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Since the Renault-Nissan partnership has been so successful, it looks like cross-town rival Peugeot-Citroën is looking at getting in on the Japanese car action by buying a controlling interest in Mitsubishi. They're looking at buying anywhere from 30% to 53% for as much as $3.8B. If the deal goes through, it would make the combined company the sixth largest car maker in the world. This would be the third time Mitsubishi has been owned by a foreign maker, after Chrysler from the early '70s to the early '90s, and Mercedes-Benz from 2000-2005.

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My JNC: 1983 Subaru GL wagon
My JNM: 1979 Yamaha XS Eleven

Mitsu's been losing money like an early 90s rapper. PSA might be the only way for them to survive...

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It´s their own fault!

All their successful cars are with no successor:

Lancer Station 2WD and 4WD
Space Wagon 2WD and 4WD
Space Runner 2WD and 4WD
Space Gear 2WD and 4WD
Galant
Sigma
L300 2WD and 4WD
Eclipse
3000GT

All of these cars except the Sigma, the Eclipse and the 3000GT were very successful cars in the 80s and 90s, but they are all gone now! There´s only the Colt, the Lancer (without a StationWagon and without 4WD except the Evo) the Grandis with a VW-diesel and the offroad-cars (L200, Pajero, Outlander). One example that´s typical for Mitsubishi is that there is the Mitsubishi-Fuso Canter available here, but at the Mercedes-Benz-dealers...

Mitsubishi was a very successful car-maker in the 80s and 90s in Europe because of their useful and very reliable cars, most of themavailable with 4WD. But now, the only car with 4WD is the expensive to buy and very expensive to run Evo X and the offroad-cars. No wonder Mitsubishi is almost dead. Again!

Lukas

P.S.: I had 3 Mitsubishi before, I grew up with Mitsubishis and I like the brand very very much, but I get really angry when looking at the decisions made in the last 10 years!

I agree it's sad.

I was exceptionally fond of the Pajero/Montero.

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I think the Starion was a pretty cool car

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Michael S

As do I....

As I understand it though, Mitsubishi as a company was not in trouble, it seemed to be the the carline that is in trouble. I find it strange the Mitsu would consider selling off a controling interest in its car line, the parent corporation has more than enough money to back a falling company and I would think some technology/platform sharing would make more sense.

Also as far as there succesfull cars not having succesors....seems in the us they do.
The Mirage begat the Lancer, which is a GREAT car still and one of the few good cars you can get for les then 15k
The eclipse is still kicking, albeit not in the original form, but still a 2+2 sports coupe that appeals to a younger crowd.
The Montero Sport is gone...but have you driven in a new Outlanderor? You wil quickly forget the Mont Sport and its 20k mile balljoints and control arms.
Fullsize Montero? Well its time past... Americans stopped buying fullsize SUV's anyway and it was not worth a redesign. The Endeavor fits much better with current auto trends, Mazda CX7, Toyota Venza, etc...

I think its a solid car line, just suffers from poor marketing and an undeserved bad public image. They have a 10 year warranty now and great finance deals.
I may be biased a bit as there has been at least one Mitsu in my driveway since '99 and my sister drives an '09 Lancer, but I like them, and would not feel right with out at least one arond!

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Brad D.

'83 Sapporo Technica; '84 Starion ES; '87 Conquest TSi;
'91 RX7 convertible; '68 Camaro SS 350 convertible; '71 NSU 1200c

In Europe, only the L200 is a best-seller anymore, all the other cars suffer from loud and uncultivated diesel-engines bought from VW (Lancer, Grandis) or the lack of a Station Wagon and 4WD (Lancer). The utility-versions (L300, L300 4WD, L400) sold very well in the 90s, there are no successors too.

In Europe, Mitsubishi has become absolutely unimportant, the sales-figures are falling every year, there are the wrong models for our markets. And that´s very sad because as I said before I always was and will be a Mitsubishi-fan.

There's a difference between running a successful car company and making cars that are exciting and desirable by performance enthusiasts. And these two things are rarely found in the same company. Being a successful car company means selling a lot of bland and boring cars to a lot of bland and boring customers.

Mitsubishi's recent problems seem to have a lot to do with a marred reputation in Japan when they did a cover up of some mechanical defects (something about axles and trucks), and a very bad sales strategy in the US to sell cars with "Zero Down", which resulted in car buyers making "Zero Payments", and Mitsubishi USA got back a flood of thoroughly abused, high mileage, one and two year old repos.

The 1990-1999 Eclipse was a pretty good enthusiast car, from the standpoint of having good potential, being made over a long period of time, and sharing parts across generations of the car. It built a good following.
The 2000+ Eclipse is a giant step backwards in engineering and performance potential. Solid beam rear axle instead of independent rear suspension. No AWD. Drum rear brakes. No turbo. Radical departure from the previous generation so none of the existing performance parts transfer to the new design.

The Raider pickup was reintroduced several years ago, for a few weeks, and then immediately killed off.

Mitsubishi has no Mirage or small economy car in the US market any more.

The Lancer and competing Impreza, give a good example of how different a strategy can be for the same market segment. Subaru lives happily in their niche and makes no pretense of trying to be selling a product for every possible buyer and market segment. But the Evo and STi are dead even at the top of the rally/boy racer portion of the desirable performance car category. But in trim levels below the top, the strategy is drastically different. Subaru offers several different tiers of engine power and performance, all of which are pretty potent, and none is a slouch. Mitsubishi offers two levels: The Evo and a grossly underpowered base model that makes a Daewoo look powerful.
But, from the standpoint of selling a lot of bland and boring cars to a lot of bland and boring customers, the Lancer seems to be getting the job done, because there are a lot of them out there on the road. It certainly is not unpopular. These were going to be the replacement for the Dodge Neon at one point and it's Chrysler's loss for not following through on that plan because they seem to be more common than Dodge Calibers (which replaced the Neon).

I see, the requirements for the US- and the European-markets are almost completely different, but the problems seem to be almost identical...