You never know, but if they keep bringing good products to the market (e.g. Outlander) chances are they will.

 

An Outie pulling out a Trail Rated Jeep Liberty from the mud or snow? Come on, that is pushing it a bit! I have driven a Liberty in the mountains in Colorado, I mean deep wilderness, very rocky. I would much rather risk myself in such situation in a Liberty than in an Outie. I am not trying to **** off Outie owners, I am one of them, but the Outie is a city-country SUV, not some roughneck's weekend muddin' vehicle. However, the 4WD feature is totally cool, a brilliant system. I am also a fanatic about the smart vehicle systems (with slight reservations on whether they will be reliable in the long run or not). But I do wish Mitsu had put adifferent 3rdoption and eliminated the 2WD altogether and created 4WD Low (meaning low gearing for REALLY deep snow - let's say Buffalo, NY snow). That could potentially make the Outie more off-road and more like the X-Terra or the Liberty. European cars suck. Pick up a Consumer Reports mag and they will tell you how bad BMW, Mercedes, and my despised Volkswagen (VW) are bad in quality. Now, oddly enough, they have reported MItsu having a ton of tranny problems too, specially on the Lancers. Speaking of which, since this is not an Off-Road car wouldn't it hurt and potentially damage the tranny if you go for wild wheel spins in snow or mud?? I also don't like the idea of rocking the Outie to get out of being stuck in snow... taht could damage the tranny. Anway, if Mitsu continues to put out home run winning cars like the 2007 Outie, yeah they will be around for the 10-year warranty. If they come out with more crappy cars like the semi-unreliable Endeavor, no they might be around to honor that 10-year warranty. You know what kinda raised some eyebrows about Mitsu's financial situation??? They sold MMNA Finanacing to a compny called CenterOne Financial Services. I know thsi because I got the 5.9% for 72mo deal though Mitsu Fianancing and got a letter a week later saying they were just bought over by CenterOne. Is that a sign???

 

Mitsu was in the 9th place (out of 36, with MB in on the last place) in the CR predicted reliability standing, which is not bad at all.
Mitsu needs badly to redesign the Endeavor and Galant and eventually bring over the Colt to compete in B-segment. Not sure if there is a good case for Pajero/Montero in NA, since big SUVs are loosing ground and Pajero/Montero doesn't have much to offer other than off-roading in style.But who really needs that or let me repharese it,how manycustomers wouldneed that. X-Terra and FJ Cruiser are cheaper and do the job just fine.
I hope Mitsu will do well in the mainstream and they will stay around for the long run since I'm planning to get my Outi in few weeks.
Offloading the financing arm it's a good thing in my eyes. I think they aretrying to stay focused on the core business. They lost tons of cash in the paston that side of the business impacting the company as a whole. I think it's a good business decision to get rid of it for now.

 

Trail-Rated was created by the Jeep marketing department. Its not an official, independant organization. Don't get me wrong, I completely understand Jeeps are quite capable and any vehicle that can tackle the Rubicon Trail has my respect. However, in 2004, stock CJ's and Liberty's had open diffs and no traction control and were vulnerable to the situation I described. Its rare, but it happens. I know because I did the snatching in my Land Rover. Today, I'm pretty sure Liberty's have electronic TC as an option.

The first electronic fully independant 4-channel, off-road TC system was developed for Land Rover while under the ownership of BMW in the late 80's-early 90's. The X3 and X5 and all Land Rovers have had this for a while. Other vehicles had TC before this but not true 4-channel, torque distributing. Mitubishi has taken this technology and refined it here in the Outlander.

Low-range would have just driven the cost and weight higher for very little benefit. With the Outies 6-speed and manual shifting, a lower-than-usual first gear would tackle most steep hill/torque situations fine (Lexus uses this strategy) and TC can be programmed to simulate low range engine braking on steep decents using ABS (aka BMW and LR Hill Descent Control). Mitsu made the right decision here in my opinion. I had a 93 Ford Explorer with 2-speed transfer case for 12 years and never used low range once.

 

dude, my mom used to havea cheap grand cherokee limited (99 model) with the big v-8 and all. One winter it snowed real bad, well me and my brother decided to go see how it would do. So we go to a subdivision my father and I were deveolping at the time, on the upper road (washington drive) where there were no houses yet being built, we decided we would hop the curve, and take it out into the open field. So, With me behind the wheel, I eased one front wheel over, and then the other (its always best to go in at an angle) then one rear wheel over, and then the other. We went down the ditch, and were headed back up when bam. Like god just up and spoke it to be, we were stuck. 6 inches of snow, no traction, and no-one within 10 miles. Called my buddy, he showed up in his honda cr-v, hopped the curve, went down the ditch, went up the ditch, backed up to us (still on an incline , bout 3 feet ahead) we hooked up the tow strap, and he pulled out the Jeep. with his cr-v. YEAH. JEEPS ARE GREAT IN OFF ROAD CONDITIONS!!!
Seriously, the mitsu montero is 10 times the off road vehicle that any jeep is. Mitsu doesnt make a bad off road vehicle. Everyone they make that is designed in anyway to be taken off the pavement is good. Years of rally experience have taught them what works. Jeep doesnt compete in any off road competitions on the corporate level cause they suck. **** JEEP.
I would take my outlander with just some better tires, and show your little cheap liberty with 4wd the trail back to the trailer. seriously... lets bet on it.

 

They didn't sell MMNA. They just sold your loan. Companies do it all the time with loans, mortgages, etc. It's not a big deal at all. In fact, there are lots of companies that claim to be mortgage companies and banks that do nothing but close the loan and sell it off.

Mitsu did the same thing with my loan. They probably just have a deal with Center One to reduce the risk of their lower rate financing. Really, though, I don't care who I pay, as long as the loan terms don't change.

 

Same here, loan got sold. I think crusher is right, looks like all the low finance rate loans got sold to CenterOne.

 

Ya know, thats how mitsu got into trouble financially to begin with, they started doing all their own financing, not realizing just how much money that takes, and if somone decides not to pay... are you kidin me,
that was a dumb move on their behalf, cant blame them for doing what they have to do to get back right again