oil burners as they age.
Dodge also had some “captive imports” from Mitsubishi, in other words, rebadged Mitsubishis with few to no Mopar parts. Pretty much every Eagle was a Mitsubishi. The Dodge Stealth was a 3000GT, the Avenger an Eclipse, the Colt a Mirage, and so forth. The agreement between Chrysler and Mitsubishi fell through somewhere around the time Daimler-Benz bought Chrysler, so as far as I know, there aren’t any more captive imports or Mitsubishi engines in Mopar vehicles. The one exception I can think of, though, is Mitsubishi’s new truck, which is just a rebadged Dodge Dakota.
This was Mitsubishi Fuso, which manufactures trucks and buses, and was spun off as a separate company from Mitsubishi Motors in 2003. It’s now almost completely owned by Daimler (~85%) and has been doing very well since (they don’t sell much in North America; MFTBC’s primary markets are Asia, Africa, The Middle East and South America), while Mitsubishi Motors (the passenger-car maker) was sold back to the Mitsubishi Group. Fuso’s safety record since leaving the Mitsubishi Group has improved significantly: most of the executives were sacked when Daimler bought the company and several (including the CEO) served time in jail for covering up product faults.
Mitsubishi is a Japanese version of Chrysler.
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Lots of technological innovation (worlds first direct injection petrol engine, first widespread user of balance shafts for 4 cylinder engines, advanced computer controlled automatic transmissions, etc).
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1 or 2 models like the Evo/Minivan/Challenger that are king of the hill in their respective market,
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Everything else they make is complete and utter garbage.
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A leader in “subprime” auto lending back before subprime was cool word, and thus…
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constantly on the brink of bankruptcy.
Since they are constantly in dire straits they sell a lot of their tech and tooling to the Chinese and Koreans. Many Hyundais use to have MMC engines (the new ones use engines jointly developed with MMC and Chrysler).