ORIGINAL: 1398spdr

chase, do you know what your engine code is, i belive yours is the 4g64 4 cyl., if so then you should be able to do a dohc swap, im not sure on the 3g models though.........

Mitsubishi: Will keep U.S. auto plant
By MarketWatch
Last Update: 2:08 AM ET March 2, 2005
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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Newly appointed Mitsubishi Motors President Osamu Masuko said the company has no plans to sell its plant in the United States or further trim its U.S. workforce, according to a report published Tuesday.








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Masuko, appointed a month ago as president and chief operating officer, said production capacity at the plant in Normal, Ill. was reduced by about half last year to 125,000 to 130,000 vehicles a year to boost profitability, the Associated Press reported.

No further job cuts are planned in the United States, the AP quoted Masuko as telling a group of reporters at its headquarters in Tokyo.

Last year Mitsubishi Motors (MMTOF: news, chart, profile) (JP:7211: news, chart, profile) cut the plant's workers from about 1,900 to about 900, the AP reported, citing the automaker.

According to the report, the U.S. plant is operating at a pace of about 100,000 vehicles a year, but Masuko said he wants to boost that to full capacity soon, with the Eclipse going on sale in the United States in the summer.

"As a single market, North America is very important to us," the AP quotes Masuko as saying.

According to the report, Masuko denied the company had considered selling its U.S. operations or approaching potential buyers. Masuko also denied reports the company was thinking about seeking a new partner in the United States.

Masuko said the company will run the operations alone, although it will continue to work on projects with DaimlerChrysler AG, as it has in the past, the AP reported.

According to the report, Masuko said that this month Mitsubishi Motors will announce the results of an internal investigation on the recall scandal, including penalties for employees. He declined to elaborate, the AP reported.

Mitsubishi, recoiling from recall and defect scandals in Japan since last year, said in January that it will receive more than $5.2 billion in new financial aid to help the company return to profitability by March 2007

According to the report, since last year, Mitsubishi Motors has announced two massive cash bailouts from the Mitsubishi group of companies to go on with its revival plan after DaimlerChrysler decided to end additional funding and effectively quit its role as an alliance partner. For fiscal year ending March 31, the company has predicted a loss of 472 billion yen ($4.5 billion) on sales of 2.04 trillion yen ($19.3 billion).