No company is actually doing that great, I guess it depends where u are because at my dealership they are still pushing new cars everyday, when I was there the other day to talk to my friend there were a lot of people going through the paper work and signing and whatnot, they claim this is one of the biggerst volume dealers in the U.S. and it seems they havnt slowed down much, when I went there before this last time there were about 9 Evos, then there were 2 or 3. In my general radius of 50miles there are 6 or 7 Mitsu dealerships compared to the 2 or 3 Subaru.

 

Road and Track pulled off a 5.1 with the WRX and 5.4 with the Ralliart, Car and Driver managed a 4.7 with the WRX and a 5.4 with the Ralliart. You are welcome to look up the values for yourself. The RA was launched, it was brake torqued to achieve the mentioned values. Brake torquing is very hard on the transmission and I believe someone else (maybe dboz) pointed out that one of the magazines had the transmission safety light come on because of this.

 

Actually Subaru is doing well.

 

I know you're joking, I was replying to the person who posted after you.

 

That's interesting because Daytona/Ormand Beach only has a Metro area of 500,000 people with a growth rate less than the national average...a quarter of Portland's population, and half the growth rate. Maybe Mitsu can only support certain states. Florida is a ridiculous market to be focusing on selling AWD vehicles, but hey, it's their bottom line...

To say no company is doing that great, I'll throw it back at you. You are ******* Subaru, but at least Subaru isn't closing their doors in MAJOR metropolitan areas or even in MINOR markets.
I'm sorry, if Mitsu can only support a dealer network in only a handful of markets around the country, then Mitsu as a brand, is failing.

If you have a dealership network to do so, you can take the risk to buy a Mitsu. I don't know if I'm willing to risk it...

 

apparently not in Central or North Florida

 

For a while this area was the fastest growing in the nation for many years straight. It has seriously taken a dump this past year with people paying too much for their houses and the greedy banks with their adjustable rate mortgages and forclosing and in my 50 mile radius we have Orlando and Jax, Jax being closer and I know of one Surbaru dealership, maybe two. I actually test drove both cars but I liked the RA better, but maybe thats just me.

EDIT: doing a search on Subaru's website, from my zip the closes is 53 miles away in Jax and is the only one in the area. Only one dealership in the Orlando metro area, which Im sure both are smaller than Portland.

 

I'm not trying to argue with you or your opinion. Your area may have an awesome Mitsu support system, which is good. But Mitsu cannot release a much needed affordable AWD sport sedan/hatch and at the same time pull out of a market that traditionally supports these models. The northwest region is a Subaru stronghold because it manufactures affordable AWD sport sedans and hatch/wagons. Before the last Mitsu dealership closed its doors here, it had *one of* the largest inventory and sales of Evos on the west coast the past 5 years. It shut down before it even got an RA...

My point was that Mitsu is crazy to be pulling out of the larger market, and keep supporting a smaller market, especially when the larger market is effectively doubling its population growth over the smaller market...business-wise, I don't think Mitsu has a leg to stand on.

I, too, REALLY LIKE the RA. I'd love to own one...but I'm affraid that if the SST, or whatever else fails in a year or two, I'll have to have the car towed a couple hundred miles...ya know?

 

I realize your point, Im not trying to argue with you about that. But how do you know the SST is gonna fail in a year or two? Unless you do something so radical to the car that renders it unreliable you shouldnt have a problem with it, but ya I still see what you are saying, it does suck that dealerships are shutting down, but I wouldnt really blame Mitsu for that, blame the economy, no one is buying much of anything if they cant even afford their house payment, unless they are total boneheads.

Well Mitsu only has 2 cars with AWD(not counting trucks and SUVs) so thats not much of a market anywhere, most of their sales are base Lancers and Eclipses, but people are still buying up the RAs and Evos around here, maybe because theres no local Subaru dealers around here, perhaps, but Mitsu is from what I have seen is selling a lot of Eclipses and base Lancers and Outlanders, and Galants, now only if they would work on the rest of their line.... it would be nice if AWD was standard on all of their models too, for the markets that need it in snow, but the AWD is also great in the freak-out of nowhere thunderstorms hit here, damn lightning capital of the world.

 

Subaru also sells twice as many cars annually than does Mitsu. Mitsu must be doing all of its sales in Florida and L.A....

2008 Mitsu sales totals U.S. market---->92,257 -24.6 percent over 2007
2008 Subaru sales totals U.S. market---->187,699 +0.3 percent over 2007

2008 Asian vehicle sales totals U.S. market----> 5.9 million -12.2 percent over 2007

Mitsu lagged behind the other Asian brands by over twice the percentage. It's actually more in line with the big 3's decline percentage of 23.9 (it's actually WORSE). And the big 3 is being bailed out, Mitsu is not. Yeah, not too excited about Mitsu right now...

 

Yeah, look at the car you currently drive. It totally makes sense for your region (hence smaller Subaru presence). But Mitsu does offer 2 performance AWD vehicles, two AWD SUVs, and a AWD truck. In a rather large market that tends to buys those models up, it seems rather odd to only have 1 outlet. Yeah?

I'm just making the point that IF something happens to the RA, I'm not saying it will, but that 10 year warranty is only worth it if you actually have reasonable means to utilize it.

 

Ya that blows that the big 3 are being bailed out, it would suck for the employees if they didnt get bailed out, but us taxpayers gotta pay for their stupid business mistakes in the past. It looks like overall all Asian sales are down last year, it was a crap year, hopefully sometime this year it will start to turn around. Well its a good thing the warrantee is through a 3rd party if Mitsu does happen to disapear, Im sure some dealership will work on the Mitsu cars warrantee claims...

 

In NE OHIO we are down to 3 Mitsu dealers. One is tied with Cadillac, the other with Hyundai I believe. The other is freestanding on its own. None are convenient for me. At least 25-30 minutes to the closest one. Subie is 5 minutes.

 

I'm actually really worried about the Subaru dealerships that are tied to GM dealerships. Unless things turn around quick, Subaru dealer owners may have to be forced to sell the business because the GM store is eating away operating costs. If that happens, with little investment going on at all right now, those Subaru dealerships, while profitable, won't have a buyer and they will be left to dry. I wonder what Subaru will do, if that happens?

 

Subie here is tied in with Toyota, Scion, Chrysler, so I am not worried about them going anywhere unless Subie just up and leaves the US. Mitsu, is a worry however, as they could leave at anytime.