I don't think it's the marketing problem. I believe there's 3 problems Mitsu have with selling the Evo. The first problem is that the Evo is priced too high that not a lot of people could afford. The second problem is that it cost too much for younger drivers to afford the insurance. And third, it's not the best with gas especially with the way gas price is going...

 

You couldn't pay me to buy a Kia, Hyundai, Daewoo or anything of the sort. Standards you know...

 

000 was 0 down, 0 interest, and 0 payments for a year on a new car.

After that, they raised the interest to anywhere from 5 to 12 percent.

Problem is, they gave a lot of shakey credit customers new cars who really couldn't afford to pay it.

It's kinda like the same fiasco w/ subprime mortages. People were driving around in "free" cars for a year...then wham...a huge payment for 60-72 months. Mitsu had one of the highest reposession rates in the industry at the time...it was close to 10%. Cars are depreciating assets. The moment you drive off the lot you lose 1000's. On top of that, don't pay for it for an entire year and some customers also rolled in 1000's of negative equity on cars they traded it.

I heard some people were as much as $20,000 upside-down in their cars when they tried to trade out of them.

Mitsu was preying on the financial ignorant customer who just spent, spent, spent, and didn't think the bill would ever come do.

 

Lancer - styling of the new Lancer is not a problem, it's supposed to appeal to the young/sporty crowd, problem is that for a car of lancers statue, it's not a very fuel efficient car, what Mitsu could/should do is introduce the smaller displacement engines (1.5l) they offer in Europe or actually bring Colt from Europe.

Lancer Evolution - it's still a hardcore machine not designed to be sold in large quantities. It's a performance car.

Eclipse - the new 2009 Eclipse should have been the 2006 from the beginning, the new front fascia (similar to the new Evo) gives the car a more sporty presence. Engine could be more efficient as well as bit more powerful (when compared to a Mustang or 350Z). But I think Mitsubishi will replace the 3.8l engine with an all new unit soon. I believe it's their last non-aluminum engine left.

Outlander - Actually this is the best current non-performance oriented vehicle in the Mitsu lineup. Better than the new Lancer (non-Evo). Has a lot of smart touches, styling is a lot better than the new CRV or Rav4, interior could use some better materials but overall paired with the new V6 (fuel efficiency is in the mid-pack) engine this is one of the best kept secrets in the CUV category.

Endeavor - Actually it is a very underrated SUV, styling is a personal opinion but I don't think it looks any worse than the Pilot or 4Runner. Interior is decent too. Problem with it is the V6 engine (same as the Eclipse/Galant)

Raider - what the hell was Mitsubishi thinking.... Should have at least brought the new L200 from Europe/Asia instead but I guess "chicken tax" shut down the idea.

Galant - as much as I loved the 99-03 design, 04-up was a move in the totally other (WRONG/DISTASTEFUL) direction. I think the 0-0-0 fiasco along with the 2003 release of the 2004 model year galant started the entire downturn of Mitsubishi. Galant was their bread and butter car and they messed up their sales king. Current Galant is bland/ugly piece of machinery. It's not fuel efficient, interior is average, this car doesn't stand out in anything. And with the 2009 refresh they actually made the car even uglier with the taillight redesign.

Anyway, Mitsubishi needs to refocus, they offer so many other fuel efficient products worldwide that it just amazes me they are not taking advantage of the current energy crisis in US and introduce cars such as Colt or iCar. I don't think diesel will help them with anything, just doesn't make any economic sense, diesels do offer better fuel efficiency but not a huge advantage and considering the price of diesel fuel and the fact that cars themselves are more expensive I dont think it will make a whole lot of sense from fuel efficiency point of view. What Mitsubishi needs is to hurry up with development of their electric vehicles. I think it is the only way for Mitsubishi to really stand out from the competition. At current pace Mitsubishi will never catch up to Nissan/Honda/Toyota. They need something revolutionary.

 

I will buy the Triton if they bring it over here!

 

tell me how mitsu holds their own with the gts.outlander. and endeavor when mitsu barely sales 10k cars a month??????? Even hyndia is kicking mitsu's a$@.
The truth is the truth and if they really were that good, they would be saling more cars then 10k a month,even in a bad economy

 

Relatively they are not doing that great, but Mitsubishi is improving overall and that is what matter most to Mitsubishi right now. Improvement is the ultimate goal for any business no matter how crappy the situation. I admire Mitsubishi for it's willingness to keep on fighting even if it's beaten and bruised.

 

The endeavor and outlander are 2 really nice SUV's.

I had an endeavor for my company demo for several years, and it was a great all-around SUV, very reliable, and it got high marks.

Mistu has an image problem in the US. The endeavor is every bit as good as a Honda Pilot, and maybe even better is some aspects.

People buy hondas because of the H on the hood. Honda and Toyota can do no wrong in the US.

The can make the ugliest SUV's on the road that look like a breadbox, and people will still buy them because of the brand recognition and reputation.

Put a H badge and Honda name on the Endeavor, and they would sell 100,000 of them a year.

 

coming to the party a little late here: everyone is posting a loss. This is not just mitsu's problem. Toyota just posted similar losses.

 

Not the case. Check post #49. Many other brands posted gains. None posted a loss as bad as Mitsu. Yes, the industry was down in April...but Mitsu was nearly 3 times worse than the industry average.

And, to your point about Toyota, they posted a 3.4% increase...not a 26.3% decrease.

 

adamb103 every company has lost at one point and time, people need to consider the fact Mitsubishi sells car to a niche group of people! Toyota has lost, Nissan has lost, GM has lost (big deal)! When Mitsubishis stock drops under $5 a share then we'll begin to worry about numbers.

Did I mention Mitsubishi makes the only production truck in japan not to mention Mitsubishi's Triton/L200 accounts for more than 40 % of trucks being sold/driven in the U.K.

 

Read in the news BMW posted an 18% loss. Just FYI if no one caught that yet.

Maybe if Mitsu didn't use american POWs in WWII as slave labor they wouldn't have that image problem? Some folks never forgive, and damn sure don't forget!

 

Well, the WWII generation is slowly becoming extinct and I don't think Mitsubishi Motors targets their products at them anyway, besides, explain to me how the hell Volkswagen has become the largest car manufacturer in Europe when during WWII it was "Hitlers" car? Mitsubishi at the beginning of this century was selling in US 300,000 cars per year, right now they are selling about 120,000. I think what really caused the drop was the Mitsubishi Fuso cover-up (which had nothing to do with Mitsubishi passenger cars at all but the name Mitsubishi was associated with it which resulted in drop of brand perception), also the 0-0-0 program offered at the beginning of this century which resulted in a very high repossession rates which resulted huge financial losses for Mitsu Motors, and a very bad redesign of 2004 Galant (their bread and butter car). 99-03 Galant was selling at over 80K units a year which was very good by those year standards. 2004-up Galant is no where near those numbers.

 

lol, I've had people tell me thanks for supporting WWII haha due to the Mitsubishi zero. What about WV though? Give me the Japanese over Hitler any day!!!

 

Exactly.