Dear Mitsubishi; Please stop. It's over.

"Mazarin" (Mazarin) 10/23/2013 at 11:00 • Filed to: Mitsubishi, Please Stop

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Mitsubishi, you used to be cool, man. You used to be THE GUY. You used to be big and all-wheel-drive, and twin-turbo'd. You used to be small and turbo'd. You used to be small, turbo'd, and FWD. AND RWD. You used to be beautiful. You had big eyes, Pop-ups, chiseled physique, wide stance. You used to be bad-ass-practical. 300HP? Boosted? AWD? And I can put people in the back seat? AND I didn't have to pay $30K+ for it. You used to be a movie star. You used to be on posters.

Then you got greedy, man. You lost your love of the game.

You got away from what got you here. You tried for a bigger share of the pie and started making bad decisions. To cover for those, you started cutting corners. Stopped designing in Japan. No more turbos. No more RWD. No more AWD. You stopped making cars that people wanted. We already had Camrys and Altimas - why did you think people wanted sackless clones of already-emotionless beige-mobiles? A DEFUNCT AMERICAN CAR COMPANY USED THE LANCER AS A CAUTIONARY EXAMPLE, QUOTE - "Now what would posess a man to drive a car like that?" But hey, you couldn't just let that go, so you further neutered your only "sportscar," but it looked pretty! Kinda. Then here it was - the news we were waiting for - Mitsubishi finally brought America the Evo(in limited supply w/ huge dealer markups)! And now you make... You make... What do you make!? You make an SUV nobody drives... You make a sedan - that nobody drives... OH! You make a glorified golf cart that workers in Normal, IL drive to-and-from the plant. Then it looks as if you're releasing this... thing: !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Hey, not everyone made it out of the 2000s. Some were forced out of the game. Others - they knew it was time to hang it up.

Mitsubishi - We've made some great memories together. We had the 3000GT/GTO, the FTO, the Galant VR4, Colt/Mirage, the Starion, the old Eclipses... but it's time to hang up the keys. You've gone far beyond "Michael Jordan w/ the Washington Wizards" territory. Please stop embarrassing yourself.

davedave1111 > Mazarin 10/23/2013 at 11:18

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I think you're a bit unfair. Mitsubishi very nearly died in the first few years of the last decade. It's been recovering since. The Mitsubishi i kei car has been a huge seller for them, by their standards, and a major part of rebuilding the company. Their SUVs have always been big sellers, what with them starting off as a truck company.

If you'll forgive me for saying so, I think you've focused on one very short period in Mitsubishi's history as being a golden era, even though it nearly killed the company.

Mike_Smith > Mazarin 10/23/2013 at 11:32

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I'm glad I ran across this article. I think I may go look around for a used early '90s Eclipse GSX in decent condition...

Casper > Mazarin 10/23/2013 at 11:36

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The problem I see is that what you see as their high point, was very damaging for them. Until the Evo, they never really had a car that was dominant against it's competition (and that was a very ebb and flow fight). What they were seen as was a novelty. They had some AWD offerings that weren't European, and were doing so with partnerships between Plymouth/Chrysler/Dodge. Really, they were mostly competing with themselves under different branding. Their Eclipse was competing with the Laser and Talon. The 3000GT was fighting with the Stealth. When they actually ran into competition beyond that scope, for instance when people would start putting the 3000GT in the comparisons with 300ZXs, RX-7s, Supras, etc, they were woefully lacking. They became much cooler than they had been, but they also lost a ton of money doing so. By the time they came around to the end of the 90s, they were nearly a dead company.

Currently they are not embarrassing themselves. They are going back to what actually made them money. Those flagship cars you remember were actually failed attempts to break into the sportscar market, and were extremely outside the main Mitsubishi business. They may have cult followings, but they are far from great or profitable cars.

Vintage1982Benz > Mazarin 11/01/2013 at 13:51

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It's too bad. I actually think the Outlander Sport is pretty sharp, unfortunately I have never heard one good/decent thing about its performance.

Ultrakill > Mazarin 11/01/2013 at 14:13

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I picked up a '90 Montero (last year of 1st generation) about 7 months ago. It's often mistaken for Merc G-wagen, old Land Rover Disco, or old Toyo Land Cruiser, until they see the spare wheel sporting a huge 3-diamond logo on back. Picked it up for a steal, and everything works flawlessly on it (engine has 211,000+ now). Sure it needed a lot of work at first, but now, it's a solid 4x4 vehicle as well as daily driver (when I don't use bike). I think if Mitsubishi were to focus on what they used to do really well, purpose build 4x4, trucks or suv's, they would be able to rise from the ashes so to speak. The Tacoma is basically going unchallenged in the mini-truck dominion inside the USA right now. And now only it's Toyota and Jeep left in the 4x4 (actual offroading) wars. Land Rover is officially out of that race. As well as everyone else.

I think slowly Mitsubishi is rebuilding, and I have high hopes for their comeback. They build solid vehicles that stay on the road for a very long time... just look at all the old eclipses or old mini trucks still on the road.

CynicalCyclist > Mazarin 11/01/2013 at 15:53

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I think we as enthusiasts forget that what we like is not what sells well.

people want bland cars.