I see what you mean and certainly do not want to discredit it.

I simply question the wisdom of aiming for high sales so quickly, since it is what got in trouble this year. If I do recall correctly, the 500,000 units by 2005 has been put on hold for the time being.
Also, Honda is readying a pick-up based on the Pilot platform. Which is kind of funny, since it will be the only unibody pick-up I've ever heard of.

CEO O'Neill has already announced that the marketing (TV ads and Radio ads) will move the emphasis to the product. I think that is a step in the right direction. IMO needs to emphasize the strengths of each product and really stress that it indeed is a sensible and exciting alternative to Honda and Toyota (and Nissan, though that is a little tougher since it is the flavor of the month car maker right now).

 

That's why I used 1986 to now in car sales, I just didn't follow up how dominant Toyo Camry has become.

Go gunning after Honda. That's tough considering Mitsu has left the compact coupe market wide open after the death of the mirage. To me, Mitsu waved the white flag for Civic to run a clean holeshot against the Focus, not saying the mirage could have stop civics. Also, Mitsu resale value isn't anywhere to close to Honda.


One of the problem is image/PR for Mitsu and its quality problems.

You can do a survey in a mall asking regular shmoes to dumb blondes (using a silly example - don't get offended). What's usually the description that first pops in someone's head after mentioning Honda, Nissan, Toyo, and Mitsu.

H&A = lasting long and hold resale value
Toyo = make stout cars
Nissan = above average in quality (may not be true)
Mitsu = cheap and breaks down (poor quality)

Of course, Mitsu doesn't suffer the same fate as all Korean cars that hit the US shores. They can never get that monkey off their back, even with their 10 year warranty. Till this day, I still hear people say those cars suck in quality. I always they them that they have improved a lot since the days of the Excel.


The reason why I used Toyo, because how they have molded their image in the US market. It has taken them a long time, and it's paying off.

1) Target the midsize sedan market. Ford used their tauras. Toyo with their camry, and Honda with the accord. Those are your bread and butter in sales. Currently, the Galant can't even compete with the Nissan Altima in sales.


2) Go after the compact coupe and sedan. Currently, it's dominated by the mass flood of Ford Focus while the modern Civic sedan is trailing. I don't know how the lancer stacked against the modern sentra in sales. At least, Mitsu has done the compact sedan halfway decent.

In the compact coupe, Mitsu waved the white flag. The 3g eclipse isn't a compact coupe. I concern them competing against the pony cars.

3) Cash cow SUV and minivan. SUV's are the cash cows for the Big Two (we know who they are). In the minivan market, I do believe honda has displaced Chrysler for a long time since the intro of the odessey. Mitsu is not even on the radar.

 

evomk8,

You have made a good point about Nissan. They haven't been strong since the 90's with the mass sale of sentras. They didn't recover until Fiat bought enough of the controling shares and started to streamline product and cost.

I was just using Toyo as an example how to be sucessful slowly. It can't be done overnight. It took about 2-3 yrs for Fiat to turn around Nissan.

Maybe, Mitsu needs to build another plant in the US.

 

Nissan did make a very fast recovery. They are actually owned by Renault though ;-)

Nissan, like Honda and Toyota, has a longer history in the U.S. than . Nissan made a big splash with the 240Z and to some degree are still banking on that image. Just look at how popular the 350Z is. Nissan does make very good engines and that has helped them tremendously. Consumers are often willing to overlook some quality short comings for performance (lets be honest, the Altima interior is HORRIBLE).

The reason the EVO isn't able to get away with (sometimes falsely) perceived quality issue has to do with 's history. Not necessarily a history of poor quality (which is quite a bit exaggerated) but rather the lack of history. To most consumers has only been making cars since the late 80's. Honda, Toyota and Nissan all entered the U.S. market in the late 60's and early 70's, only arrived in full force in '82. Combined with 's comparatively low sales volume and the fact that not much of their high tech made it to the U.S. (except for the VR-4's and the early Diamante's) most people have no idea what really is. This leads to some hefty over-judgement.

It is all this that now must overcome in a relatively short time period.

 

What about Honda Civic's Civic Nation ad. That was supah rice on wheels.

If Mitsu is trying to lose money, atleast lose money while raising your image. I am going to say, even though this 0/0/0 deals are great, they are really cheapening the image. What Mitsu needs to do is what Nissan is doing. Make good strong engines, good strong cars. So what if Mitsu takes a loss on every car they sell, atleast these customers have a better chance of becoming repeat customers than the ones that rolled off the line in the el cheapo lancer. Evolution is a great car, but their whole marketing dept decided to drop the ad campaign after a few runs. I mean I really like their Evo Religion ad, but I hardly saw it...once?
Well Mitsubishi is trying to for example attach itself with highly rated shows. For example I've noticed that NBC displays the most Mitsubishi ads. Also that Access Hollywood show, pretty good ratings on that show, is sponsored by Mitsubishi. That's step one. Step two is to f*cking man up and face the music if you make crappy cars. Also people need to stop *****ing if Mitsubishi denies Warranty claim if they caught you beating the **** outta the car at the track. They are protecting themselves. If they need to replace clutchs and transfer cases like there is no tommorow because you're dumping the clutch at 6500RPM. They aint going to making any money. They need to actually hire some decent people to design their car. Besides the Evo and perhaps ralliart lancer, all Mitsu cars are UGLY. Outlander is a good car, if they develop that car further, better options perhaps drop a v6 in there. It would really take market away from cars like Rav 4. The purpose of Montero, I never understood. I personally own a Montero sport and I have to say the ability of this car is excellent, but interior looks like someone pulled it outta the civic. I mean wtf??
Diamante is a f*cking great car. Whenever I sometimes drive it, it really pulls. Interior is good. One problem though, the 97-00 design was good. But after that, it went downhill and wtf how come Mitsubishi NEVER advertised the diamante.
The last Galant that I actually liked was the GTZ, after that they decided to channel some pontiac and things went downhill. And the new one, I mean wtf, I was at my local dealer and we were sitting there and just shaking our heads at it. The salesmen and the techs were like...This car is focking ugly. Front of a Maxima and rear from a Caddy. Brilliant!
Engine aint bad, 2.4 MIVEC.
Endevour is a good car and I've seen quite a lot of them around, they need to improve it's image by offering more options as standard and improving overall quality and ammenities.
Perhaps even rls a Ralliart Version to go up against the Infiniti (ironic) FX45 or whatever that huge monstrosity is called.
I'm tired of typing now.

 

Thanks for that wonderful review Mr. Infinity .

And now back to your regularly scheduled programming...

 

I can agree on the problems with service N stuff, though even if they don't take more care into its customers (which I belive it will, and I belive that they are reading this, and I feel that they will realize and do the right thing) 99.9% they won't go bankrupt. They make everything from Cars to oil tankers, to TV's and toasters. Plus like every european/asian car markets.

Its the US Market for there automobiles that there Public Relations and service is what ppl have been sayin crappy, tho I nvr experinced anything wrong.

I feel that Will recover and come back nicely, even tho I don't feel any service/PR problems on my experinces.

 

wow i keep hearing about all these bad services people got from mitsu and I've had nothing but awesome customer service from the first day i got my car and even to this day. i went with my mom to toyota when she had to get her car fixed and every single one of them were a bunch of dicks. but yea everytime i go to my mitsu dealer they're always sooo awesome. well i hope that mitsu recovers b/c i refuse to buy domestic and i'm not too interested in hondas either.

 

OK Im Polish and I lived there for about 20 years (26 now). I have owned Evo 5 before bought brain new from the dealership in Cracow, Poland. The dealership experience was the best I ever had no prob at all. Maybe its becouse at the time the car has costed about 50000 USD (200,000 zlotys) and this is enough money to buy a new Mercedes E430 or a condominium.
Anyway my point is Mitsu in Europe is very well placed up there with Toyotas and Hondas, the dealers and service dept people are well trained, there are also no prob with warranty claims.
( I had two warr claims in 4 years I have owned the car and my sister is still driving it hard)

Sorry for my spelling....

 

trinity ur in the same thought im in, I refuse 2 by domestic, and the all those street ***** cars im not feelin em 2 much, so 4 me, its gonna be 4 life.

 

Oh and the g8 dealer experinces with

 

I think it's pretty bad just how different the customer treatments and products are around the world. It seems in Europe and Asia, proper treatment are the social norm, where the US has the arrogant snobbery that seeps through to everything. business, people, products. THe companies more cloesly tied to their roots and homelands appear to maintain their customs in their busines practices. The branches that kind of grow up in foreign lands kind of act like the stepchild who gets no love and is just angry and resentful. Maybe Mitsu US needs to go to boot camp and get it's act straightened out by it Japanese parents.

 

Correction noted, it's Renault. Somehow, I was thinking about Fiat at the time.

"It is all this that Mitsu now must overcome in a relatively short time period."

I think it's an upmost importance to work on the PR front. When Nissan went on a full PR swing, man, they blitzed the tv w/ commercials about the sentra, their trucks w/ a sc, altima, and maxima doing all these fast, stunt coordinated fishtailing and slides through a desert or salt flat. Mitsu did it a bit w/ the Evo, but frankly the Evo by its lonesome won't save Mitsu poor image by the populace, whether it's a misconception or not.




Mr Infinity,
You're right. The only promo for the diamante that I saw was in the car magazine like C&D and such.

The GTZ's were kick butt looking cars, but I dn't they sold too many of them. They are pretty rare to find on the road.

 

I haven't been hearing the 500K by '05 rally cry here lately. I guess it has been put on hold, It is sad too because it looked like we were going to be able to do it, with so many product launches, Until this latest pothole hit. I think they peaked at around 360-380K units last year.

The Diamante will probably never get its fair share of Mitsu's advertising limelight as long as it is built in Austrailia. Since Mitsu of America buys the car from Mitsu of Aussie, they don't consider it one of their core cars, I guess the American branch doesn't get paid on it quite the same as if it were a Galant or something. Yet I don't understand why the Japanese built cars do. The "core" cars are the Galant, Lancer, Eclipse, Endeavor and I think the Sport.

A unibody, transverse engined pickup, huh? Only Honda could get away with something like that. I guess it'll be AWD only, I've never seen a FWD pickup. And what, a 3500 max tow rating?

 

Australia has announced that they want to create a streched version of the new Galant, specifically designed for the U.S. market. It would become 's first full-size car ever available in the U.S. (they had the new defunct Proudia and Dignity for Japan only).
The model, if it makes it to production, would be available in 2006 as a 2007 model. There is a probability that it will retain the Diamante name. For marketing and product recognition purposes, I wonder if they should change the name or not...
It will be interesting. In addition, there are rumors, since the platform can handle it, that Australia may make a rear-wheel drive Australia only model with a V8