If there was ever a car that could make or break an automaker, the new Colt would be it for Mitsubishi Motors Corporation. Two years after tarnishing its brand with the industry's biggest cover-up scandal to date, Japan's fourth-largest automaker badly needs a make-over to win back drivers and reverse the two-year run of falling domestic sales.Chang-Ran Kim reports from Tokyo.
And, with its successful truck arm soon to be split off, the fully remodelled sub-compact could also prove a test of whether Mitsubishi Motors will be able to keep up in the increasingly competitive race in its mainstay passenger car segment.
Nobody knows that better than Mitsubishi, and the 32-year-old carmaker is revving up full throttle for a comeback.
In a build-up fitting to its importance, Mitsubishi has been marketing the Colt in teaser campaigns in Japan at cafes and playgrounds for weeks before its November 11th launch. The mantra-like slogan, "Majime, Majime, Majime, Colt", repeating the Japanese word for serious and earnest: the company's attempt to exorcise the ghosts of scandals past.
Promotions aside, the Colt could be a winner.
In a first for a car of this class, Japanese drivers will be able to craft their own Colt choosing features in 33 categories, which not only include typical accessories such as an extra cup-holder, but also engine size, wheel type and seat shape.
The system will allow for hundreds of millions of different combinations in a built-to-order style without extra cost or time lag, Mitsubishi said. The automaker plans to adopt the method for all future models apart from 660cc mini-vehicles.
The Colt will also mark a rebirth design-wise. In what Mitsubishi's design team says is a declaration of confidence and new-found pride, the Colt will revive thetriangular shape in the hood meant to accentuate the Mitsubishi group's three-diamond trademark on the nose.
The 120-year-old logo, arguably the most recognisable in Japan, will also be placed prominently on the steering wheel at twice the size used in existing models.
"Until now, we have been shy with our logo. If you give it a certain size, it shows we believe in ourselves," Olivier Boulay, Mitsubishi's head of design, told reporters at a sneak preview of the Colt this week.
Mitsubishi is also spending 10 to 20 per cent more than usual on the quality of the interior to set it apart from competing small cars.
The extra spending will not make the Colt less profitable than other subcompacts because the cost will be offset by savings from sharing a platform with German partner DaimlerChrysler's Smart car, Mitsubishi said.
For Mitsubishi, the Colt's success would be proof that customers have forgiven it for its past follies.
Mitsubishi learned the importance of being earnest the hard way two years ago, when an insider's tip to authorities culminated in the company's admission of hiding defects and customer complaints for more than two decades.
That scandal ultimately led to the recall of two million cars worldwide, a loss that business year that was Mitsubishi's worst-ever, and the resignation of its president.
Mitsubishi Motors says the new Colt, to be sold in Europe from 2004, has a sense of quality rare in this category and will reach a wider audience due to a simple design that is both casual and chic.
"We didn't look for a funky design," said Boulay. "We wanted to target a wide audience, and not everybody is funky.
"I am completely confident this car will sell." - Reuters