Is 7000 an underestimate?
I think Mitsu is underestimating the sales potential of the Mirage in the U.S.
With ~400 dealers and 7000 sales/yr, they're expecting to sell on average just 17.5 Mirages per dealer, per year. Really? That's just one sale every 3 weeks per dealer.
Just as Mitsu execs were "managing the expectations" of reviewers at the press launch with the warning that the Mirage is not a performance car, I think they may be low-balling the sales estimates too. Set expectations low and then over-deliver. Makes for better headlines in the future.
General Motors: 4300 dealers in the US
Update to my earlier post: GM currently has 4300 dealers, so roughly 10 times Mitsubishi's U.S. dealer count.
Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...452221502.html
That should help put Spark vs. Mirage sales in perspective.
One thought though: I suspect GM has a significant percentage of dealerships outside of sub/urban areas (think of all those pickup sales), whereas Mitsu is probably exclusively sub/urban. By this theory, Mitsu should be able to show better results selling a city car on a per dealer basis.