Mitsubishi : Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, is the fourth largest auto-manufacturer in Japan and in 2006 was ranked 782nd on Forbes’ list of the 2000 largest public companies.

Mitsubishi’s automotive origins date back as far as 1917, when the Mitsubishi Shipbuilding Co. Ltd. introduced the Mitsubishi Model A, Japan’s first series-production automobile. An entirely hand-built seven-seater sedan based on the Fiat Tipo 3.

By the beginning of the 1960s, however, Japan’s economy was gearing up: wages were rising and the idea of family motoring was taking off. The Mitsubishi 500, a mass market sedan, was introduced to meet this demand, followed in 1962 by the Colt family car. The three regional automotive companies were reintegrated as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in 1964, and within three years their output was over 75,000 vehicles annually.

• By 1977, a network of “Colt”-branded distribution and sales dealerships had been established across Europe, as Mitsubishi sought to begin selling vehicles directly. Annual production had by now grown from 500,000 vehicles in 1973 to 965,000 in 1978.
• Mitsubishi finally achieved annual production of one million cars in 1980, but by this time its ally was not so healthy; As part of its battle to avoid bankruptcy, Chrysler was forced to sell its Australian manufacturing division to MMC that year. The new Japanese owners renamed it Mitsubishi Motors Australia Ltd (MMAL), and since then it has stood as one of the largest car production facilities in the country.
• In 1982, the Mitsubishi brand was introduced to the American market for the first time. The Tredia sedan, and the Cordia and Starion coupes, were initially sold through 70 dealers in 22 states, with an allocation of 30,000 vehicles between them. In 1987, the company was selling 67,000 cars a year in the U.S.