WOW what a disappointment!!!!
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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/5425528.html
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And now a very dismal December... Subaru was down 9%, Mitsu 40%!
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/5425528.html
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/5425528.html
And in other news, 2008 Dakar Rally has been cancelled: http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/news/s...=99&id=3180745 Now that really sucks, looks like terrorists win again, the greatest rally in the world has been shelved Nothing but bad news all over the place today...
#185
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That -40.4% drop for Mitsu was by far the worst in the auto industry for December. The only other brand with a double digit percentage decrease was Isuzu at -22.8%.
That's gotta hurt Mitsu to be the worst in the industry during a December when the entire industry was only down -2.9%.
That's gotta hurt Mitsu to be the worst in the industry during a December when the entire industry was only down -2.9%.
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That -40.4% drop for Mitsu was by far the worst in the auto industry for December. The only other brand with a double digit percentage decrease was Isuzu at -22.8%.
That's gotta hurt Mitsu to be the worst in the industry during a December when the entire industry was only down -2.9%.
That's gotta hurt Mitsu to be the worst in the industry during a December when the entire industry was only down -2.9%.
Last edited by blitzkrieg79; Jan 4, 2008 at 07:21 AM.
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The sad fact is that KIA and hyundai have been eating MItsus lunch for the past 5 years. I remember when people would laugh at the mention of the words KIA or hyundai but now peopel are choosing those brands and feeling proud that their cars are even getting good reviews form auto mags..LOL Mention mitsu now and you get no response not even a laugh... sad!
I believe that most of these KIA and hyundi buyers are people that mitsubishi would have sold a car to long ago. KIA and hyundi are now making affordable cars with modern features that look ok. and they are marketing hard to the right folks even though they have nothing in their line up nearly as cool as the 1999 eclipse GSX or EVO9... i used to drive a POS 2003 lancer ES and the dealership used to go to suddenly and with out warning switched to KIA, when I asked, the owner told me there just aint no money in mitsu cars anymore.
I believe that most of these KIA and hyundi buyers are people that mitsubishi would have sold a car to long ago. KIA and hyundi are now making affordable cars with modern features that look ok. and they are marketing hard to the right folks even though they have nothing in their line up nearly as cool as the 1999 eclipse GSX or EVO9... i used to drive a POS 2003 lancer ES and the dealership used to go to suddenly and with out warning switched to KIA, when I asked, the owner told me there just aint no money in mitsu cars anymore.
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I would have bought an Outlander, had offered the '08 with a 4banger, instead of only having 6-cyl engines in it ... and I MOST DEFINITELY would have bought an AWD 4G63 Outlander had it been available. Instead, I went with a Forester XT Sport.
IMO, sales of the Lancer are hurting partly due to the fact that while most reviews say that the car is great to drive, most reviews also state that it is underpowered.
l8r)
IMO, sales of the Lancer are hurting partly due to the fact that while most reviews say that the car is great to drive, most reviews also state that it is underpowered.
l8r)
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I would have bought an Outlander, had offered the '08 with a 4banger, instead of only having 6-cyl engines in it ... and I MOST DEFINITELY would have bought an AWD 4G63 Outlander had it been available. Instead, I went with a Forester XT Sport.
IMO, sales of the Lancer are hurting partly due to the fact that while most reviews say that the car is great to drive, most reviews also state that it is underpowered.
l8r)
IMO, sales of the Lancer are hurting partly due to the fact that while most reviews say that the car is great to drive, most reviews also state that it is underpowered.
l8r)
And yeah, the AWD 4G63 Turbo Outlander was available in Europe, great little ride, and compared to base Outlander models it wasn't all that more expensive either... Mitsubishi has so many cool and unique vehicles across the world that I just don't understand why some of them can't find its way to USA
And as far as Mitsubishis being underpowered, I don't agree with it, when you compare price to HP/0-60 ratio Mitsubishi isn't any worse than the competition. I find it funny when car magazines praise the new Civic and it's engine/performance when in fact base Civic with auto transmission barely gets 0-60 time under 10 sec. and they bash on new Lancer as being underpowered when the base Lancer with CVT beats a base Civic with auto-tranny by almost a second to 0-60... Another example is the Endeavor, from performance point of view, although it has a bit less HP than Honda Pilot, it's 0-60 time is actually about the same.
Problem with Mitsubishi NA is at the top exec level, they have no clue how to run operations in US, to whom target their ads/sales. The 2002-2006 product US lineup was a bit stale but the new generation of vehicles has greatly improved. Reliability is also up, they rank near the top in recent Consumer Reports reliability rankings.
Last edited by blitzkrieg79; Jan 4, 2008 at 07:38 AM.
#191
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The problem isn't really with the cars themselves. Like several of you have stated, some of the new Mitsu cars/SUVs are pretty decent vehicles and stack up well against the competition.
The problem is that the Mitsubishi brand name isn't worth $h!t to the average US consumer. That's why Mitsu doesn't make it on their shopping list because they don't know anything about the brand and don't trust it.
And Mitsu is smoking crack thinking they will sell the Evo X to consumers who have luxury brands on their shopping list. You can't sell a brand like Mitsubishi to a luxury consumer when the brand name itself doesn't stand for anything...even if it is a car like the Evo...just isn't going to happen. Case in point, is that they can't even sell Mitsu vehicles to consumers that have Mazda, Kia and Hyundai on their shopping list...
The problem is that the Mitsubishi brand name isn't worth $h!t to the average US consumer. That's why Mitsu doesn't make it on their shopping list because they don't know anything about the brand and don't trust it.
And Mitsu is smoking crack thinking they will sell the Evo X to consumers who have luxury brands on their shopping list. You can't sell a brand like Mitsubishi to a luxury consumer when the brand name itself doesn't stand for anything...even if it is a car like the Evo...just isn't going to happen. Case in point, is that they can't even sell Mitsu vehicles to consumers that have Mazda, Kia and Hyundai on their shopping list...
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The problem isn't really with the cars themselves. Like several of you have stated, some of the new Mitsu cars/SUVs are pretty decent vehicles and stack up well against the competition.
The problem is that the Mitsubishi brand name isn't worth $h!t to the average US consumer. That's why Mitsu doesn't make it on their shopping list because they don't know anything about the brand and don't trust it.
And Mitsu is smoking crack thinking they will sell the Evo X to consumers who have luxury brands on their shopping list. You can't sell a brand like Mitsubishi to a luxury consumer when the brand name itself doesn't stand for anything...even if it is a car like the Evo...just isn't going to happen. Case in point, is that they can't even sell Mitsu vehicles to consumers that have Mazda, Kia and Hyundai on their shopping list...
The problem is that the Mitsubishi brand name isn't worth $h!t to the average US consumer. That's why Mitsu doesn't make it on their shopping list because they don't know anything about the brand and don't trust it.
And Mitsu is smoking crack thinking they will sell the Evo X to consumers who have luxury brands on their shopping list. You can't sell a brand like Mitsubishi to a luxury consumer when the brand name itself doesn't stand for anything...even if it is a car like the Evo...just isn't going to happen. Case in point, is that they can't even sell Mitsu vehicles to consumers that have Mazda, Kia and Hyundai on their shopping list...
#193
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The problem isn't really with the cars themselves. Like several of you have stated, some of the new Mitsu cars/SUVs are pretty decent vehicles and stack up well against the competition.
The problem is that the Mitsubishi brand name isn't worth $h!t to the average US consumer. That's why Mitsu doesn't make it on their shopping list because they don't know anything about the brand and don't trust it.
And Mitsu is smoking crack thinking they will sell the Evo X to consumers who have luxury brands on their shopping list. You can't sell a brand like Mitsubishi to a luxury consumer when the brand name itself doesn't stand for anything...even if it is a car like the Evo...just isn't going to happen. Case in point, is that they can't even sell Mitsu vehicles to consumers that have Mazda, Kia and Hyundai on their shopping list...
The problem is that the Mitsubishi brand name isn't worth $h!t to the average US consumer. That's why Mitsu doesn't make it on their shopping list because they don't know anything about the brand and don't trust it.
And Mitsu is smoking crack thinking they will sell the Evo X to consumers who have luxury brands on their shopping list. You can't sell a brand like Mitsubishi to a luxury consumer when the brand name itself doesn't stand for anything...even if it is a car like the Evo...just isn't going to happen. Case in point, is that they can't even sell Mitsu vehicles to consumers that have Mazda, Kia and Hyundai on their shopping list...
Last edited by evolved83; Jan 4, 2008 at 08:00 AM.
#194
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As I mentioned earlier, the problem with Mitsubishi NA is they marketing/PR department, they need to invest a lot of money to put Mitsubishi on radar along the lines of Mazda, Hyundai, Kia. Their products are not any worse then the mentioned 3 brands plus they offer a better warranty than Mazda. They need to hire someone on top with US car sales experience that knows the American public. Those Japanese just don't cut it.
Then the Japanese took over the US operations in late 2003 and it's pretty much been all downhill from there. They also hired Finbarr Oneill as CEO (he worked previously as CEO at Hyundai). Guess where Mitsu got the idea for a 10/100K warranty? When all of those things happened I quit my job because I saw the writing on the wall and knew the company was going into some very rough times.
Last edited by atombomb33; Jan 4, 2008 at 08:07 AM.
#195
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The dealership service is a whole other issue they definitely need to address. But, the image of the brand should come first. Toyota dealerships are just as bad as Mitsubishi dealerships (Toyota typically ranks as one of the top 3 worst dealership experiences), yet people still buy Toyota vehicles because the brand name means something and people trust the company.