Mitsubishi Australian Line Decried by Own CEO

You know there’s trouble in paradise when the newly-appointed Australian CEO of Mistubishi calls his company’s products overpriced and wonders why anyone buys them.

Believe it or not, that’s exactly what just happened.

“I don’t know why people buy a Mitsubishi. That is a simple question, difficult answer that I have to think about for the next three or four months. What is the benefit? Why do we have to be here? What is the future? I have to find out,” said Mutsuhiro Oshikiri, Mitsubishi’s Australian CEO of only 10 weeks. “The product is old … and the prices are too high.”

Oshikiri’s remarks are directed at the company’s Australian branch, but the brand’s woes aren’t limited to that part of the world. Its sales report from last month was abysmal with a reported 47.4 percent drop over July, 2011.

“In most cases, we have a similar complaint [about a particular car] and we feel shame, because if everybody says different [problems with the car] it’s OK, but if everybody says the same thing, we are idiots – we didn’t do the proper thing,” he said of the Australian line.

Despite offering a different range of products, it’s hard to feel any differently about the brand’s North American effort, where most of its cars both look and feel outdated and cheap.

Next month, the automaker is slated to debut its Outlander plug-in hybrid during the Paris Auto Show. With cars like the Ford C-Max offering an impressive 570-mile driving range, the Outlander hybrid could stand to woo consumers back to the brand. It can’t quite stack up to the C-Max, but with the company’s quoted 500-mile range would certainly put it at the top of the pack compared to other SUVs.

[Source: Sydney Morning Herald]