Mitsubishi and Nissan Midsize Project Hits An Impasse

Be interesting to see what the Impasse is. Does this mean that Mitsubishi will need to find a new partner or merge to survive against the larger giant auto companies?

Wait.. a new Mirage? Already?

Mitsubishi should partner with Suzuki to sell the next Kazashi in the US.  The last Kazashi would have made a great Galant.

Wait.. a new Mirage? Already?

 

Mitsubishi should partner with Suzuki to sell the next Kazashi in the US.  The last Kazashi would have made a great Galant.

Yeah that is somewhat surprising.

Wait.. a new Mirage? Already?

 

Mitsubishi should partner with Suzuki to sell the next Kazashi in the US.  The last Kazashi would have made a great Galant.

+1!

Wait.. a new Mirage? Already?

 

Mitsubishi should partner with Suzuki to sell the next Kazashi in the US.  The last Kazashi would have made a great Galant.

that was my idea too at the time I was selling Suzukis for a living.  DO you think you could get two Japanese companies to collaborate though?

I've read stuff where they had interviews with Suzuki higher ups who said Kizashi was a disaster for them, when in fact the reality is opposite.  Kizashi actually got them on the radar of some really sophisticated buyers, and it was the first US suzuki that got people to consider them as less than a freak show and a real mainstream alternative.

I still remember the people / buyers i put on the spot, asking them to tell me 'you like the Legacy better than the Kizashi".  I would never get an answer to my face on that question.  But it came down to two things really on the Kizashi failure.

---sized like a tweener.  same physical size as a cruze and much roomier than that, but was advertised as a midsizer and it was a bit short on space in the rear for that.  our own detail guy who is tall shunned a Kizashi and got a Sonata only because of the interior room.  Likewise i lost sales to mazda6 and accord etc. for same reason.

---the status of US dealers and not marketing and packaging cars correctly and the impending doom of getting run of the US.  SX4 was a great niche product and they finally upsize it and have to leave the market before they sell it here.  It could have helped save death.  If you want to see the SX4 concept fully realized and what all my customers were begging for, look no further than the Trax / Encore.

Suzuki will never build another Kizashi because they are geared for small $h!boxes.  Mits would have been the perfect outlet to sell a larger suzuki in the US.

Japanese mfrs in general need to stop going it alone and merge up.