M Type X

Mitsubishi is demon spawn! There was a brand new jet-black Lan-Evo parked in my fav space in the garage last night (I park in a public structure), taunting me.

And oh yeah, the Galant and Endeavor aren't selling that great. Big new-news.

M Type X

In Ann Arbor, maybe the Mitsu tech center people.
But they still plan on rolling out the 2005 Eclipse, as far as I know.

3000GT owners could probably care less, as the Lan-Evo doesn't even try to be a sexy GT coupe. How many people are silly enough to pay $30K for a car and still have no style? Don't answer that.

I think DCX is in major trouble with Mercedes-Benz and Chrysler.
Being wedded to Mitsubishi doesn't help at all!

Daimler needs to be consider divestment re Chrysler and also trying to stop expanding its Mercedes lineup downwards. h:

This is gonna be interesting.

jaje

don't confuse Mitsubishi Automotive with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (a huge conglomerate)...the auto mfgr part is quite small piece

MrFatbooty

That's only sort of correct, and BonzoAPD actually pointed out why in a similar thread in the basement. Mitsubishi is a keiretsu (a little more info is here). One key characteristic of these conglomerates is that they have a lot of separate companies that all own pieces of each other. Mitsubishi Motors is one such company, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is another. There are something like 29 Mitsubishi companies in total. Theoretically if DaimlerChrysler backs out of its investment in Mitsubishi Motors, the other Mitsubishi companies could join together to keep Mitsubishi Motors afloat.

jaje

actually the term keiretsu is misused in this instance of control...it is b/c a keiretsu is like a cartel...a partnership of companies controlling all aspects of production of the end product (i.e. like the entire vertical chain from the raw materiels, various parts, vehicle assembly, design and engineering, financing, etc.)...the keiretsu's focus is only vertical...in the current topic, the keiretsu term would only be true if a member was in trouble and the remaining companies would help out

Now...Mistubishi as a company is huge and diverse (Horizontal like General Electric)...the conglomerate (a board of the separate companies mainly dominated by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries) owns several vertical industries (or keiretsu's such as Mitsubishi Motors of Japan)...the conglomerate owns and runs everything

i wrote my senior thesis in economics on how the american auto industry can compete with the japanese keiretsu's (as we were getting beat badly at the time...mainly through lack of JIT inventory controls, Edward Deming's quality control process, and several other efficiencies in operations)...one thing that was apparent was that the keiretsu had a limited focus and specialization (and did it very well)

M Type X

MrFatbooty

From my understanding, there are both vertical and horizontal keiretsu. Vertical ones like you mentioned, which connect part suppliers, wholesalers and retailers to the manufacturer; and horizontal ones like Mitsubishi with a bunch of semiautonomous companies in the same group, all organized around a central bank or holding company.

I believe Mitsubishi Motors is a vertical keiretsu, but it's within the horizontal keiretsu of the overall Mitsubishi group of companies. For example, here is the listing of the Mitsubishi group companies: http://www.mitsubishi.com/php/users/...rch.php?lang=1

From my reading of the various information on the main Mitsubishi site, it appears that prior to WWII it was one big company with a bunch of subsidiaries. The US occupation split it up into autonomous entities many of whom got rid of the Mitsubishi name, but then during the cold war when we wanted to stimulate the Japanese economy the companies were allowed to cooperate, a lot of them merged back together, and in general created the organization as it exists today.

DakarM

well I am just waiting til a certain french company buys on another US based Japanese car company

TheRooster

Ironically, I like the Chicken Keiretsu.

Little mixing of teriyaki and soy sauce.... mmmm. :drool:

jaje

Mitsubishi as a whole is run very similar to our General Electric...it owns several other companies that are partners within each other's vertical...a page taken from japanese industry

after WWII we were scared of japan's ability to industrialize more efficiently (the US forced open Japan and then we tried to control them and failed) and after setting in a democratic constitution similar antitrust laws, etc. our first step was to break up the monopolies such as Mitsubishi...the breakup was to take away the elements of control and not a factor of the keiretsu...the keiretsus always remained in place and operated as so...we allowed them to change their antitrust laws allowing them to form into the huge monopolies they once were

the only horizontal aspect belayed by a keiretsu was the banking and holding companies that would be shared among the group...but control was and always remained asserted by a group usually dominated by one or two companies (a monopoly of control)

we are talking semantics...i think control is the most important asset to a corportation and outside of the vertical keiretsu's owned by the monopoly...the monopoly controls (a keiretsu is a group that collectively works together and makes decisions together...but as always you go high enough you will find who pulls the strings and it is not a result of a collective decision)