Recently reduced to being the smallest automotive brand in North America, Mitsubishi is committed to soldiering forward with U.S. sales.
Part of that commitment means offering the sleeker, more conservative looking 2014 Outlander that the brand unveiled during the L.A. Auto Show in an attempt to hang on to its dwindling market share. The Japanese automaker has to hope that people will take kindly to its restyled utility vehicle after recently slashing many of its products including the Eclipse and Eclipse Spyder.
Mitsubishi will continue to offer both a 2.4-liter inline four-cylinder engine and a V6 while other options for the 2014 model include a navigation system and a 710-watt sound system. Farther on the horizon, the brand will also offer the Outlander PHEV first seen during this year’s Paris Motor Show.
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The crossover also gets three new safety systems: lane departure warning, adaptive cruise control and forward collision mitigation.
Brand boss Osamu Masuko already predicted that overall brand sales will reach to 55,000 units by the end of the fiscal year and that they will read 80,000 another year after that.
The 2014 Outlander is part of that plan, but it remains to be seen if Mitsubishi will be able to come back from its difficult position.