Why hasn't iMotor covered Mitsubishi lately? Because there's nothing interesting to talk about. Unfortunately, and somewhat alarmingly, Mitsubishi Australia president and CEO Mutsuhiro Oshikiri agrees with us.
In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, Oshikiri lamented that when it comes to Mitsubishi vehicles, "the product is old ... and the prices are too high." Having only seated the position for no more than 10 weeks, Oshikiri was anxious to see exactly what the company needed to recover from its recent slide down the industry market.
In an effort to scramble back up the ladder, Mitsubishi has been repricing its products and updating its model ranges with new equipment to incrementally improve the models over the years. Despite the efforts, sales have only continued to drop and have now fallen 5 percent compared to the year before. What's worse, Australia accounted for a good 10 percent improvement for the rest of the automakers in the market.
Flustered with the performance, Oshikiri thought aloud, "I don't know why people buy a Mitsubishi. That is a simple question, difficult answer that I have to think about for the next three or four months. What is the benefit? Why do we have to be here? What is the future? I have to find out."
Reflecting on Mitsubishi's past track record, Oshikiri believes that Mitsubishi has missed the mark on several occasions. Oshikiri also noted, "In most cases, we have a similar complaint [about a particular car] and we feel shame, because if everybody says different [problems with the car] it's OK, but if everybody says the same thing, we are idiots - we didn't do the proper thing."
"Our customer is a commonsense customer... Our [cars are] old and we need more value for money." To fight against Mitsubishi's slipping grasp of the market, Oshikiri is convinced that the company needs to get the basic customer demands addressed in order to keep its position as one of the country's top sellers.
A number of new model roll-outs are in store for Mitsubishi's immediate future, including a new Mirage city car and an all-new Outlander SUV expected for November release.
It's refreshing to see Oshikiri, as a CEO, avoid sugarcoating his thoughts on the company whatsoever. However, as exciting as it is to report the recent turn of events, its disappointing to see how severely Mitsubishi has lost the plot. Any Mitsubishi loyalists out there? What would you guys want to see the Japanese company do?
[Source: Sydney Morning Herald]
