Mitsubishi's dealers focus on new models

Mitsubishi's dealers focus on new models

Mitsubishi dealers are keenly looking forward to a new generation of products developed jointly with alliance partners Nissan and Renault — starting later this year with a redesigned Outlander crossover for the 2021 model year that shares architecture with the Nissan Rogue.

"I think it's going to be a home run," with a roomier third row, said Richard Nisbett, Mitsubishi National Advisory Board chairman and dealer principal at Daytona Mitsubishi in Florida. "It's a completely new architecture, with shared technologies from all of the sister companies."

In addition, Mitsubishi Motors North America Inc. also is offering U.S. dealers what Nisbett called a "huge subsidy" — 100 percent reimbursement, no less — for participating in Mitsubishi's new digital marketing scheme, MiDigitalSolutions, unveiled in November 2019.

"If there's one takeaway, it's Mitsubishi's emphasis on upping their digital game," Nisbett said.

Those moves join a facility makeover program announced in July 2018 that gained traction last year. Nisbett told Automotive News in January that 90 to 100 U.S. dealerships so far had signed up for the dealership redesign, which is aimed at a more upscale and distinctive look.

Mitsubishi Motors North America said the "visual identity update" is the brand's first facility makeover in 16 years. That's an eternity compared with many other brands.

Mitsubishi had 355 U.S. dealerships, including 229 exclusives, as of Jan. 1, 2019, according to the Automotive News Dealer Census.

In 2019, Mitsubishi had its best U.S. sales since 2007 at 121,046 — an increase of 2.5 percent from 2018 and the seventh consecutive year of annual sales increases for the brand.

Nevertheless, Nisbett said Mitsubishi Motors North America is keeping its demands on dealers realistic.

"There are options within the identity program that are more or less money, so you can pick and choose in some respects to have some cost containment," he said. "Mitsubishi recognizes we are a smaller player."