Mitsubishi seeks 25 new dealers
Source:
Autonews.com
Mitsubishi Motors North America is adding dealers this year as the automaker tries to regain lost ground.
The
company hopes to sign up
25 dealers this year, says Joe Delello,
Mitsubishi's director of franchise development. The current roster of
424 dealers is down from 575 five years ago.
"We're looking to
add dealers in targeted markets," Delello says. The recruiting is
largely focused on major metro areas, including
New York, Los Angeles,
Baltimore and Washington.
"These are open points where we
believe there will be sufficient units in operation for service
business," he says. "These are not buy-sells."
Mitsubishi has
been a shrinking brand in recent years. Sales fell from 261,254 in 1999
to 53,986 last year. For three years, the company has been regrouping
to devise a
new-product strategy. That new strategy of focusing on
smaller, fuel-efficient vehicles now is emerging.
At the
company's exhibit at the recent
National Automobile Dealers Association
convention in Orlando, representatives talked to potential dealers.
Mitsubishi displayed the small new
i-MiEVelectric car, which will come
to the United States along with a gasoline-powered version.
Scott
Grove, a Chicago area Mitsubishi dealer and chairman of the Mitsubishi
National Dealer Advisory Board, said the brand needs
more stores in
some markets where dealerships have closed in recent years. He said the
factory is being cautious about whom it enlists as new dealers.
"We are not in boom growth," Grove said. "We will make better decisions on where we approve points."
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