But with the sale, that deal was flamed. So, ever since, Mitsubishi has been looking for a new partner. That new partner just might be Peugeot.
Currently, PSA Peugeot-Citroen is selling versions of the Mitsubishi Outlander as the Peugeot 4007 and Citroen C-Crosser (pictured), thus enabling them to produce and sell their first SUVs in Europe. In exchange, Peugeot is supplying Mitsubishi with turbodiesel engines.
Automobile.com reports that talk now is that the friendliness between Peugeot and Mitsubishi will be expanded allowing Mitsubishi to construct Peugeot's next generation 408 sedan at the Mitsubishi plant in Normal, Illinois. Peugeot is looking for such an agreement because the cost of making the 408 in Europe and then transporting it the New World is a cost that Peugeot just doesn't want to spend.
Peugeot hasn't sold cars in America since 1990. This plan will get them to US shores perhaps by using Mitsubishi's dealer network. Furthermore, such a partnership could lead to Mitsubishi developing new midsize cars with the help of Peugeot or re-badge the 408 to expand its midsize category at a great savings.
Our take? Boy, overcoming competition and getting new brands into countries they have never been in before is recreating the automobile business into a chess game of choosing the proper partner to achieve goals a company may not be rich enough to attain on its own. They say that politics makes strange bedfellows. What about competition -- that too makes strange bedfellows.