A new infographic focuses on some of the most successful and not-so-successful badge engineered vehicles in Mitsubishi’s history. With the recent announcement that the 2021 Mitsubishi Outlander will share the same platform as some Nissan and Renault vehicles, the team at MitsubishiPartsOnSale.com decided to illustrate some of the brand’s rebadging history. The chart features six of the team’s favorite badge engineering examples.
“Sometimes badge engineering was done to save on research and development and other times just enough market research was conducted to tell carmakers that this model would do well in this region, under this badge,” says Bob Interlicchia, director at MistubishiPartsOnSale.com. “Mitsubishi has a long history of sharing designs and platforms with other automakers. Rebadging is often an effective business strategy, but sometimes, as you’ll see in the graphic, it just doesn’t work.”
The bulk of the badge engineering has been between Dodge/Chrysler and Mitsubishi. In addition to sharing auto designs, there has been situations where two automakers hold stock in one company and even a brief partnership that resulted in the Diamond-Star Motors Corp. The symbiotic relationship has buoyed one company or the other through tough financial times.
Here’s the highlights and “lowlights” from the infographic:
- In 1970, Mitsubishi launched the Colt Galant in Japan. In 1971, Mitsubishi sold its first car in America when the Colt Galant was badge engineered as the Dodge Colt. Throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, the Mitsubishi Mirage (Galant) was rebadged as the Plymouth Champ, Dodge Colt, or Eagle Summit. During that time, it was well-known that Dodge-Plymouth was badge engineering the Mitsubishi hatch. The American car company even made print ads for the domestic Colt that stated it was “imported.”
- Although Mitsubishi supplied some of the technology for the early Hyundai Excel models, the Mitsubishi Precis couldn’t compete. In 1986 and 1987, US Excel sales hovered in the 200,000 range per year. The rebadged Precis’s first two years of US sales hit only slightly more than 20,000 each year.
- The Dodge Raider was sold in the U.S. for a mere two years, 1987-89. Although the Mitsubishi Pajero (Montero) did some impressive rally racing in the 1980s and 1990s, Americans didn’t warm to the badge engineered SUV like many drivers in Asia and Australia did. Maybe it was because the Dodge version wasn’t available as a 4-door model.
- Like the Mitsubishi Mirage-Dodge-Colt-Plymouth-Champ-etc. hatchbacks, the Mitsubishi Eclipse would be rebadged several times during its 1989-2005 model years. It was introduced through Diamond-Star Motors but was pure Mitsubishi by 1991.
- Mitsubishi’s 3000GT was an ambitious high-tech, all-wheel drive sports car in the early 90s. Despite being fast, its heavy weight made the overall driving experience underwhelming for most. Dodge rebranded it as the Stealth. The Dodge encountered some reliability problems with oil leaks, braking and shifting issues, and drivetrain troubles, but still has a few fans today.
- Although the Mitsubishi Raider had an imposing name and was built on the Dodge Dakota platform, the overall design wasn’t as aggressive as the Dodge. Neither truck sold very well, but the Raider less so. This rebadge lasted only three model years.
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