The vetsa note was essentially a slightly bigger march/micro with 4cyl instead of a 1.2l 3cyl and didn’t sell enough to keep it in the US market. In 2013 we rented a Nissan micra 1.2 CVT for a week in Ireland, great packaging especially the rear seat room but it was happier on narrow slower roads than the motorway out of Dublin. Canadian buyers could get the same car with a stick shift but it was a niche market.
Mitsubishi is using the upcoming Frontuer to offer a pickup to us buyers. Same bodies but possible mechanical differences. Montero returns but after other markets.
Even Hyundai decided that small cars didn’t sell in sufficient numbers to be profitable. Their smallest car, the economical Accent, was discontinued in the US after the 2022 model year.
Anybody remember the Mitsubishi Raider from 2006-2009(?) that only sold about 21,000 units total?? I think Dodge sold 10x that amount the same years… Heck, I think Toyota sold more Tacoma’s in a single two-week period than Mitsubishi sold Raider’s in the entire year of 2008…
I still see plenty of Dakota’s around those years, but very rarely ever see a Raider…
So why would anybody think another rebadged Mitsubishi truck will do any better???
Almost anything will be better than the Suzuki equator which was a rounding error compared to frontier sales, never mind Tacoma or Colorado.
Mitsubishi dealers are begging for new products even if they’re Nissan based. The next blasphemy reportedly will be Mitsubishi gets the leaf and calls it ecliose. 1 of the 2 remaining Mitsubishi dealers in western Washington is a longtime Nissan dealer.
It wasn’t a truck, but another name that hasn’t been heard in a long time is the Sterling 827.
The good news was that it used the engine, transmission, and suspension of the Acura sedan. The bad news was that it had purely UK-sourced electrics, and it was assembled in the UK. The result was extremely unreliable, poorly-assembled cars that people frequently dumped after a year or two. This was a Rover-made model that was sold in the US for 4 years, ending in 1991.
I doubt if anyone has seen one of these on the road for a LONG time.
I just checked and it seems that the Tulsa, OK Mitsubishi dealer has closed. The vehicle group that had it does show 4 2025 models that may have been demonstrators at their other ford dealers.
A reasonable sales volume considering the small dealer network, they are not pickup truck dealers and the overall decline in mid-size pickup truck sales.
The purpose of the Raider was not to turn Mitsubishi dealers into high volume truck dealers but to offer a wider range of vehicles on dealer lots. Similar to VW selling Caravans; VW dealers needed a passenger van in their product line, partnering with Dodge was more economical than manufacturing a U.S. spec. Eurovan. Both examples increase production of below capacity factories, an advantage for both parties.
Why should they be disguised? If someone is a Mitsubishi customer (or employee) that needs a truck, the Dakota is a reasonable offering.
That sentiment has been repeated 100 times on this forum during the last 14 years. How much longer before they withdraw? 3 months? 10 years? This is from 2012:
My stepson bought a used Eclipse in 2012, didn’t worry about the resale value or where to get replacement parts after Mitsubishi withdraws from the U.S.
There just seems to be a negative atmosphere here, a lot of “bad news” about the automobile market. Not many members remain on this forum for some reason.
Well, I’m not going to say I think Mitsubishi, Nissan, or what have you is a great product and we should all buy it
Because that’s now how I feel
Would you rather we keep our opinions to ourselves, when it comes to Mitsubishi, Rivian, or the Slate EV truck, for example?
I happen to believe some of those I mentioned won’t be around in 20 years time, unlike Toyota and Honda, who will probably still have a good strong presence
Would you rather we say only positive things, even if we don’t believe it?
