I just paid my tenth payment on my three-year loan for the 2009 Mitsubishi Galant I bought to replace my 1998 Jeep Wrangler Sport. After driving the Jeep for nine years, I decided that the repair and maintenance costs were just too high, and bought a new(ish) car. Even after ten months, I still view it as my "new" car, and I'm still digging it.
But I know it isn't a crowd-pleaser. It is in the same class with the Toyota Camry, the Honda Accord, the Nissan Maxima and Altima, the Mazda 6, the Ford Fusion, the Hyundai Sonata and the Kia Optima. It's prettier than the Optima (at least of its age), and the Fusion. It's comfortable, has reasonable acceleration and gas mileage, and
kills my old Jeep in countless comparisons. But the front end looks kind of brutish, and the car is basically the same (if a bit better looking) as when it debuted in 2003 as a 2004 model. That's a
loooong time in car years.
The Mitsubishi Galant is in its
eighth year of production in its current form, which is not usual for car models. Usually, a car goes through 4-year cycles, and is then completely redesigned. Around year two, they do a facelift/butt-lift, and then at year four you get a whole new car. The Galant got the plastic surgery treatment (sorely needed, what with the ugly nose and taillights it used to have) in 2007 and again in 2009. But in 2010, they just swapped out the black louvered grille (which I have) to a chromed plastic mesh thingy, and a little smoky film on the headlamps. The 2010 and 2011 cars are identical, and essentially the same as my (now) two-to-three year old car. So it's really no surprise that the car is not a huge seller. You can get away with keeping a van or a truck essentially the same for 10+ years, but a car for eight? Almost unheard of.
[Excerpt]
Auto-industry dogs: Canada’s worst-sellers list released
The Honda Civic is again the best-selling new car in Canada this year (49,000 sold) , with the Ford F-150 pickup being the top vehicle seller overall (85,000).
But what’s the worst-selling car to date in Canada?
Glad you asked, says respected Canadian automotive journalist, John Leblanc, who lists the Acura RL luxury sedan as this year’s biggest automotive dog in the Canadian market, with just 33 sold. Leblanc’s 10 Worst Selling New Cars in Canada in 2010 list appeared in the nation’s largest-circulation newspaper, the Toronto Star, this week. . .
Read more at: MarketWatch
