Gagnon and his staff have already pulled this marketing trick off in the U.S., where Mitsubishi has ridden a trendy image to annual sales that eclipse those of Mazda. It is that Japanese arm of Ford, as well as Honda, Nissan, Toyota and Volkswagen that Gagnon sees his products competing with in Canada.
By 2007, Gagnon expects to be selling about 38,000 vehicles a year in Canada through 150 dealerships, which would be a considerable piece of a market that likely won't be growing at that time.
His immediate goals are more modest — about 50 dealers open in the top 15 Canadian markets by January of 2003, with sales to start shortly thereafter, and Gagnon says he's having surprisingly little trouble finding primo applicants to fly the Mitsubishi flag.
Which brings us quite logically to those "spirited" and "cool" vehicles Gagnon plans to put on sale in Canada. Essentially it's the product lineup available in the U.S., but there'll be upgrades throughout his 5-year launch cycle.
There may also be another model designed for Canada — a subcompact — that would later roll into the U.S., but that's still being talked about in general terms.
 2002 Mitsubishi Lancer |