We bought our Outlander ES in December 2011 from Moore Mitsubishi in Chantilly, VA. The dealership was new at the time. Today I called about service and was informed that the Mitsubishi dealership has already been shut down! (Moore also sells and services Cadillacs.) I noticed that the one at Tysons Corner (Stohlman) also closed its Mitsubishi dealership. What's going on here?

 

Hard to say. Could be poor sales, disagreements with head office. The dealership can shut themselves down OR Mitsubishi Head office can pull the Dealership away from the owner. Both have happened near me. One dealer closed when he found out they were opening a new dealership in a nearby town (sent really nasty letters badmouthing the company) and then there was the dealership who didn't try and sell new cars much, he imported old mitsubishi cars from the USA and fixed them up using "cheaply available" oem parts. So really it could be several things. A new delaership may be opening soon with a new principal or perhaps the brand just didn't sell well in the area. Any quality mechanic can do service and in most cases when a dealership closes and there is none nearby Head office makes arrangements with some local dealer to do service. At least they did so here in Nova Scotia. Try calling head office and see if they can be of help. Hope you find some answers.

 

Thanks much, firebuck. The dealership still gave us the oil change (which was good given that I had a coupon for $25 off). The service manager told me that they had poor sales for Mitsubishi and that's why it got shut down. There are a lot of other dealerships in a nearby auto park so we'll see if one of them picks up Mitsubishi.

That being said, calling Mitsubishi does seem to be a good idea. As I understand things, as long as I get service done at an ASE-certified shop, my warranty coverage is good. That is what the salesmen told me, though I did not find that in writing in the warranty. There is a local Goodyear shop that we use for our other car that has been reliable for us, and it would be convenient. I'll tell them that if anything that looks like warranty work pops up to let me know so I can take the car to a dealership.

I notice that you are from Cape Breton Island. Our family visited there in the summer of 2010 and had a great time. It's a beautiful place. Thanks again for all the help!

 

Mitsubishi dealers comes and goes, but the ones with good customer service stands the test of time is what I found.

Given their cars sells somewhat slowly in the US, if a dealership has a bad rep in your sales and service department it is hard to survive..

I think in Canada it is more popular, because their cars have AWD and Canadians love their AWDs. Mitsubishi havn't been sold in Canada for too long, it used to be US only. So maybe there is some freshness to them.

 

In the US there is a law called the Magnuson Moss Warranty Act. This law lets you use ANY service facility or even perform maintenance yourself and any warranties must remain in effect.

Same goes for aftermarket parts.

If something does fail, the manufacturer then has to PROVE that faulty service or parts caused the issue to deny warranty related work. There were issues in the past where manufacturers were denying warranties because of something as simple as a bulb that wasnt OEM. Uncle Sam really cracked down though, and making them prove the cause of failure has really stopped this.

Go to any decent oil change place and dont worry. I would only use the dealership if it was really convenient or major service.