Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Report: Mitsubishi could kill off Galant, Eclipse by 2013

Things aren't looking good for the Mitsubishi lineup of American-built vehicles. According to AutoWeek, the Japanese automaker is channeling all of its resources into building a new global small car. That means that between now and 2012, we won't be seeing too many updates to the likes of the Galant, Endeavor, Eclipse or Eclipse Spyder. All of those past-their-prime vehicles ride on the same platform and are built in the company's Normal, Illinois manufacturing facility. As of right now, AutoWeek says that the Japanese automaker hasn't decided what to build at that plant once cars like the current Eclipse go the way of the dinosaur.

Mitsubishi has been planning a new global car for a good while now, and while details are still murky at the moment, we're told to expect a fuel-thrifty 1.0 or 1.3-liter four-cylinder engine under the hood. The car is expected to show up in either late 2012 or early 2013, which leaves Mitsubishi to soldier on with only two other planned additions to its lineup between now and then – the i-MiEV electric vehicle and the Outlander Sport.

Us? We're a bit more pessimistic. If cash-strapped Mitsu offs a significant portion of its lineup amidst slumping sales, will a new inexpensive small car and the Outlander and Lancer lineups make U.S. dealers enough money for them to stay in business?

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/09/07/r...lipse-by-2013/

Fizzboy7

Is that really wise when just about everything else in their line-up is already collecting cobwebs? Dump those two and you'll sweep out just about all customers. Very sad to watch this once popular company fall. After frumping up the third gen Eclipse, things were never the same.

MPLexus301

iTrader: (3)

They shot themselves in the foot with this generation of Eclipse anyway. Whoever thought that was a good idea should have been shot.

metalgear

As long as they don't kill the Evo it's fine by me.

mmarshall

The decline of the 3Gen and 4Gen Eclipse after 1999 was Mitsubishi's own fault, IMO. The 2Gen 1995-99 model, though unreliable and sloppily-assembled/painted, was a superb sports-coupe, and included the popular GS-T Turbo and GS-X Turbo AWD models. The GS-T was a superb sports coupe even in spite of its FWD layout. For the 3Gen model, in 2000, Mitsubishi dropped the turbo and AWD options, to the strong protests of the car's faithful, offerning only FWD and a N/A 4 and V6. The factory (very stubbornly) turned a deaf ear to the many requests to bring the GS-T and GS-X versions back, and the car languished from then on. Yes, the Evo was developed to replace it, but the Evo, even as a cult-car, never had the popularity of the 2Gen Eclipse.

gengar

It's amazing how far the Eclipse has fallen from an affordable, popular, tuner-friendly RWD sportscar, to now being put on the chopping block. Talk about running a brand into the ground.

I'm not sure how much faith I have in the Evo. Mitsubishi really dropped the ball on their goal to make the Evo mainstream. In the not too distant future we may look at them running the Evo marque into the ground just as they have with the Eclipse. Don't get me wrong - I think that, in a vacuum, the Evo X MR is a great car. It's full of technology including the Getrag dual-clutch and both the MR and GSR remain tuner-friendly, with several even ECU-only tune options bringing up the whp into the ballpark of (if not over) more expensive performance cars like the IS-F.

The problem is that such a huge move to mainstream doesn't work for these types of enthusiast vehicles, because mainstream buyers don't put a huge premium on performance and mainstream buyers aren't going to pay $40k for a Mitsubishi. At the same time, Mitsubishi has also managed to alienate the enthusiasts who loved the Evo for being hardcore. Anyone who has driven an Evo VI or earlier models and has also driven the Evo X MR will probably not even think they're the same family of car much less generations of the same vehicle.

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

I can't find the article, but the next generation Evo was "rumormill" supposedly going to drop turbo for hybrid. If this happens, rest assured Mitsubishi is finished.

Agreed seem's like gone are the days of performance/tuner friendly vehicles such as the Eclipse, 3000GT, 300ZX, MR2 blah blah blah etc.

Maybe if Mitsubishi became a niche brand and focused on sports cars again, they may have a chance. Instead diluting themselves with forgotten models like the Galant, Endeavor etc

Vladi

Title is misleading. They had cravings for sensational headlines I guess.

What is happening is that Mitsubishi NA is getting a second role in US market to Mitsubishi Japan. In other words things are going to be like they used to be before Mitsubishi started manufacture of vehicles here. Most of the vehicles will be from Japan again. Next Galant was/is ready to be produced in US but who knows what happened or if its going to happen. Most likely they will be built in Japan for US on streched Lancer platform, this is solely my guess. And Eclipse is for a fact dead. It will only be revived if Mitsu resurrects RA concept

jaseman

This is all relative. Ask a gearhead from the 70's how much easier it was to tune his musclecar compared to the 80's/90's imports. Those great, tuner friendly Japanese sportscars of the early 90's were still more complex than the basic Chevy smallblock to make power from. And kids 20 years from now will be modding their hybrids with laptops and computer coding, laughing at us while we try to just find the battery.

But yes, federal regulations of all sorts have changed how easily we can tune our own cars. The technology that manufacturers need to use to build performance while meeting emissions, safety, or other standards gets incrementally more complex every generation. So tuner-friendly changes with it. But go find a 12 year old. He'll be able to tune any modern car while we sit there and scratch our heads...

LexFather

Thanks. Controversial since exporting from Japan will be more expensive.

Before Honda and Toyota and BMW and Acura Mitsubishi got hit with the ugly stick. They need to fix that first.

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Who and where will the ugly stick strike next!!! Stay tuned lol

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

True true. Damn kids and their ECU decoders and computer skills. I want my IS cracked and tuned

LexFather

Seems to be hitting Benz

mmarshall

The problem with the Galant is not so much that it is a bad car, but that the Camry and Accord so totally dominate the mid-sized-sedan market that it is difficult, if not impossible, for other cars in that class to realistically compete, though, lately, there are some signs of that changing, especially with the Ford Fusion and Chevy Malibu. The Nissan Altima, lately, has also been moderately successful. But the Camry and Accord are both American institutions....both of them ride on their decades-long coattails.

Fizzboy7

I'll take it a little further and say the Galant suffers from SUV styling. Headlights, taillights, and front end are too blocky and upright. Dash looks like it was assembled with LEGOS, and the running gear was nothing to write home about. This is nothing but pure human incompetance. This car debuted with styling that was just going out of style.
But let's not forget the 1997 Montero Sport sold very well. They succeeded with that SUV. But rather than updating it, it languished and they discontinued it (!). The replacement Endeavor had strange and frumpy styling and was a huge failure. I put all the blame on the executives who run the company and okay these decisions and bad designs.