http://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/05/mitsubishi-set-to-close-australian-plant/ Autoblog Comments for http://www.autoblog.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.autoblog.com en-us Copyright 2008 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/05/mitsubishi-set-to-close-australian-plant/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/05/mitsubishi-set-to-close-australian-plant/
Unfortunately Mitsubishi has made their big mistake by investing in a sedan that has made Mitsubishi unpopular in most markets. The sedan itself, no matter what bumpers it has, is a disaster with it's out of date styling. I know that if they were already working on the Concept ZT as the next Galant then it would do better than this boring sedan. I'm not at all knocking the quality as I know it is a very well built sedan, it's just that styling is a big part in how well a car sells and well you can see this is not really doing it for them.

On another note I did notice that back in the late 90's Mitsubishi really had an edge with cars such as the 2nd gen Eclipse with turbo and AWD, the Diamante which rivaled most luxury brands such as BMW & Lexus. I still happen to really like the design of the last remaining Diamantes left on the road, the Galant with it's sporty but aggressive styling, the 3000 GT for people like me who want something very sporty, unique, a head turner, and have many different options such as the VR4 which I still proudly happen to own and drive daily, and the Montero Sport which seemed to be the perfect SUV for people who did not want a big huge Ford Expedition and wanted something different from the Ford Explorer.

I think IMO Mitsubishi sort of shot themselves in the foot with the 2000 Eclipse by combining the 3000 GT and the previous gen Eclipse into 1 car, taking away any cool edgy sporty feel and make it a touring car, killing the previous gen Galant & Diamante and using the 380 sedan as the next gen Galant, also killing the Montero Sport and instead just slightly inflating the Outlander to take it's place. I can understand why the Pajero/Montero had to go as that SUV had suffered many issues in the USA. The only thing they seem to have gotten right is the redesign of the Lancer and the redesigning of the current Eclipse, however we need to see more aggressiveness from Mitsubishi instead of using the typical "i give up and just want to settle" styling on their next batch of cars or they may end up losing more profits in other markets. Believe it or not there are a lot of people out there who still seriously miss the 2nd gen Eclipse and what that car stood for. An affordable, intimidatingly stylish, sporty, cop magnet, 2 door pocket rocket racer with AWD and turbo.

Come on Mitsubishi you had the fire in you once before, please we need to see it again. ]]>Feb 5th 2008 9:25AM