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  3. Who Puts a Spoke in Mitsubishi’s Wheel With American sales of Mitsubishi, once one of the hottest car brands, in a free fall

Who Puts a Spoke in Mitsubishi’s Wheel With American sales of Mitsubishi, once one of the hottest car brands, in a free fall

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问题     Who Puts a Spoke in Mitsubishi’s Wheel
    With American sales of Mitsubishi, once one of the hottest car brands, in a free fall, the company’s executives are trying to engineer a turnaround. Sales started picking up this month, but even so, Ms. Prendergast-Lunn expects her dealership to sell only half the number of vehicles it did a year earlier. "I’m hoping to end July with 35 or 40 sales," she said. In other words, circumstances in the car market have forced her to lower substantially her expectations. She is in effect being made to pay for mistakes Mitsubishi management has made over the past decade.
    Other dealers are struggling as well. The market share of Mitsubishi Motors North America, the United States unit of the Japanese automaker, has been halved in just a year, to 0. 8 percent last month from 1.5 percent last June, according to the Autodata Corporation. In June, the company’s sales dropped 45. 7 percent, to 12, 301.
    Shrinking sales resulted in diminished production. In 2008 production fell by 23 percent in Asia, 30 percent in Europe and a staggering 41 percent in North America.
    Mitsubishi announced last week that it would lay off 1, 200 employees, or about a third of its work force.
    Mitsubishi has also decreased its advertising. For years it pitched the brand to young consumers with cheap financing and emotional eye-catching ads set to pop music. That strategy created some of its trouble because it suffered a high default rate on the loans. Analysts say that Mitsubishi needs to write off about $ 1 billion in bad loans.
    The American sales slump has been a big factor in the struggles of the Japanese parent company, but not the only factor. Mitsubishi has also suffered from a cover-up of defects in its cars and trucks for decades.
    It was hoped a new CEO would solve many of these problems. Finbarr O’Neill, who had recently rescued Korean carmaker Hyundai, was brought in. He promptly shifted the marketing focus from the unreliable youth sector to the older middle class, emphasizing quality and durability in new family cars. O’Neill’s innovations failed to revive sales, and he abruptly left Mitsubishi. (He would later complain that the advertising agency had not explained those attractions adequately to potential buyers. )
    In April, Mitsubishi’s minority owner, DaimlerChrysler, decided not to invest any more money in the troubled carmaker, and Mitsubishi had to scramble for money to cover its debts. The Phoenix Capital Company, a Tokyo-based investment firm, bought a third of the company, replacing DaimlerChrysler as the controlling partner.
    So what is Mitsubishi’s reason for existence? The answer is to cast Mitsubishi’s vehicles as performance-driven alternatives to some of the country’s most respected brands.
    Advertising for the redesigned Galant midsize sedan introduced earlier this year, pits the car against the Toyota Camry in a high-speed crash avoidance test. The cars follow two trucks from which two men are throwing everything from bowling balls to iron bars in front of the two fast-moving cars. Each car swerves to miss the obstacles. Finally, two old cars fall out of the back of the trucks and the Galant and the Camry swerve to miss them. The Galant deftly maneuvers around them while the Camry is left in the dust.
    Along with the updated Galant a new sports car and a pick-up truck will go into production. Many experts doubt that those additions will be enough to save Mitsubishi from ultimate collapse in today’s competitive car market.
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答案 是谁挡了三菱的道? 三菱汽车曾在美国风靡一时，而如今在美的销售量却直线下降，鉴于此，三菱汽车的管理层试图做些什么，以期扭转乾坤。尽管本月汽车销售量有所回升，而Prendergast-Lunn女士认为今年自己的三菱汽车经销店能卖出的车只有去年的一半。她说：“我能指望的是至7月底销售量能达到35到40辆。”换言之，低迷汽车销售市场使她不得不大幅降低自己的期望值。事实上，三菱管理层在过去十年中犯下了许多错误，而她则成了替罪羊。 其余经销商也在苦苦挣扎。日本三菱北美公司的市场占有率从去年六月的1．5％跌至今年六月的0．8％，跌幅近半。今年7月，该公司的汽车销售量大幅下挫45．7％，仅售出1230l辆。 销售量下降，产量自然也下降了。2008年亚洲的产量下降了23％，欧洲的产量下降了30％，而北美产量下跌幅度最大，达到了41％。 公司上周称将辞退1200名员工，即三分之一的员工。 三菱同样减少了对广告的投入。多年来，三菱将产品定位于年轻消费者，因此其广告制作成本较低，就是以动感画面配以流行音乐。定位年轻人的市场给三菱招来了不少欠账，这可是个大麻烦。分析人士认为三菱从年轻消费者手中落空的呆账达10亿美元。 三菱驻日本的母公司也陷于困顿，在美销售量下跌是导致困境的一大因素，但还有一个因素就是三菱几十年来在汽车和卡车销售上犯了许多错误，而三菱公司却做鸵鸟，将头埋于沙中，面对一切置若罔闻。 人们希望能有一个新的总裁来解决这些问题。Finbarr O’Neill最近成功解救了韩国汽车制造商现代公司，现接受邀请加入三菱。他迅速将三菱汽车的销售重点从没有经济实力的年轻人群移至年长的中产阶级，并加强了新款家用型汽车的质量和耗损度。此举还未拉升多少汽车销售量时，他就突然离开了三菱。(此后不久他指责广告公司未能向潜在的消费群体完全呈现三菱新汽车改变后的优点。) 四月，三菱的股东戴姆勒-克莱斯勒公司决定不再向问题重重的三菱投入资金，于是三菱不得不四处筹钱还债。驻东京的投资公司凤凰资本已买下三菱三分之一的股份，接替戴姆勒成为公司控股股东。 那三菱还有什么筹码坚持下去呢?三菱能够挑战日本最受瞩目的汽车品牌丰田，显示其新车的卓越性能。 今年年初上市的新款戈蓝中型轿车的广告里，三菱戈蓝和丰田凯美瑞同台竞技，接受高速障碍躲避测试。两辆车分别紧跟两辆卡车，卡车中的两男子不断向后投掷各类物件，有保龄球也有铁棒，两辆车灵活转向，都躲避了抛掷物。最后卡车中甩下了两辆旧轿车，戈蓝轻巧地绕过障碍物，全速前进，将凯美瑞远远甩在后头。 继戈蓝之后，新款跑车及皮卡即将投入生产。许多专家质疑在如今竞争激烈的汽车市场，这些新产品是否足以将三菱从困境中解救出来。
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