Mitsubishi closing in the US?
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Joined: Jan 2014
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From: In The Garage
I'm posting the exact same thing I posted in the other thread...
This is old news, and a old rumor.
In 2003 Mitsubishi divorced Chrysler and left Diamond Star Motors behind. Then end of DSM left Mitsubishi with substantial debt. This debts has left the company in the "not profitable" category for several years.
This lack of profitability was furthered by Denny Hecker. If you're not from Minnesota, you've never heard of him. But he's now in jail for a number of things. One of the shade ball things he once pulled involved Mitsubishi Motors North America. MMNA had several millions of dollars in lease returned cars. Hecker had several million dollars in adverting spots. They struck a deal and traded, cars for advertising. What someone at MMNA failed to realize or ask is that they advertising spots they had just traded were all in the middle of the night. So for year Mitsubishi's entire advertising budget was spend advertising to insomniacs.
However, is 2012 Mitsubishi deliberately discontinued the Endeavor, Gallant, and Eclipse. All vehicles that were made in their Normal, IL plant. They invested 100 million dollars in to the plant to make way for its new flag ship car, the Mitsubishi Outlander Sport, or RVR as it's called in other markets.
As of this year, Mitsubishi has paid off it's remaining debts from the DSM era, and predicts that it will be profitable for the first time in 7 years.
Furthermore, they have several cars in development. And, they recently shook hands with Renault and will be bringing two sedans to the US made by the French auto maker, and selling them under the Mitsu badge.
As for Suzuki, they left the North American market due in part to supply. American Suzuki Motor Company (ASMC) was merely a distributor of Suzuki cars, not the manufacturer. ASMC was receiving "left over" cars from European and Asian markets. This makes it really hard to get the colors and options that your customers want. I work for a dealers that used to be a Suzuki dealer. When someone wanted a Kizashi with X, Y and Z options in a certain color that we didn't already have, the response was "Well, might be able to find you one. If we can't, would _____ do?" With Mitsubishi the WORST case is we our regional rep and say "Hey Damian, we need X, Y, Z, car. Please order it for us in our next cycle." 3-4 months later it shows up.
Suzuki the parents company, and manufacturer was rumored looking in to buying a plant here in the US so that it could meet market demands. When Suzuki announced that it would not be purchasing a US plant, ASMC folded.
__________________
This is old news, and a old rumor.
In 2003 Mitsubishi divorced Chrysler and left Diamond Star Motors behind. Then end of DSM left Mitsubishi with substantial debt. This debts has left the company in the "not profitable" category for several years.
This lack of profitability was furthered by Denny Hecker. If you're not from Minnesota, you've never heard of him. But he's now in jail for a number of things. One of the shade ball things he once pulled involved Mitsubishi Motors North America. MMNA had several millions of dollars in lease returned cars. Hecker had several million dollars in adverting spots. They struck a deal and traded, cars for advertising. What someone at MMNA failed to realize or ask is that they advertising spots they had just traded were all in the middle of the night. So for year Mitsubishi's entire advertising budget was spend advertising to insomniacs.
However, is 2012 Mitsubishi deliberately discontinued the Endeavor, Gallant, and Eclipse. All vehicles that were made in their Normal, IL plant. They invested 100 million dollars in to the plant to make way for its new flag ship car, the Mitsubishi Outlander Sport, or RVR as it's called in other markets.
As of this year, Mitsubishi has paid off it's remaining debts from the DSM era, and predicts that it will be profitable for the first time in 7 years.
Furthermore, they have several cars in development. And, they recently shook hands with Renault and will be bringing two sedans to the US made by the French auto maker, and selling them under the Mitsu badge.
As for Suzuki, they left the North American market due in part to supply. American Suzuki Motor Company (ASMC) was merely a distributor of Suzuki cars, not the manufacturer. ASMC was receiving "left over" cars from European and Asian markets. This makes it really hard to get the colors and options that your customers want. I work for a dealers that used to be a Suzuki dealer. When someone wanted a Kizashi with X, Y and Z options in a certain color that we didn't already have, the response was "Well, might be able to find you one. If we can't, would _____ do?" With Mitsubishi the WORST case is we our regional rep and say "Hey Damian, we need X, Y, Z, car. Please order it for us in our next cycle." 3-4 months later it shows up.
Suzuki the parents company, and manufacturer was rumored looking in to buying a plant here in the US so that it could meet market demands. When Suzuki announced that it would not be purchasing a US plant, ASMC folded.
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Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 186
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From: Europa
Seeing how good Maxima looks in Detroit, I am not sure if that is really a bad thing. The only thing I hate on that concept is CVT drivetrain, which I hope Mitsubishi won't copy, since I think it would be better having MY15 V6 Outlander drivetrain(3l V6 and 6SP auto)
from other branches of The Mitsubishi Group.
Just to further the argument that Mitsu isn't doing nearly as bad as some people may think:
http://www.guideautoweb.com/articles...temps_en_2013/
The article is in French, but in short:
Canadian sales were up 7.3% in 2013 compared to 2012, with 21,104 vehicles sold up from 19,671. These are Mitsu's best yearly sale numbers ever. Previous best was 20,511 in 2011.
http://www.guideautoweb.com/articles...temps_en_2013/
The article is in French, but in short:
Canadian sales were up 7.3% in 2013 compared to 2012, with 21,104 vehicles sold up from 19,671. These are Mitsu's best yearly sale numbers ever. Previous best was 20,511 in 2011.
That's Canada numbers. Mitsubishi didn't even sell in Canada prior to 2004, which were Mitsubishi's best years. Mitsu US sales in 2002 were 345k, 2003 were 257k.... and Mitsubishi sold a ton of Eagle/Plymouth DSM cars in the 90s, as well (e.g. 1995 there were 218k DSMs sold between the 3 brands).
2013 US + Canada was 83k. Mitsubishi is a small player in Canada (1.2% market share) and even smaller in the US (0.4%).
2013 US + Canada was 83k. Mitsubishi is a small player in Canada (1.2% market share) and even smaller in the US (0.4%).
Last edited by WestSideBilly; Feb 3, 2014 at 05:29 PM. Reason: derp
Evolved Member
Joined: Jul 2013
Posts: 805
Likes: 110
From: Vancouver, BC
Interesting enough, it seems Mitsubishi Motors is opening new dealerships in Canada, like this one:
Toronto North Mitsubishi
http://www.torontonorthmitsubishi.ca/en/
If you Google-maps-search this place, and view it through Google street view, it was a construction site not long ago:
Toronto North Mitsubishi
http://www.torontonorthmitsubishi.ca/en/
If you Google-maps-search this place, and view it through Google street view, it was a construction site not long ago:
Last edited by Lightsaber; Mar 31, 2014 at 12:48 PM.
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Joined: Feb 2014
Posts: 1
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From: California High Desert
Rumor all you want. Mitsubishi does international contracts on 10 and 15 year increments. I just Had Mitsubishi corporation verify that 3 yrs ago they renewed a 10 year contract for sales in the United States of America.
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