Is This The End For Mitsubishi?

If you’ve been paying attention to automotive news in recent days, then you may have heard that Mitsubishi is the latest auto company to be called out for cheating on emissions and fuel economy tests. More specifically, Mitsubishi has admitted to manipulating fuel economy tests on some of its Japanese market kei cars and is currently under investigation by the Japanese government.

While most would agree this isn’t on the same scale as Volkswagen’s Dieselgate scandal, Mitsubishi Motors Corporation is a much smaller company and may have trouble absorbing the damage from this. Even before this news, Mitsubishi has been struggling to find its place in the market, and many are wondering if this could finally spell the end of the company.

From a car enthusiast’s standpoint this might not sound like a big loss as the company seems to have already abandoned performance cars, but it’s never good to see a once-great name fall. Whether the company can financially survive this or not, things are not looking good for a return to the exciting Mitsubishi of the past. Thinking about the Evolutions, GTOs, Starions and other cool Mitsubishi models of days gone by, it’s tough to not to feel sad.

Do you think Mitsubishi will pull through?

Mike Garrett
Instagram: japanifornia_media
mike@speedhunters.com

Photo from the Mitsubishi Media Archive

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1

I don't think so, the Mitsubishi Group is very big, they don't only make cars, but this will be a serious handicap for the brand. Anyway, Mitsubishi died for petrolheads some years ago, like Lancia in the late 90's, no more cool rally/road cars made.

2

Didn't they cheat on cars they make for Nissan, not under their own brand?

3

They dropped the Evo, their only chance at winning my heart. Now they can die off for all I care

4
awesomefearwave

DonHoonigan yeah but the evos of the 2000s were still very good. they still performed very well on street and on the track.

5

JakWhite The cars concerned were sold by both Mitsubishi (as the eK wagon and eK Space) and Nissan (as the Dayz and Dayz Roox).

6

A mirage gti-r could bring back some enthusiasm to the brand but sadly it will never happen

7

They have been a letdown lately rebadge car, killing off the evo. The cars they are making now is just boring cheap cars with weird old designs... After they have killed off the evo.. the brand is dead to me.

8

Didn't Mitsubishi build the Zero WWII airplane? Maybe there will be a Japanese bailout.

9

@AUTONERD They used to be one big company, but after WW2 and the dissolution of the Zaibatsu, Mitsubishi was divided into smaller companies. They have no parent company, they just kept the name (except for some like Kirin or Nikon) and own shares of each other. Right now the company which would be considered as the one who built the Zero is Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation..

10

Hyundai is building rally cars and competing in WRC, while Mitsu,,,,,enough said.

11
Just a Southern Sergal

They abandoned performance cars, and they even made an almost automated Monterosports with a high risk of SUA. Bye bye, Mitsubishi.

12

Honestly I do not understand is what is currently happening with the companies. Some (such as Mitsubishi, Nissan and Toyota) are responsible for killing the cars more iconic, emblematic and desired by everyone (like the S chassis by Nissan and the Supra by Toyota, the Evo's, the RX-7 and many others) and only are dedicated to make purely functional and nothing exciting cars (except the R35 G-TR and the 370Z by Nissan) and then enter the cheat game to manipulate regulations and parameters (first Volkswagen and now Mitsubishi) thus reducing its credibility to potential new buyers. It Is a estrange way to act for these companies.

13

First, abandoning their performance cars is a really stupid decision. 
Second, cheating on emission and fuel economy tests? That will only make things worse.
If they keep on doing these, then sorry. SAIYONARA.

14
Rollin2quarters

Speedhunters Honestly as an Evo owner, I could care less if the company goes under. They stayed competitive.

15

zeithaus from the cheating standpoint, I understand why they would cheat. because it is cheaper to cheat than to spend millions in R&D department to pass that regulations. but it is still bad though for a company to do that.

16
FuelEconomyKilledTheCarsWeLove!

as long as governments keep setting unrealistic emissions laws this will keep happening, it wasnt just volkswagon, mercedes and bmw have also been caught out, problem is the regs are unachievable so nobody can actually meet the standards that have been set. Mitsubishi has a history of lying to the public about various things so they do themselves no favours, and like everyone else says, without the evo who cares anyway? I really miss the cars from the nineties, new cars have no soul.....

17

I could care less for Mitsubishi when they announced they will revive the Evo as an electric vehicle, but to see another brand becoming a thing of the past is still sad anyhow.

18

Rollin2quarters Speedhunters So you could care less? So you do care?

19

first off, while I don't condone cheating on numbers like fuel economy & emmissions just to skate thru regulations, let's not be quick to snob them and remember that some of us in this car culture know someone, if not already ourselves, who has considered cheating on smog just to get our rides on the road. still, i know it's a bad look to lie on measurements regarding performance, especially as a producer.
second, like someone else mentioned here, for what it's worth, Mitsubishi did produce the infamous "Zero" fighter planes for the Imperial Navy during WWII. If the US govt was able to recognize the Big Three's "historical significance to the nation" enough to bail them out, I'm sure the Japanese govt can find some similar sense in Mitsubishi to cut them some slack.
third, in this era of business, there's a bit more fluidity that (with, of course, the right negotiations) any international group can step in and take Mitsubishi's helm. never forget that Nissan was once in the sh*thole in the late 90s/early 00s running with 20million USD debt until Renault's Carlos Ghosn stepped in. with a similar alliance and "Ghosn-esque" leadership, a restructuring (or consolidation) may save and keep the Mitsubishi brand in the automotive market for years to come.
P.S. while I'm not completely happy with Nissan's current output & creativity (Infiniti's doing pretty ok, but teasing with a "modern 510" then pulling the rug from under just to take a bit of the same"nostalgic" shine as the GT86's early hype), I still think Ghosn was a muthaf**kin G for his Nissan turnaround.. read a few number$ and storie$ about how he did it..

20

PD_Official Your Tweet is one Cool Whip and on display here http://rbl.ms/1rEnHAg

21

Honestly, losing Mitsubishi wouldn't be too big a loss for the world market as a whole. But I don't see it happening soon...Even though
their market cap and trading volume have been steadily falling for a while,
MMC's making a lot of money and I don't see MHI cutting it off; 4.1 billion Dollars is a lot of money to just let go of. 
But let's face it though, everyone is cheating whether they've been caught yet or not. VWs software cheat, Mitsubishi's tyre inflation saga, Mercedes is being looked at and Nissan apparently has been using some kind of super lean burn system to cheat the regulators. Regulators set impossible targets and manufacturers long ago stopped trying to achieve them.

22

No this won't be the end of Mitsubishi cars. Remember Mitsubishi as a group are one of largest group of companies in the world with fingers in many pies from energy to finance. Mitsubishi Motors is simply a division and not even a major player in comparison to the other Mitsubishi group members.
But even so they still made 118 billion yen last year, although the amount they will make this year is likely to be less they don't have quite the same market share as VW therefore as long as they can keep their core customers without diverging their market it's very likely that they won't crash.
Also looking at their share price it looks as though it is recovering albeit slowly at the end of today they still closed 6.4% up and are actually probably quite a good bet if you are looking to make money on shares.

In the end every big company has had some scandal/issue in it's history and will have recovered I don't see why Mitsubishi Motors won't as long as they keep pushing out cars that work for consumers.

23

This whole emission manipulation propaganda is getting ridiculous.

People died because of the failures in GM cars and nobody cared about it. But when you manipulate a diesel people lose their freaking mind.

I hope Mitsubishi survives it. I think they need to be buyed by some big name. The Evos and GTOs need to come back.

24

Mitsubishi will power on through. I know it

25

Starions and a bronski beat tape in the tape deck driving down 101 to la at 100mph. Nothing like it.

26

I hope I'll get a Legnum before their prices skyrockets.

27

ARE YOU HIGH?!!! THE MITSUBISHI GROUP MAKES EVERYTHING; EVEN F***ING FIGHTER JETS! Caps-lock to emphasize their largeness

28

Mitsubishi is a multi-billion dollar company that doesn't see cars as being overly important to their business. They'll be fine.

29

jay8393  I actually don't mind the electric part of that announcement. Electric cars put out gobs of torque, and might actually be pretty god at stage rally and such.

No, it's the other half of the announcement that I can't stand. Bring the Evo back as a crossover SUV? what the FUCK?

30

tbh, do any of us really care? as long as we can make it faster do we worry about whats behind us?

31

it's just the kei cars affected, and they do exist in other markets.  and as others have pointed out, they do business in other fields too, so no, not the end.

if you mean end of a motorsports-competitive mitsubishi, then maybe it's almost there.  :D

32

Won't be the end of their motorsport involvement either, they are racing electric on Pikes Peak. No emissions to deal with there!

33

Hope they make it.

34
AlejandroRamirez

I hope they don't make it through, it's better to have a dignified-ish death than to keep dragging on a sham. The Mitsubishi Motors we all loved is long gone and the sooner it's carcass is dealt with, the better.

35

I am sad for Mitsubishi. Why just Mitsu? But at the other side, official fuel economy tests are cheating legally for itself, but nobody care about that. But that´s other thing... Like Mitsubishi fan I am sad, I hope they would make it and find finally their place.

36

Phenomenal comment.

37

Simple answer: Yes.
Let history be history forever.

38

They will pull through...

The Evo we knew and loved won't come back... nor will the Eclipse GSX/GST, 3000GT, FTO or the Montero

I really don't care...

On the other side, all those opinions about companies not providing exciting cars: BS...

So there is no Evo, whatever.  There is still an STI, a 370Z, a GTR, a Miata, an 86, an Si, the Lexus F models hell even an NSX, then there are the TRD and Pro-X trucks, not to mention all kinds of euro rockets and american muscle and econo-sports cars...  car enthusiasts have a gazilion options...  car lif is still great..  shut up and enjoy it...

39

Mitsubishi will not go down. They are a massive company. They are into everything, they even have their own bank!

40

Bahaha I'll sell you my $1reserve legnum for $20k it's a bargin!

41

Meh if Mitsubishi dies all good I'll be sitting on a goldmine that will get bigger every half decade.
But It won't... If anything, no more Mitsubishi Motors, we'll still have Mitsubishi Electric, Mitsubishi component in gtr's and Hyundai's, Mitsubishi dildo's etc etc.

42

@Fd3s Its like Subaru, which is just as small part of Fuji Industries. Siemens won't close down if their washing machines don't sell anymore either, people often forget how much of a company is not inthe public eye.

Mitsubishi Motors are sorta keeping face by admitting, we'll see what the future brings. Doubt they will ever do sports or enthusiast cars again, but commercial vehicles, eco cars and engine development for korean and chinese manufacturers will keep them alive.

43

Mitsubishi might pull out of North America in the near future. I doubt they will globally.  When I've traveled to foreign countries like Barbados for instance it seems like every other car is a Mitsubishi.

As an Evo owner I could care less if the company comes to an end.  I feel they haven't kept up with the competition.   Right now is an exciting time for car enthusiast all over the world.  I'm not sure there has ever been another time where car manufactures have been putting out the amount of exciting "drivers" cars as today.  I'm sure some would argue the late 60's and early 70's.  Hell midrange cars of today are pushing over 300 hp and can out handle most sportscars that were built 10 years ago.  Now if we could only save the manual gear box.

44

@Ruben  "car enthusiasts have a gazilion options...  car lif is still great..  shut up and enjoy it..."
sure friend, let me enjoy my overpriced unreliable electronic-ridden 1.1l 90hp shitbox that looks like it's about to shit out a god damn Star Destroyer

45

@fsda huh?

46

Sad. I remember the late 90s Eclipse being one of the coolest cars at the time. GS-T was turbo fwd and GSX turbo awd.

47

Pretty sure Mistubishi Corp is the biggest trading company in Japan.. They should be fine

48

The worst I can see happening is Mitsu not making passenger cars. All their heavy industry and other holdings will be completely unaffected. I can totally see them dropping cars to save face. This is embarrassing and it comes at a time when Mitsu as a car brand is doing pretty badly.

49
jbfromsiliconvalley

Oh no! If they fold, how will we get replacements when we fry our piston rings and blow the welds on our manifolds?

50
Jacques facial

The futur of mistubishi will be very difficult. I hope they will overcome this situation. Maybe in futur we can see a new electric Evo...
An Evo with an electric motor in every wheel, with direct torque control and 4 wheels steering system to maximise the handling.

51

Time to invest in an Evo9 me thinks!

52

jbfromsiliconvalley And think of the mad scientists who won't be able to rip apart the block!

53

We need more competitors in the AWD market, I hope they pull themselves up by the bootstraps.

54

IRONWOLF RD jbfromsiliconvalley This would only be a concern if you ever had me, as well as your car. BUT... you NEVER had me... you never had your CAR!

55
samwatoladesign

it'll be a sad day for team Emperor...

56
UWerqxTeam_MJ

We make like Jon Snow. Stab MMC, then wait a few months or years, then get some sort of magic and BAM! They're back and rallying again.

57

JosefWalker My understanding is thatMMC is actually somewhat independent from the Mitsubishi Group and MHI -- I think they have a collective 20% stake, or slightly more?
In any case, the news that's circulating lately is if MMC faces a fiscal doomsday as a result of this scandal, MHI and Mitsubishi Group and other associated group companies are considering leaving MMC out to dry. In that case, doesn't matter how big MG/MHI is...MMC would be left for dead.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mitsubishimotors-regulations-group-idUSKCN0XM1P4

58

Overhere the Outlander PHEV sells like hot cakes. I can imagine an Evo version of a SUV for Dakar kind of events would commercially be more interesting than a new Lancer Evo.

59
FrankensteinConnelly

if they would bring back a station and the DSM "go fast" eclipse's they might be able to pull out of their funk but who knows

60

parent company of a larger company that is worth 250 billion? um - yea - they'll be fine

maybe they should be a bit more serious about their car business - they seem to make cars as a hobby, and the cars they put out CLEARLY reflect that - so if they left, I see no reason to cry - the EVO is already gone

61

Do they deserve to pull through? I'm a mitsi addict, I'm obsessed with the evo, but very much like my vr4's, gto's, mirage cyborgs.. What has Mitsubishi done for the enthusiast in years? We haven't seen anything significant in years. Evo 10 was just a bigger watered down evo 9 (still loved it).. Mitsubishi should of made a car like the old mirage cyborg to compete with the gt86 and they should of kept the evo badge, maybe even offered a hybrid version for people that way inclined.. With out a performance model mitsi is dead to me, even to non car people a performance model is imperative as people like to say "hey my Nissan Leaf was made by the same company that makes the GTR!" Nissan even said they make nothing off the GTR, they purely keep it as a car for fans and something that makes people look up to the brand.. Mitsubishi's GTR was the evo except it's even better in my opinion.. It's more accessible to your average income earner, can have devastating performance with few mods and it can double up as a family car.. Mitsi cut the cord to thousands of fans when it ended the evo and look, wrx sales are through the roof! The new wrx is selling better than it has on any wrx model ever and mitsi doesn't want part of that! People are dying for sports cars and you giving us tacky suv's and hybrids..

62
ADimitriRoumeliotis

A lot of really short sighted and narrow minded opinions here.
Regarding them dropping the Evo.. big deal, doesn't mean they'll never build a cool car again.
It took Nissan 5 years to bring back the GTR. Toyota about 30 to bring back the 86. 
As other have stated, they're not a "small" company. They don't just make cars...


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi

63
EythanAldrich

Just a Southern Sergal no so fast.....mitsubishi is a big-a** company remember that....

64

Wanna hear a legitimate reason as to why the Evo got dropped??
Mitsubishi likes to win WRC as well as stay true to the Mitsubishi evolution heritage.
By WRC... I mean the Top Tier, media attention grabbing, profit making, pinnacle of WRC. Not that Nr4 class that Subaru competes in...
And what do I mean by staying true to the lancer evolution heritage??
Well, what's an evo? A 2.0L 4wd powertrain system with a 4 door sedan body on top.
Now ask yourselves...
Would you buy an evo 11, if it won WRC?
A WRC Spec car which would be: A 1.6L 300hp hatchback the size of a VW Polo?
With a road going equivalent which may end up suspiciously being basically a Mitsubishi Colt??
Or as others have suggested... Would you rather see a dakar spec Evo truck? LOL.
Or worse, an electric Evo? LMAO.

Would you really want one of these?? I wouldn't.
Or would you wait for Group B to maybe make a come back?? A fire breathing, low weight, high boost, 500bhp high tech WRC spec class that is suitable for a come back for the Mitsubishi Evolution?

65
90nissanS13@my350z

Matt Khoun  ...How did you make your text bold?

66
TarmacTerrorist

Stars.

67

A lot of car companies have had similar experiences in the past and definitely in the future.  Unfortunately, it's Mitsubishi's turn now.

68

If you can find one that isn't ruined. I tend to see.... "$13,000, firm, tends to pop out of 5th gear"
Firm
On a car I'm going to need to rebuild the transmission on day one? LOL
Pass

69

I will always choose Subaru over Mitsubishi....but without the almost equal competition how will Subaru advance its technology...I feel as though this may make or break Subaru as well because of the lack of motivation to produce cars...the friendly rivalry is what drives both of the company in a way...hate to see Mitsubishi go if it does ;/

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