- Oakes Auto says Mitsubishi didn’t allocate it enough vehicles and axed a deal it inked to sell cars to rental fleets.
- Mitsubishi has filed a motion in court to dismiss three of the six claims.
- The dealer sold 121 new Mitsubishi vehicles in 2021, well above the carmaker’s minimum sales target.
A dealership in Kansas City, Kansas has accused Mitsubishi Motors of North America of “mistreating its dealers by making false promises” in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit.
The suit, filed by Oakes Auto that had been a Mitsubishi dealership since 2018, claims that the Japanese carmaker had forced it to buy “unreasonable advertising display” to receive vehicle allocations. It also alleges Mitsubishi routinely failed to provide it with sufficient vehicles and that the brand axed a deal for the dealer to sell 64 vehicles to an Enterprise affiliate to be used for Alamo, Enterprise, and National rental fleets.
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According to Auto News, the suit also alleges Mitsubishi sabotaged a negotiated sale of the dealership to a proposed purchaser. Oakes Auto received a termination notice from Mitsubishi in June 2023. The dealer says it’s not attempting to challenge this termination, noting that it “no longer wishes to do business with Mitsubishi, given its tortuous actions taken in bad faith.”
Oakes Auto says it sold 121 new Mitsubishi vehicles in 2021, above the brand’s minimum sales responsibility target of 70 units annually. Its volume in December 2022 also put it in the top half of the district’s dealerships. It also claims to have had a perfect sales and satisfaction index score for the first quarter of 2023.
Shortly after Oakes Auto acquired the dealership, Mitsubishi implemented a visual identity program that required an upgrade of the facility. The suit adds the carmaker failed to provide funds promised for the dealers “grand opening”. The dealership group, which also operates Ford, Kia, and Buick-GMC stores in Kansas and Missouri, is seeking more than $2.4 million for breach of fiduciary duty and violation of the Automobile Dealers Day in Court Act.
In addition, the dealer is seeking roughly $3.5 million for the blocked sales and almost $219,000 for Mitsubishi’s failure to meet its post-termination financial obligations.
Mitsubishi filed a motion in federal court earlier this month to dismiss three of the six claims in the lawsuit.
