I am sorry to the employees at the several Mitsubishi dealerships that have closed down, i wish them all well. To me this all stems from Mitsubishi Canada head office. I myself wont get into details of the experiences i have had but i am happy to see that one by one the people that have gone through these experiences can make a difference. After all it is the power of WE the people that can complain or keep complaining and help Mitsubishi realize that they need to rethink and learn that customer service goes a long way...anyways just last week i steered a good friend away from buying a lancer, and i know that friend will steer his friends from doing the same thing..i have done the same over the past year...so if you are like me and spreading the word keep on doing it as you can see it is making a difference which will ultimately force Mitsubishi to make some changes in order to survive

 

So by steering business away from them you think you are helping? This is why all your dealers are shutting their doors

 

Telling people to not buy Mitsubishi cars is not helping us. We need Mitsubishi to improve their service...not to scare people away.

 

its a business...they wont improve their service until financials force them to

 

I hope this is a bad april fools joke.....wait, it's not april. Arghhh

 

That's true... but me not having a place to service my car isn't cool either. We should try and get Mitsu to improve their service... but having dealerships disappear is no good.

 

Your heart is in the right place. But its harsh to push people awayBut we all love Mitsubishi. And we all want to see them win. While I have spent a while in the community helping administrate over the car club. I found it increasingly difficult to maintain good and clear relations with dealerships. They are to be honest, much more unstable than other manufacturer dealership locations. The turn over rate for staff is, very high. There is a constant shuffle from one dealer to the next. And it's very likely that the person you like dealing with at a dealership will likely not be there 6 months to a year later. A classic example would be Josephine from Dixie to EM. It was very clear that people followed her because of the level of service they received. There are a few people like this scattered thru Mitsubishi dealerships that are prime examples of great service reps. Darren at Maple Mitsubishi (Service manager), Jose from Scarborough. Unfortunately they are not their anymore or very soon will not be.

Dealers have been spending money dismissing and rehiring dealership staff thinking that a purge will work. Unfortunately, it doesnt. Because without the customer connection to the staff. You will not build loyalty. This is a point I have shared with dealership management as well as Corporate Head office in Canada. While I have been told its more complicated than that... honestly if you stop to think. It isn't.

For example, people may be shocked to know that I do not have my car serviced anywhere but Maple Mitsubishi. If I can't because of timing or location distance. I go to a Non Mitsu dealership that I know very well. (7 Years) Why? because I have owned previous vehicles and brought my car to those specific locations for service. Case and point. I bought my Lancer to this other dealership for service on the rear brakes. 150 bucks for servicing and installing pads and rotors. Some might say. "That is expensive". But here is what they did. Way back when I had my car hit in a parking lot. I had this pushed in on the side of the rear bumper. Well my dealer didnt ask me, but they went in under the bumper and pushed the bump out for me by heating it up and pushing. I got my car back, paid the bill and they said "Hey we took care of that bumper for you." I went out to look and to my surprise. They pushed it back.

And I thought to myself. Awesome! And its that kind of service that would make me come back. To know that someone out there has my back when it comes to trouble. They didnt have to do that. In some cases dealers would be afraid to do that because they could possible get blamed by a customer for making it worse. Anyways you get my point. Actions speak louder than words.

Getting back to Mitsubishi. The focus needs to shift to be more "Mitsu-centric" A word I made up, but is based on the real principles of Mitsubishi Japan Corporate. When they asked me during a phone call conversation, they asked me. "If you were CEO what would you do, to make Mitsubishi Motors better"

I told them, "I have everything I need. We just need to make use of what we have and operate by the principles set out from management years ago." They asked what do I mean? Then I sent them to my website where they saw this.



This image is a written declaration of Mitsubishi ideals / principles. When I look at Mitsubishi today, I see that for the most part they do execute those ideals. But they do not apply these ideals to the end customer.

http://www.mitsubishi-motors.com/en/...principle.html

Mitsubishi, is a very strong but do not take into consideration local interest in strategic planning. The focus for me would be to focus on the customer in each specific region. At the point of sale and post sale points. Marketing the Ralliart brand has been something that Mitsubishi just seems to not have any interest in doing. The other side of it is taking an Anti modification stand point is very harsh and leaves a very bad taste in their mouth. What makes this bigger problem is, other manufacturers are going in the other direction and inviting modification. Hyundai for example, http://www.hyundaiperformance.ca/main_en.html Next Spring you will likely be able to get coilovers at the dealership, INSTALLED as well.


Bringing this argument full circle. Mitsubishi needs to put the focus on customers. Its not so much about the cars. We already know Mitsubishi makes some pretty good cars. But for the longest time, Mitsubishi has been seen moving, if not running away from the things that has made them great. People dreamed about owning an EVO in Canada. before 2008, you would have guys spending 20,000+ plus for an EVO 8 or 9. No warranty, no promise the car was even in good shape. But guys would do it in a heart beat cause they wanted something great. That still exists today, but Mitsubishi makes it a bit hard. I would also like to see Mitsubishi open corporate locations to stabilize the market.

My two cents...

 

http://www.hyundaiperformance.ca/ima...e_parts_en.pdf

 

^ oh wow coils and stop tech upgrade!