Mitsubishi sales slip for 2nd straight month

Attendees look at the new, all-electric Mitsubishi i during the National Clean Energy Summit 4.0 in Las Vegas. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

NORMAL – Mitsubishi Motors North America sales slipped for the second straight month in November, even as other automakers on Thursday reported double-digit gains during a normally lackluster month.

MMNA sold 3,735 vehicles last month, down 13 percent from November 2010. It’s the second straight year-over-year monthly decline, following 13 consecutive increases, said MMNA spokesman Dan Irvin. He stressed that MMNA’s sales tally for the first 11 months of 2011 – 73,988 units – is up 45.6 percent over 2010’s pace.

“I think it’s just a matter of us coming back to the rest of the pack,” Irvin said. “We really had a tremendous first nine months. We, in fact, passed the total from last year in the first nine months of the year.”

Chrysler, Ford, Nissan and Hyundai were among the companies reporting double-digit gains from last November, which is normally a lackluster month because of colder weather and holiday distractions. Several analysts expect the overall pace of U.S. auto sales to be the fastest in more than two years.

Mitsubishi has had a couple soft months, Irvin said, but other automakers also posted weaker numbers when Mitsubishi was on the rise.

“It’s kind of understandable that it’s difficult, almost impossible, to maintain month after month after month after month of increases,” he said.

The Outlander Sport, which will soon be made at MMNA’s manufacturing plant in Normal, sold 1,133 units sold in November, up from 64.7 percent a year ago. Another new vehicle – the all-electric i – begins retail sales this month on the West Coast before in other parts of the U.S. in spring 2012.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Ryan Denham can be reached at ryan@wjbc.com.