Evo X = Last Evo in North America?
Is Mitsubishi having the MOD days across the country to say thanks or farewell? Mitsu also has 40percent of the worlds bluefin tuna market. Mitsu also makes the worlds largest elevator holds 80 people and particle beams. Pretty much you name it they make it. It is a very diverse conglomerate they does not have all their eggs in one basket. I don't think they will leave NA any time soon due to poor sales, without even trying to revamp thier lineup and strategies
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From: Birmingham, AL
They are most likely just going to shut the Normal plant down and go to an all import line up.
1. They have been trying to sell the plant (or part of it) to Peugeot. However, that company has no plans to return to the US, and no real reason to invest in it.
2. They were thinking about retooling Normal to make Lancers and Outlanders, however they do not need the extra capacity at this time.
3. They were thinking about retooling Normal to make Triton pickups to avoid the chicken tax, however the prospects of the trunk doing well in a down market that favors American full size brands and where even the Toyota Tacoma is declining doesn't make much sense to get into, even though Ford is about to cancel the Ranger.
4. The UAW is playing chicken with Mitsu and Mitsu hasn't blinked.
5. The Eclipse, Galant and Endeavor are no longer profitable and they don't think spending a billion dollars re designing them would help at all. They could not make a business case for the concept ZT, anwhere in any market so there will be no Galant. They stuck the Galant name on a fancier Lancer in Japan just so they could keep the name alive, as it is an older nameplate that they cherish - even older then Accord, Camry, Celica or Civic.
Okay, that's all the bad news. Some good news:
1. They are going to concentrate on small cars. They are bring the i-Miev here and are currently redesigning it for our market. They'll probably bring a conventional i as well.
2. They are putting ALL their attention and ALL their duckets into redesigning the Colt into a WORLD car so they can launch it everywhere in ALL markets.
3. The Outlander Sport is being launched soon.
Bottom line is you don't need an American supply chain exec if there is no American supply chain. If they start laying off bosses in Tokyo, or if the head of Mitsu NA gets called back to Japan - that's when you worry.
1. They have been trying to sell the plant (or part of it) to Peugeot. However, that company has no plans to return to the US, and no real reason to invest in it.
2. They were thinking about retooling Normal to make Lancers and Outlanders, however they do not need the extra capacity at this time.
3. They were thinking about retooling Normal to make Triton pickups to avoid the chicken tax, however the prospects of the trunk doing well in a down market that favors American full size brands and where even the Toyota Tacoma is declining doesn't make much sense to get into, even though Ford is about to cancel the Ranger.
4. The UAW is playing chicken with Mitsu and Mitsu hasn't blinked.
5. The Eclipse, Galant and Endeavor are no longer profitable and they don't think spending a billion dollars re designing them would help at all. They could not make a business case for the concept ZT, anwhere in any market so there will be no Galant. They stuck the Galant name on a fancier Lancer in Japan just so they could keep the name alive, as it is an older nameplate that they cherish - even older then Accord, Camry, Celica or Civic.
Okay, that's all the bad news. Some good news:
1. They are going to concentrate on small cars. They are bring the i-Miev here and are currently redesigning it for our market. They'll probably bring a conventional i as well.
2. They are putting ALL their attention and ALL their duckets into redesigning the Colt into a WORLD car so they can launch it everywhere in ALL markets.
3. The Outlander Sport is being launched soon.
Bottom line is you don't need an American supply chain exec if there is no American supply chain. If they start laying off bosses in Tokyo, or if the head of Mitsu NA gets called back to Japan - that's when you worry.
Last edited by GPTourer; Sep 21, 2010 at 08:43 AM.
^^^ Co.sign.
we can all agree the Eclipse/Galant/Endeavor are about to die (or already dead, we just haven't notice the smell of dead corpse? lol)... and we can all guess Normal will be out of comission soon, until Mitsu is done with their Colt-like Global Car which they said they'd most likely assemble here... which would most likely revive a then-closed-down Normal Plant, all within 3-4 years tops...
have you all seen outlandersport.com?
they updated the site, and it kicks the crap out of mitsucars.com's website... by a lot... i think they're betting on the Outlander Sport to turn things around... I remember when they called it "The Game Changer" and their first month of sales in Japan were an optimistic "1,500 units"... well that number got blown out of the water, cause they sold 5,600 units off the batt!
we can all agree the Eclipse/Galant/Endeavor are about to die (or already dead, we just haven't notice the smell of dead corpse? lol)... and we can all guess Normal will be out of comission soon, until Mitsu is done with their Colt-like Global Car which they said they'd most likely assemble here... which would most likely revive a then-closed-down Normal Plant, all within 3-4 years tops...
have you all seen outlandersport.com?
they updated the site, and it kicks the crap out of mitsucars.com's website... by a lot... i think they're betting on the Outlander Sport to turn things around... I remember when they called it "The Game Changer" and their first month of sales in Japan were an optimistic "1,500 units"... well that number got blown out of the water, cause they sold 5,600 units off the batt!
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 4,312
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From: Birmingham, AL
Yeah, I hope they build SOMETHING in Normal and not close the plant. It looks like the local UAW troop there was willing to make concessions and work for less money, but when Mitsu didn't show up with plans they asked for a raise - or something like that. So Mitsu may be willing to let the plant close and possibly move it to a Southern right to work state or sign back on with the UAW for even lower pay.
Its just that every stop gap to hold them over until the Colt is ready has failed. I'd love to see a new Galant based on the ZT but the segment is just so oversaturated and hotly contested it would just not work. Years ago when it was just Camry and Accord ruling the market, Mitsu should never have let the Galant get soft and maintained its techno edge - but now the Sonata, Altima and the Malibu are credible entries. So other good cars like the Mazda6 and Legacy barely make a dent and the new Suzuki Kizashi is totally lost.
Eclipse is a personal favorite, but again its a dead market. RSX, Celica, Prelude, Integra, Solara, Cougar, Tiburon - all gone. The Eclipse kind of straddled the fence being misized car based but didn't attract enough of the tC crowd or the Accord Coupe or Mustang V6 crowd, so they would probably be better off just making a Lancer coupe like I've heard rumors off, but am doubting that.
Endeavor should be a no brainer to keep around, but it has to go because its based on the Project America platform and would take too much to redesign and would still get pounded in the market place by the Highlander, Pilot, Explorer, G. Cherokee, Tucson, etc etc.
And like I already said, Peugeot was thinking about coming back to the US but decided against it and both companies were talking merger for a while, but those talks have fallen by the wayside. I think it would be great if they could have introduced the first light duty diesel truck to the US like Mahindra was supposed to do, but I don't thin Americans would by a fairly expensive Mitsubishi truck when there are so many great deals to be had on new full size American trucks.
By only building small cars means they don't have to worry about CAFE fines which will allow them to slowly work their way back in to more niche markets. I believe the Montero is the next vehicle they want to redo and resurrect for all markets.
Its just that every stop gap to hold them over until the Colt is ready has failed. I'd love to see a new Galant based on the ZT but the segment is just so oversaturated and hotly contested it would just not work. Years ago when it was just Camry and Accord ruling the market, Mitsu should never have let the Galant get soft and maintained its techno edge - but now the Sonata, Altima and the Malibu are credible entries. So other good cars like the Mazda6 and Legacy barely make a dent and the new Suzuki Kizashi is totally lost.
Eclipse is a personal favorite, but again its a dead market. RSX, Celica, Prelude, Integra, Solara, Cougar, Tiburon - all gone. The Eclipse kind of straddled the fence being misized car based but didn't attract enough of the tC crowd or the Accord Coupe or Mustang V6 crowd, so they would probably be better off just making a Lancer coupe like I've heard rumors off, but am doubting that.
Endeavor should be a no brainer to keep around, but it has to go because its based on the Project America platform and would take too much to redesign and would still get pounded in the market place by the Highlander, Pilot, Explorer, G. Cherokee, Tucson, etc etc.
And like I already said, Peugeot was thinking about coming back to the US but decided against it and both companies were talking merger for a while, but those talks have fallen by the wayside. I think it would be great if they could have introduced the first light duty diesel truck to the US like Mahindra was supposed to do, but I don't thin Americans would by a fairly expensive Mitsubishi truck when there are so many great deals to be had on new full size American trucks.
By only building small cars means they don't have to worry about CAFE fines which will allow them to slowly work their way back in to more niche markets. I believe the Montero is the next vehicle they want to redo and resurrect for all markets.
Last edited by GPTourer; Sep 21, 2010 at 03:12 PM.
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From: tsukuba turn 4
^^^ Co.sign.
we can all agree the Eclipse/Galant/Endeavor are about to die (or already dead, we just haven't notice the smell of dead corpse? lol)... and we can all guess Normal will be out of comission soon, until Mitsu is done with their Colt-like Global Car which they said they'd most likely assemble here... which would most likely revive a then-closed-down Normal Plant, all within 3-4 years tops...
have you all seen outlandersport.com?
they updated the site, and it kicks the crap out of mitsucars.com's website... by a lot... i think they're betting on the Outlander Sport to turn things around... I remember when they called it "The Game Changer" and their first month of sales in Japan were an optimistic "1,500 units"... well that number got blown out of the water, cause they sold 5,600 units off the batt!
we can all agree the Eclipse/Galant/Endeavor are about to die (or already dead, we just haven't notice the smell of dead corpse? lol)... and we can all guess Normal will be out of comission soon, until Mitsu is done with their Colt-like Global Car which they said they'd most likely assemble here... which would most likely revive a then-closed-down Normal Plant, all within 3-4 years tops...
have you all seen outlandersport.com?
they updated the site, and it kicks the crap out of mitsucars.com's website... by a lot... i think they're betting on the Outlander Sport to turn things around... I remember when they called it "The Game Changer" and their first month of sales in Japan were an optimistic "1,500 units"... well that number got blown out of the water, cause they sold 5,600 units off the batt!
the outlander sport needs the 2.4L 4B12.... why oh why does mitsu make the same mistake over and over again? its 20hp down on ALL of its competitors. why shoot yourself in the foot before the car even gets launched? who makes these decisions? do they WANT the car to fail? sure seems like it....
all would be forgiven if they Ralliart the outlander sport, but im not holding my breath on that one.... anything that i would buy, mitsu doesnt seem to make...
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From: tsukuba turn 4
Yeah, I hope they build SOMETHING in Normal and not close the plant. It looks like the local UAW troop there was willing to make concessions and work for less money, but when Mitsu didn't show up with plans they asked for a raise - or something like that. So Mitsu may be willing to let the plant close and possibly move it to a Southern right to work state or sign back on with the UAW for even lower pay.
Its just that every stop gap to hold them over until the Colt is ready has failed. I'd love to see a new Galant based on the ZT but the segment is just so oversaturated and hotly contested it would just not work. Years ago when it was just Camry and Accord ruling the market, Mitsu should never have let the Galant get soft and maintained its techno edge - but now the Sonata, Altima and the Malibu are credible entries. So other good cars like the Mazda6 and Legacy barely make a dent and the new Suzuki Kizashi is totally lost.
Eclipse is a personal favorite, but again its a dead market. RSX, Celica, Prelude, Integra, Solara, Cougar, Tiburon - all gone. The Eclipse kind of straddled the fence being misized car based but didn't attract enough of the tC crowd or the Accord Coupe or Mustang V6 crowd, so they would probably be better off just making a Lancer coupe like I've heard rumors off, but am doubting that.
Endeavor should be a no brainer to keep around, but it has to go because its based on the Project America platform and would take too much to redesign and would still get pounded in the market place by the Highlander, Pilot, Explorer, G. Cherokee, Tucson, etc etc.
And like I already said, Peugeot was thinking about coming back to the US but decided against it and both companies were talking merger for a while, but those talks have fallen by the wayside. I think it would be great if they could have introduced the first light duty diesel truck to the US like Mahindra was supposed to do, but I don't thin Americans would by a fairly expensive Mitsubishi truck when there are so many great deals to be had on new full size American trucks.
By only building small cars means they don't have to worry about CAFE fines which will allow them to slowly work their way back in to more niche markets. I believe the Montero is the next vehicle they want to redo and resurrect for all markets.
Its just that every stop gap to hold them over until the Colt is ready has failed. I'd love to see a new Galant based on the ZT but the segment is just so oversaturated and hotly contested it would just not work. Years ago when it was just Camry and Accord ruling the market, Mitsu should never have let the Galant get soft and maintained its techno edge - but now the Sonata, Altima and the Malibu are credible entries. So other good cars like the Mazda6 and Legacy barely make a dent and the new Suzuki Kizashi is totally lost.
Eclipse is a personal favorite, but again its a dead market. RSX, Celica, Prelude, Integra, Solara, Cougar, Tiburon - all gone. The Eclipse kind of straddled the fence being misized car based but didn't attract enough of the tC crowd or the Accord Coupe or Mustang V6 crowd, so they would probably be better off just making a Lancer coupe like I've heard rumors off, but am doubting that.
Endeavor should be a no brainer to keep around, but it has to go because its based on the Project America platform and would take too much to redesign and would still get pounded in the market place by the Highlander, Pilot, Explorer, G. Cherokee, Tucson, etc etc.
And like I already said, Peugeot was thinking about coming back to the US but decided against it and both companies were talking merger for a while, but those talks have fallen by the wayside. I think it would be great if they could have introduced the first light duty diesel truck to the US like Mahindra was supposed to do, but I don't thin Americans would by a fairly expensive Mitsubishi truck when there are so many great deals to be had on new full size American trucks.
By only building small cars means they don't have to worry about CAFE fines which will allow them to slowly work their way back in to more niche markets. I believe the Montero is the next vehicle they want to redo and resurrect for all markets.
the eclipse can do battle with cars like the 370z and genesis coupe. v6 mustang and camaros. dont tell me the sports coupe is a dead market. imagine if the new eclipse was 7/10ths the GT-R for 1/3 the price? cmon its a no brainer....
new eclipse: shortened lancer chassis 2 door. RA drivetrain. evo engine. evo-like suspension, steering, and brakes. or instead maybe the RA engine tuned to 280ish hp and evo S-AWC. or maybe 4B12 block with RA turbo. so many possibilities... now who wouldnt buy that over a 370z??? or v6 stang??? cmon mitsu!!!!
Last edited by madfast; Sep 21, 2010 at 04:59 PM.
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From: Birmingham, AL
the outlander sport needs the 2.4L 4B12.... why oh why does mitsu make the same mistake over and over again? its 20hp down on ALL of its competitors. why shoot yourself in the foot before the car even gets launched? who makes these decisions? do they WANT the car to fail? sure seems like it....
http://www.insideline.com/mitsubishi...full-test.html
http://www.insideline.com/kia/sporta...and-video.html
ok so why make a lancer then when there are cars like the civic, corolla, sentra, focus, etc....? you're basically saying what i think and its that mitsu has simply given up... they dont even believe in themselves enough to put up a fight... yet the ZT looks 1000x better than any other car in its segment... sigh....
the eclipse can do battle with cars like the 370z and genesis coupe. v6 mustang and camaros. dont tell me the sports coupe is a dead market. imagine if the new eclipse was 7/10ths the GT-R for 1/3 the price? cmon its a no brainer....
The Lancer and Outlander and Outlander Sport are all built on one platform and it will be time to replace them in 3 years. It is more important to keep them up release the Colt then it is to do anything else. Hopefully they can still continue to make a business case for the Evo since its easily built right along side of them with a modified platform. Everything else will have to wait.
Last edited by GPTourer; Sep 30, 2010 at 07:10 AM.
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From: tsukuba turn 4
The Outlander Sport runs to 60 in 8.8 seconds with its 148hp. The Kia Sportage with its 176 hp engine takes 9.5s to get to 60. So which is the better engineered vehicle? Mitsu does less with more.
http://www.insideline.com/mitsubishi...full-test.html
http://www.insideline.com/kia/sporta...and-video.html
Because they want to focus on small cars. And they deemed the Lancer to have a better chance to succeed in a world that is embracing smaller cars more so then larger ones at this moment. I am not saying they are abandoning the Galant forever - they just want to make sure they have solid credible entries in the subcompact and compact car class before going back after anything else. EV/Hybrid vehicles are also very hot right now. So the I-Miev, Colt and Lancer are more important then a Galant, Diamante or Eclipse would be.
Z sales figures are quite low right now. The Eclipse is not a sports coupe, it is a FWD sporty coupe and yes, that is a dead market. It would take a tremendous amount of money to re engineer the FWD Eclipse into a RWD or AWD platform that could go toe to toe with the Z or 7/10ths of a GTR. A whole lot of money. For one car on one platform - that nothing else would be built on. The Eclipse, even at its peak, has never outsold the Mustang - EVER. It isn't even right to bring them (Mustang and Camaro) up because they are almost in a class of their own. Even the Camaro got put out of business by the Mustang at one point. Its doing extremely well now (beating the Mustang), of course, but how long it can keep it up remains to be seen. Honda, a company with a lot more cash and market ability has given up on the S2000 and the NSX. Toyota has no Supra, RWD Celica and they had to go to Subaru for help making the FT which still isn't here yet. So yes, they sporty coupe market is dead and the sports coupe market is not lucrative enough for Mitsu to spend a billion dollars to get in to.
The Lancer and Outlander and Outlander Sport are all built on one platform and it will be time to replace them in 3 years. It is more important to keep them up release the Colt then it is to do anything else. Hopefully they can still continue to make a business case for the Evo since its easily built right along side of them with a modified platform. Everything else will have to wait.
http://www.insideline.com/mitsubishi...full-test.html
http://www.insideline.com/kia/sporta...and-video.html
Because they want to focus on small cars. And they deemed the Lancer to have a better chance to succeed in a world that is embracing smaller cars more so then larger ones at this moment. I am not saying they are abandoning the Galant forever - they just want to make sure they have solid credible entries in the subcompact and compact car class before going back after anything else. EV/Hybrid vehicles are also very hot right now. So the I-Miev, Colt and Lancer are more important then a Galant, Diamante or Eclipse would be.
Z sales figures are quite low right now. The Eclipse is not a sports coupe, it is a FWD sporty coupe and yes, that is a dead market. It would take a tremendous amount of money to re engineer the FWD Eclipse into a RWD or AWD platform that could go toe to toe with the Z or 7/10ths of a GTR. A whole lot of money. For one car on one platform - that nothing else would be built on. The Eclipse, even at its peak, has never outsold the Mustang - EVER. It isn't even right to bring them (Mustang and Camaro) up because they are almost in a class of their own. Even the Camaro got put out of business by the Mustang at one point. Its doing extremely well now (beating the Mustang), of course, but how long it can keep it up remains to be seen. Honda, a company with a lot more cash and market ability has given up on the S2000 and the NSX. Toyota has no Supra, RWD Celica and they had to go to Subaru for help making the FT which still isn't here yet. So yes, they sporty coupe market is dead and the sports coupe market is not lucrative enough for Mitsu to spend a billion dollars to get in to.
The Lancer and Outlander and Outlander Sport are all built on one platform and it will be time to replace them in 3 years. It is more important to keep them up release the Colt then it is to do anything else. Hopefully they can still continue to make a business case for the Evo since its easily built right along side of them with a modified platform. Everything else will have to wait.
yeah if they have to focus on small cars just to stay alive then ok, but its just a shame being that they used to be competitive in the midsize market...
well my idea was to use the current lancer chassis, shorten everything a bit by making it a 2 door. use the same engine, same drivetrain. give it new, great evo inspired aggressive exterior design. sell tons of them....
FWD sports coupe is a crap segment to being with and thats why the past 2 gen eclipses failed. the AWD performance model makes it "cool" and then the "regular" people can buy the FWD version because they dont know how technically inferior it is to the AWD model. but it looks cool, looks the same, and most people cant tell the difference. its like buying a V6 stang. the V8 GT model sells the lower V6 model. i mean nowadays the V6 stang is awesome but it was not always like that.
sportscars DO sell IF they are done correctly. if the eclipse had evo styling cues, and the RA's AWD turbo set up, for a modest price (23-25k) it would never have failed.... if we the enthusiasts dont like it then there is no word of mouth. no buzz. then you cant sell the cheaper FWD models to cheerleaders who need a cute car from daddy.... thats how mitsu rolled in the 90's... when they stopped, people stopped buying.... cant blame it on gas prices or recession. mitsu plain ol ****** up if u ask me...
Last edited by Noize; Sep 23, 2010 at 01:25 PM. Reason: swear filter dodge
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From: Birmingham, AL
the edmunds test was on the ES, the FWD version which is the lightest. the AWD SE model did a 10.1 or something like that in motortrend. either way, 2.0L is just too small in this segment, for marketing purposes alone. and its not like a 2.4L engine would have to be engineered. they have it already in the lancer GTS... stupid...
yeah if they have to focus on small cars just to stay alive then ok, but its just a shame being that they used to be competitive in the midsize market...
well my idea was to use the current lancer chassis, shorten everything a bit by making it a 2 door. use the same engine, same drivetrain. give it new, great evo inspired aggressive exterior design. sell tons of them....
FWD sports coupe is a crap segment to being with and thats why the past 2 gen eclipses failed. the AWD performance model makes it "cool" and then the "regular" people can buy the FWD version because they dont know how technically inferior it is to the AWD model. but it looks cool, looks the same, and most people cant tell the difference. its like buying a V6 stang. the V8 GT model sells the lower V6 model. i mean nowadays the V6 stang is awesome but it was not always like that.
FWD sports coupe is a crap segment to being with and thats why the past 2 gen eclipses failed. the AWD performance model makes it "cool" and then the "regular" people can buy the FWD version because they dont know how technically inferior it is to the AWD model. but it looks cool, looks the same, and most people cant tell the difference. its like buying a V6 stang. the V8 GT model sells the lower V6 model. i mean nowadays the V6 stang is awesome but it was not always like that.
Been there and done that, time to let it go and move on.
http://www.autoblog.com/2010/09/23/m...om-u-s-market/
Last edited by GPTourer; Sep 23, 2010 at 07:07 AM.
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From: Davidson, NC
I agree with that but, I also think an equally important factor in the Colt being a success is they will actually have to spend some money to market the freaking thing. It seems they completely ignore the importance of actually making people aware that they have a cool new model that is worth considering.
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I agree with that but, I also think an equally important factor in the Colt being a success is they will actually have to spend some money to market the freaking thing. It seems they completely ignore the importance of actually making people aware that they have a cool new model that is worth considering.
Mitsu is staying 
http://wot.motortrend.com/6686771/au...eup/index.html
"We have never thought about withdrawing from the U.S. market, and we will not do so."
http://wot.motortrend.com/6686771/au...eup/index.html"We have never thought about withdrawing from the U.S. market, and we will not do so."