The early 80s are hardly worth remembering. The country was emerging from the long, toilet bowl turd-swirl that was the corrupt Nixon, inept Ford and pathetic Carter administrations, and while Ronald Reagan was proclaiming "morning in America" again, it was at best barely the crack of dawn. The economy was crummy, the mood sour and no one was buying cars. There couldn't have been a worse possible time to launch a new vehicle brand. So, of course, that was when Mitsubishi opened its first dealerships in America.
That means Mitsubishi has now been selling cars and trucks here for a full 25 years. Even if you don't think that's something worth celebrating, it's at least worth noting. This isn't a company that's been on an unbroken upward trajectory like Toyota or Honda, but one that's still trying to carve a solid (and sizeable) niche for itself. And that makes for an interesting history.
Before Mitsubishi was Mitsubishi
The first actual Mitsubishis to appear in the US were unfortunately the Zeroes flying over Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. But that's all history now, so lets just concentrate on the cars.
Mitsubishi Motors North America was incorporated in 1981 and its headquarters were opened in Southern California soon afterwards. By that time, the company's cars and trucks had already been on sale here for a decade (through Dodge and Plymouth dealers). And it had been building cars and trucks of some sort or another since 1917.
Commercial vehicles for JDM consumption were the company's main focus before 1960, when it introduced the 500 midget car for puttering people around the dense Japanese urban environment. By the end of the 60s, the mainstream Colt and Galant models were on sale in the company's homeland. As the 70s dawned, Mitsubishi was still a new player and hardly ready to establish offshore dealerships. But opportunities were arising to ship its products overseas.
For the 1971 model year, both General Motors and Ford introduced new domestic-made small cars-the Chevrolet Vega and Ford Pinto. With 35 years of hindsight, it's obvious that they were the worst piles of crap ever foisted on American drivers. But to Chrysler, then the third and smallest member of Detroit's Big Three, they were a direct threat. So Chrysler formed a partnership with Mitsubishi to bring in the Colt as a Dodge during the 1971 model year (at Plymouth, the British-built Hillman Avenger would be sold as the Cricket).
Eventually Mitsubishi would supply the Colt (in numerous variations) to both Dodge and Plymouth and also ship over the Plymouth Arrow, Dodge Challenger, Plymouth Sapporo, Dodge Conquest and Dodge Stealth sport coupes. Dodge even sold Mitsubishi's small pickup as its own D-50 and a two-door version of the Montero SUV as the Dodge Raider. So before the Mitsubishi brand was established, there were Mitsubishis in America.