Mitsubishi gaining interested in us

[Offroadmuch]

The conditions at the dealership are entirely the responsibility of the dealership's management, not MMNA. To accomplish anything in that direction you'd need to direct your complaints to the General Manager of the dealership, and hope he gives a ****.

That is pretty much what they said and that is fine if they want dealerships with their name on the sign out front that look like cr@p and call it good. This is why the whole "5 Star" dealership thing started years ago, so they could have some quality control over each location. For example, if I go and get my Mercedes serviced and the survey that I fill out is not good the dealership risks losing 5 star status which lowers their standing for advertising purposes but more importantly they are forced to pay more for each vehicle they get from the parent company which makes it harder to compete within their own brand, thus it is actually cheaper to have great customer service and get 10/10 customer surveys to keep costs down.

Not to mention that instead of telling the consumer, "you will need to talk to the manager about your lousy experience at the dealership," they could tell me the same thing but that they would relay my concerns to the dealer. This would let the dealer know that customers are not happy and that the parent corporation knows about it and I wouldn't feel like I got blown off. Everything mentioned here is just good old fashioned customer service. Ultimately that is what Yelp is. You get great service and you tell the world about it. Or you get screwed and tell everyone that. The mitsu dealer I am referring to has a 3.5 on Yelp and some very detailed reviews, including an F Rating by the Better Business Bureau. So based on my personal experience I think it would be beneficial for the parent company to encourage each dealer to meet high quality standards. I know I am not speaking to Mitsubishi here and I am sure we all like good customer service so I guess I am just venting. It is too bad that such a great car company isn't a great people company.

 

[coffeegoat]

I'm actually really excited about the possibility of a Nissan/Mitsu mash up in the direction of a plug-in hybrid SUV. No one has really cracked the fuel efficient, smart approach to a hybrid off road vehicle, but in theory a heavy hybrid (or better yet a plug-in hybrid) offers some amazing benefits to the type of duty we see with our trucks. For on road use, I do lots of short trips, often on the highway, that could be easily covered by a small (<30 mile) all electric range. On longer highway trips, unless you're in the mountains doing 85 up the pass, you're probably only using 50-60 HP for cruising so you could get by with running a very undersized engine to provide all the cruising power you need. Off road you're generally moving slow(ish) and what you need is controlled torque (and good diffs) the reason we have to rev so high is to get the torque up where we need it to do the crawling, but an electric motor could do this easily. About the only place this sort of approach would suffer (that I'm aware of) is flat out driving for long periods, desert blasting, hill climbing, etc, and in my case I basically never do this sort of driving.

I know it would be a complicated and difficult system to work on, and I know most manufacturers would punt here and give us a half baked system, but mitsu might actually be the ones to make it work. I think of it like the Volvo Turbo/Super charger engines where they do some crafty electronics to get you the boost when you need it and make it sip fuel when you don't. I think between Nissan and Mitsubishi they could actually pull it off and it could be awesome. Imagine a 400HP, 500 ft*lb, montero that gets 25-30 mpg, it could happen and boy would it be awesome.

 

[PirateMcGee]

I just want a fuel efficient 4wd truck that doesn't cost a billion dollars. The 2.7 Tacoma is the closest thing available but the fuel economy is no better than my 1986 was, still has rear drums, and cruise control isn't standard.

Take the L200, put a torquey 4cyl turbo (diesel or gas) in it with a 6 speed manual and a manual t-case and sell it here for the price of the Taco SR.....

They would sell a ton of them.

 

[AZPAJERO]

Take the L200, put a torquey 4cyl turbo (diesel or gas) in it with a 6 speed manual and a manual t-case and sell it here for the price of the Taco SR.....

I think someone read what you wrote :Wow1:

https://www.outsideonline.com/2187741/mitsubishi-l200-desert-warrior

 

[ManfromSnowyRiver]

Playing it by ear for now. Life is a bit less complex now, but its a long drive for a short trip. 11hrs for me..double AZ guys

 

[Toasty]

At one point in Mitsubishi's career they had models that were outselling their Toyota equivalent, unfortunately they later discontinued them or priced them out of their market share. They could dominate the small pickup segment if they played the game correctly.

 

[coffeegoat]

What's funny about that is they probably need more small, high mileage vehicles, and a small diesel-high MPG truck would help drag up their overall line MPG so they would have an easier time with big SUVs. Trucks are also generally high profit items (F150 is outrageously profitable) so they would probably also do well economically. I remember when Mahindra (an indian firm) was talking about bring a small diesel pickup to the US, it had crazy buzz, and then the entire thing fell apart...

 

[darreljourgenson]

Well they did put a torquey 4cyl turbo in the L200, its the 4m41 and 3rd gen/4th gen Di-D 4d56 (295lb tq or 258lb tq) and 6spd manual was an option.

I have a 2011 triton (l200) with a 5 Speed and 4d56t. The latest model has a 6 speed. They're very popular here in Australia, I don't know why you don't get them in the us. I get about 27 mpg.

Sent from my SM-N910G using Tapatalk

 

[lqdchkn]

I miss the upper echelon Mitsubishi Engineering and wish theyd really come back with a "real" product to the US market. What those guys delivered in the EVO was genius.

 

[Offroadmuch]

How to completely dominate the small pickup segment in the USA in one easy step:

1. start selling literally any small pickup in the USA

Done.

ANY kind of marketing campaign would help. I cannot remember seeing any advertising anyplace since the old sero down, no payments for a year or whatever it was years ago.

 

[Toasty]

LT told me there was an interview with one of the high ups at MMC Japan basically saying they were forced into certain markets and were trying their best to fail so hard that they could get out. US being one of them. Maybe he'll post up to elaborate.

 

[PajEvo]

ANY kind of marketing campaign would help. I cannot remember seeing any advertising anyplace since the old sero down, no payments for a year or whatever it was years ago.

Its funny how things are so opposite just north of the border. We are literally in your shadow up here, and if the US market fails, then ours will surely follow. And ditto for success. But our history up here is completely different than yours with Mitsubishi. We didn't get "real" badged Mitsus until the 2003's came out in fall 2002. Before that we could get D50's, Raiders, Eagle Talons, 2000GTX, Colts: All "Imported for Dodge" but NO bonafide Mitsus. I remember a lot of buzz in 02 when we learned that dealerships were opening and they were finally coming. I bought the first Mitsu in Calgary, an 03 Lancer OZ Rally - possibly the first Mitsu sold in Canada, according to the dealer. I've had 3 new Lancers and an Outlander since then. Sales of them in Canada have been pretty solid for all this time. Ups and downs like any market, but the Lancer in particular is ubiquitous on our roads, from Newfoundland to Vancouver. And advertising is widespread. I'm so sick of the 10 year warranty ads, and the Outlander ads, and the Mirage ads...

Do we have a thriving imported JDM mitsu market up here? I wish. Our restriction is 15 years, and while there are more than a passing number of Delicas on the wet coast, as you move east, this number quickly dwindles. Even more so for Pajeros, etc. Me and my crew probably own half the jdm mitsus in the area. But still, everyone I meet with my diesel pickup asks why Mitsu never officially sold them here. (When I'm driving the paj evo I just get strange looks and sometimes whispered snickers about Batman.)

So I guess what I'm saying is the market to your north is ripe for new product too, has done pretty well by advertising, and probably has enough pick ups and SUV's on the road to ring the arctic circle a few times (just trying to play to the stereotypes LOL).

 

[ManfromSnowyRiver]

You cannot go back in time. But you can start over as Nissan did.

1. Except the mistakes of the past, and UNDERSTAND them
2. Delete ALL current models, they are embarrassing and lose money
3. Except the cross over market is brutally over diluted and hopeless market
4. Except that trucks and SUVs have frames and always will.( let Honda sell 20 Ridgelines a year out of stupidity)
5. Be bold and aggressive. Starting over with another junker car wont get it. Competing in no way at all wont work either.(ask Nissan how the new Titan is going)
6. Re-start the R&D system for patents that made Mistubishi motors rich in the 1990s. Dont just put it in your cars, lead the way again.
7. Compact truck has a market, dont be stupid and dont let Ford beat you to it. Dominate that market then move up in the truck and SUV food chain
8. A Rubicon competitor with room, power and reliability for a realistic price has a market(again dont let Ford beat you to it)
9. Dont believe ANYTHING Japanese corporate thinks about the US market, they are wrong, every time
10. Except that big *** gas guzzling trucks and suvs while expensive to develop bring home the bacon and that has not changed since you left the market in the 1990s and shows no signs of changing
11. Dont build and under powered ANYTHING for gods sakes!
12 The autonomous vehicle revolution may ultimately destroy Nissan and Mitsubishi, better figure out who the hell to partner with!

 

[ManfromSnowyRiver]

The small pick up truck is one of the big failures. No updates for a century kept it a bottom dweller at the end. Better cancel it its not selling! NOOOO you need to update and upgrade. Then when no 4drs existed Mitsubishi did not see that market coming...They could have been first. Instead Nissan blew it up first.