With rumors that Mitsubishi Motors will back out of its promise to come to Canada a second time diminished but still in the air, the president and CEO of the Japanese firm's North American arm came to Toronto recently to outline some of his plans for this market.
Pierre Gagnon, a Canadian who long ago left Oshawa and General Motors for California and the import car business at Mitsubishi Motor Sales of America (MMSA), says he's signed 44 dealerships to open across the country this fall, months ahead of the original plan to open next February.
Of the 31 announced locations, seven are in the Toronto area, a few more are in the Golden Horseshoe (Hamilton, Kitchener, London), and there will be stores in Ottawa and Windsor. More could be announced soon.
Gagnon has big plans for this dealer network, which he says will grow to 51 dealers in the first year and to 150 outlets four years later.
He wants to sell 5,000 units this year, 20,000 units in 2003, and about 38,000 units when all of the dealers are operating by 2007. That would give Mitsubishi about 2 percent of the entire Canadian new vehicle market.
When they visit these dealers this fall, Canadians should find seven models to chose from -- the Montero Sport, Montero, Eclipse Coupe, Eclipse Spyder convertible, Galant, Lancer and Outlander models.
PR spokesman Richard Kelley says Canadian stores will have all seven models this fall and he "does not anticipate any supply difficulties" because they "will be using our state-of-the-art Web based order-to-delivery system which allows our dealers to order according to their market needs." Gagnon says the choice will go to 10 models by the fall of 2003, and as part of its plan to launch a new vehicle each year for the next five years, Mitsubishi Motors will add a mid-sized crossover SUV in the next nine months.