A big part of mitsu's problem in the US is they don't advertise that much. There are 5 mitsu dealerships in the Phoenix area (4 million people) and I've never seen a TV or newspaper ad for any of them. Nationally there was a long period of time that mitsu didn't advertise on TV, and only recently they have began running a few ads on the major TV networks.

 

I have seen a lot of ads on tv where I live, and most of the would be for the outlander. A few for the lancer, and then several that are for most of the lineup. I rarely see any outties while driving around in San Diego, but I do see a ton of toyotas, hondas, and nissans. It has to be that Mitsubishi just isn't one of the big names here, and for those who have found the outtie, they have found a hidden gem.

 

Many car reviews are bias! Look at this review for example, they would only compare the SUV that many people will look at when they are shopping for one, but there are many more other brands. Dont worry guys, Outlanders are not only the ones being ignored, there are many others, even with good brand names history, like the Acura RDX, Jeep Liberty, Suzuki Grand Vitara, Lexus RX, Pontaic Torrent / Chev. Equinox, Saturn Vue, and many many more!!

 

In Hungary the reputation is good. Everyone agrees that they are solid cars, but not many people buy them, I don't know the reason. It is like Subaru, they also build very good cars, but you see only a few of them....

 

In Greece another reason that people avoid Mitsu and Honda is the Importer (a private company imports all Mitsu and Honda) who has a very bad reputation as being expensive in parts and consumables.

For example the Rallitronic for the 2.0 diesel costs 1800 euros plus fitting in Greece when at the UK official Mitsu site is sold for 750GBP = 850euros.

When I asked if I could buy it from UK and have it fitted by the dealer in Heraklion the answer was NO as there will be no guarantee.

I am tempted to wrtite about this to Mitsu Japan to see what they will say.

g.

 

north america does not like change from what i can tell. you have people who drove a 57 bel air, who are still alive and wont touch anything but a GM product. same thing with FORD. they are lifers. i think that is why there is so few of the rare brands around. and to call them rare is strange because there is no reason for them to be rare at all. im not sure about the new subaru vehicles but i know from when i was a kid, if you could land yourself a subaru, you probably would not have to buy another vehicle for a very long time. i hope that the Outlander will hold strong to this ideal.

i must admit the Saturn VUE was tempting. but with all the wood accents in it, i opted to skip it. looks like an old ladys SUV to me. Grandma's Mid-Life Crisis.

Jeep Liberty should be thrown into the Grand canyon. what a beastly hunk of crap that vehicle is. ive known several owners and as far as i know the lemon law is rare. but man with vehicles under a year old going in for major breakdowns like transmissions going (for a small city driven vehicle) and head gaskets goin, exhaust systems needing replacing. im glad i didnt buy one when I was thinking about it.

it is silly that so few SUV's made that list tho. it would be nice for the press to get out of the common circle of vehicles, and explore a little bit more of what the import market has to offer. I tend to find the imports a bit more on the green side too which is something all automakers are striving for now.

 

I don't put much Faith in what the self proclaimed automotive experts say about cars, Here in Quebec we have 3 car guides (bibles) published every year, these are hardcover400 pages books full of pictures, they are all very nice books. there is probably more competition between the publishers than the car makers. We used to only have one, but but because of a long story that is more soap opera than car journalism we have 3.Anyways in 2008 one of the guides had the Outlander as the number 1 small SUV, another one thought it was average, and the third one had it as not recommended.
There are probably some very honest writer out there but I think that for most of them cars are rated based on 50% the car and 50% the freebies (trips, hotels, food, clothes,...) !

 

I just bought my 08 Outlander XLS in Atlanta and I have yet to see another 2nd gen on the road. I had an 02 Lancer ES and a 3000GT VR4 in the past, so I'm a big Mitsu fan! I'd much rather have a Japanese car than a Korean one. The domestic vehicles are just overpriced as are some foreign brands like Toyota. I priced out a Ford Edge (and I've been a Chevy guy my whole life) and it was just overpriced for what it is. Same with Chevy...the equonox was way more than I was willing to pay.

 

i fully agree with you about the EDGE. i think here in Canada they were priced in the $50,000's. an absurd price for the small SUV

 

Well, it's unfair to compare upscale Edge to Outlander, it's more of Escape and Outlander and their price range is about the same.

In my area, over the year and half of ownership I've probably seen 10 Outlander on the road. 1 is actually one of my co workers who bought it right at the same time.