Just wondering if anyone caught 'The Car Show' on Speed this week. In the first segment where they just talk about a few car-related stories and make jokes the guys mentioned Mitsubishi in a less-than-favorable light. Responding to an article about Mitsubishi being the #2 choice for Gen-Y buyers (http://autos.yahoo.com/news/trouble-...e-foreign.html) they said that Mitsubishi is 'in hospice care' (basically on life-support) and that the EVO is the only good car offered, whereas the rest of the model line is garbage. I'm paraphrasing of course. Yes the EVO is awesome but I don't get why they would say that about the rest of the models. Have they seen what Honda is puting out there these days??? And I really disagree that Mitsubishi is on life support. Sales have been up sharply in the last years and it does quite well in the rest of the world. Am I missing something? What do you think?

You should take anything they say with a grain of salt. The guys aren't paid to be factual, they are paid to be entertaining. They are correct that Mitsubishi is on life support. There sales have been on a steady decline for many years. Yes, sales are up this year, but I'm willing to bet motst of that improvement is due more to fleet sales than retail. They have very few products that appeal to the mass market.

The RA and Evo are great, but they are halo vehicles and don't directly contribute that much to the bottom line because of the small sales numbers. The base Lancers significantly trail their competition on price, power, and fuel economy. The Outlander and Outlander Sport are designed to be competitive, but they are priced higher than the popular offerings from Toyota, GM, and Honda, so its an uphill battle. The Endeavour and Eclipse out lived their usefulness years ago, and were rightfully discontinued. The Galant was saved from oblivion only so it can become a rental and fleet queen. The new i is actually priced competitively and could be successful, but it too will sell in limited numbers. There is also nothing in Mitsubishi's pipeline to give hope for their future.

Please don't get me wrong, I love my RA and would'nt trade it for the world, but alas I don't have the same confidence in the company that built it.

They automotive division of Mitsu has been taking a loss year after year for quite a few years in a row. But they are an MNC and can offset that loss with their Finance and Consumer Electronics Divisions.
This kinda explains their decision to re-tool their entire automotive line-up with "green" cars. Typically when your fixed costs/overhead are really high (manufacturing, especially automobiles and airplanes) you follow the policy of "if it ain't broke don't fix it". But in Mitsu's case it is broke, so they are taking a gamble on the future.
Only time will tell how it turns out....

Mitsu has been on the verge of pulling out of the US market for a few years. The sales numbers are up this year compared to last so those rumors have quieted some but taking a non biased look at the line up, its pretty much crap. Even the RA and EVO are not mass market cars so it can be said they are not very good either on a "sell lots of cars, make money" model.

I've been seeing at least 3-4x more lancers and outlanders on the road in the past year. That's gotta be a good thing. There are like, 6-7 regular ones i see parked in my neighborhood. When I got my RA 2 years ago, there wasn't a single other lancer in the neighborhood until a red one showed up a year later.

I've been seeing a lot of 2008-2011 Lancer DE,ES,GTS out on the road today.

thy shd of kept the new ra's more inline like the 1st gens in price and performance..

When I first saw that show and first heard their segment on that 1 min per topic, I just shut off the TV and went to bed. Adam Corolla, IMO, doesn't know much about cars and the car market. He's on there to crack jokes. Only 2 guys on there know something about a car and the other guy is a basketball player that owns a Corolla. Just a poor show IMO.

well.... this fits with what i have seen. Very little advertising (compared to other brands), no support for auto shows, and not a real substantial investment in re-tooling and re-design...

No luxury marquee car to balance the portfolio (even Hyundai went upscale... )...
No premier brand (lexus/infinity/acura) to leverage...

So yeah, i suspect Mitsu may drop out of the US or worldwide market in the not-too-distant future... The one aspect we can't see is profitability. This is what really drives the decision.

We'll see... [shrug]

The Evo and RA are, as mentioned, halo cars
The econobox barebones Lancer is practically a loss leader

Other than the underpowered but stylish RVR/Outlander Sport, the decent but basically last-in-class Outlander, the garish Endeavor, the Galant and the Eclipse.

I find the current Galant laughable and the Eclipse has been discontinued for 2012.

That leaves...nothing really...


I honestly do wish that Hyundai would buy Mitsubishi, if just for the sportier models, but Hyundai already has a better dealer network and higher volume sales.

Should only care about car reviews from people that know their cars:
http://www.topgear.com/au/mitsubishi...alliart-lancer

^OP (if i understand it correctly) is not an indictment on the cars but more a health-check for the company overall...

On a side note, The Car Show's Matt Farah is doing a segment at DirtFish Rally School up in Washington. He will be in Dave Mira's purpose built Scooby. This aires tomorrow (Wednesday).

I refuse to watch it... All that it is, is a poor attempt to resurrect "the man show"
And Adam Corolla knows about as much about cars as my wifes dog-only the dogs upper lip works better than his.

Those statements are inaccurate. Adam Corolla is a HUGE car guy and knows his stuff. I didn't know that until I did some research before the show officially aired. Watch the show and you will be shocked at his level of knowledge. The show is actually pretty entertaining.

In all honestly, if they combined The Car Show with US Top Gear, we would have a complete car show that would be very entertaining, IMHO.

They are correct about Mitsubishi Motors, however Mitsubishi motors is part of the Mitsubishi conglomerate. Japanese conglomerates have a habit of subsidizing loss in one area with profits from another.