This Is One Of The Worst Japanese Car Brands

While some could argue that Japanese car brands overall may have fallen a bit from their 1980s and 1990s period of industry dominance, the major players like Toyota and Honda for the most part, continue to deliver on their reputations. They regularly top the sales charts and have happy, loyal customers. Even the smaller Japanese brands like Subaru and Mazda have done well in establishing their own identities and building loyal customer bases. But that's not the case for every Japanese brand selling cars in America right now.

Mitsubishi – the once proud and ambitious Japanese car brand now seems to be hanging on by a thread, especially in America. It's a brand that continues to suffer through scandals, diminished reputation, poor resale value, and an absence of exciting offerings. Few can seriously argue that Mitsubishi is in a good place at the moment. And there's now growing concern among those on the front lines that the brand's long-term existence in the ultra-competitive American car market is in danger. 

Historically, Mitsubishi Motors, especially in America, never operated at the same level or with the same volume as Toyota or Honda. Mitsubishi never had Toyota's bulletproof reputation or Honda's way of punching above its weight. But that was okay. For years, Mitsubishi got along well with a large and varied vehicle line that was bolstered by its long-running corporate partnership with Chrysler. A partnership that resulted in classics like the Mitsubishi Starion/Chrysler Conquest and later the Mitsubishi 3000GT/Dodge Stealth and Mitsubishi Eclipse/Eagle Talon. 

Internationally, Mitsubishi had a rugged, tech-heavy reputation built by SUVs like the Pajero, along with early rally success with cars like the Colt Galant. Culturally, there was Jackie Chan's partnership with the brand that resulted in movies like 'Thunderbolt'. Later, Mitsubishi brought to mind Tommi Makinen's WRC-winning machines and Paul Walker's bright green Eclipse from 'The Fast and the Furious'. Though it arrived late to the American market, the Lancer Evolution served as the brand's hardcore performance flagship through the 2000s and into the 2010s.

But even as Mitsubishi's enthusiast offerings kept interest up, the brand had begun sailing through rough financial waters. In the early 2000s, without the resources, product line or reputation to compete with Toyota or Honda, Mitsubishi began an aggressive program targeting low-credit buyers with things like zero-down financing programs and deferred payments. Not only did this not work out for the company financially, it also cheapened the reputation of the brand and its dealers long term.

The reality is that, as but one slice of a massive Japanese industrial empire, Mitsubishi Motors likely wasn't destined to ever become a dedicated automotive giant like Toyota. In hindsight, Mitsubishi tried to stretch itself too thin, never finding a successful niche like Subaru did with its AWD crossovers or Mazda did with its driver-focused/semi-luxury approach. In America, this became evident through an increasingly small lineup with no real identity or selling points over the competition. That focus on low-credit financing also left Mitsubishi very vulnerable to competition from fast-growing, value-centric Korean brands.

In the early 2010s, Mitsubishi's decline really began to accelerate. By the middle of the decade, the Galant and Eclipse were both discontinued, with the Lancer and Lancer Evolution following close behind as Mitsubishi phased out sports cars across the board. By the late 2010s, the brand's American lineup had dwindled to a couple of crossover SUVs and the subcompact, bargain-basement Mitsubishi Mirage. 

There was also the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, a tiny, funky-looking electric car that debuted in 2009 and was sold in small numbers. Though kind of a joke by modern EV standards, this little car was in some ways ahead of the curve. But again, Mitsubishi was unable to leverage its head start in this early EV space into vehicles that were competitive five or 10 years later when the whole EV movement really took off. It was just another one of the missed opportunities in the brand's history. 

Making things even worse were a series of scandals in the 2000s and the 2010s, including a cover-up of safety defects and later cheating on fuel economy test data. These only deteriorated Mitsubishi's image even further, both domestically and internationally. And speaking of scandals, you can't talk about Mitsubishi in its current state without mentioning Nissan. Nissan acquired a controlling stake in a fledgling Mitsubishi back in 2016, but rather than strengthening either brand, things have only seemed to have gotten worse for both. 

After the acquisition, Nissan would enter its own period of major turmoil that continues today. Nissan's troubles have been well publicized across the industry, including, among other things, a massive corruption scandal and the arrest of its former CEO, and more recently, the collapse of a planned merger with Honda. Mitsubishi? They've been towed along for the ride.

As for Mitsubishi's current state in the U.S., things don't seem great, with dealers 'giving up' on new model sales, and struggling with the brand's tiny, uncompetitive lineup. Tariffs are another wrench that's been thrown into Mitsubishi's American plans, with the company no longer having U.S.-based production. Mitsubishi does sell a few interesting models overseas, like the Delica D:5 minivan and the popular Triton pickup truck that could potentially provide a jolt to its lineup, but the costs associated with federalizing those vehicles would likely be too high for the company to absorb in its current state.

So what then, does the future hold for Mitsubishi? This is where things get a little bleak, because on its current trajectory, it's not unreasonable to imagine Mitsubishi closing up American operations completely in the coming years, going the way of fallen brands like Suzuki or Isuzu. You can hope for a revival, but for the most part, Mitsubishi's issues only seem to be compounding in America.

Most recently, Nissan announced that is going to be selling a Nissan Rouge Plug-In Hybrid for 2026, which is literally a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV (which already shares its platform with Nissan) with a different grille and badging. It's actually a smart move on Nissan's part. The Outlander PHEV is, by our account, Mitsubishi's most compelling product in today's market, and the Rogue name is a familiar entity among CUV buyers. It's nice to see Nissan using that Mitsubishi DNA in a mainstream offering, but if anything, this only puts the Mitsubishi' brand's American future into further question. 

Think about it. If you can get everything the Outlander PHEV provides from a Nissan Rogue, why even bother with Mitsubishi's tiny dealer network and less-than-stellar brand reputation? Is there still a chance that Mitsubishi could reposition itself as a successful niche player that leans on strong heritage and broader industrial/technological prowess? It's possible. And we'd be happy to see it. But right now, the harsh reality is that the odds of Mitsubishi Motors USA surviving into the 2030s don't seem high.

Given how few Japanese car brands there are and how they've all made great products over the years, it's hard to declare any single brand the worst of all time. And in this case, it's not even that Mitsubishi's current vehicles are uniquely bad on their own. But when put next to its Japanese rivals, even the smaller ones like Subaru and Mazda, which have thrived without massive volume or product lines, we view Mitsubishi as one of 'the worst' simply by the dramatic, inescapable reality of how far they've declined both as a company and in the public image.