Diamond Star Motors
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| Division | |
| Industry | Automobile manufacturing |
| Founded | October 1985 |
| Defunct | November 2015 |
| Headquarters | 100 N. Mitsubishi Motorway, Normal, Illinois 61761, United States |
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Key people
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Jerry Berwanger (EVP, COO) Hideyasu Tagaya (Chairman, MMNA) |
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Number of employees
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1,900 |
| Parent | Mitsubishi Motors North America |
| Website | MitsubishiManufacturing.com |
Diamond-Star Motors (DSM) was an automobile-manufacturing joint venture between the Chrysler Corporation and Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC). The name came from the parent companies' respective logos: three diamonds (Mitsubishi) and a pentastar (Chrysler). Diamond-Star Motors was officially renamed Mitsubishi Motor Manufacturing of America, Inc. (MMMA) in 1995, four years after Mitsubishi took sole control of the plant, and from 2002 to 2016 its official name had been Mitsubishi Motors North America, Inc. (MMNA) Manufacturing Division.
To the automotive enthusiast community, DSM, especially used in the singular (e.g. a DSM) generally refers to the original first- and second-generation Mitsubishi Eclipse, Eagle Talon, and Plymouth Laser, which all shared the same Diamond-Star Motors vehicle platform.
The origins of Diamond-Star Motors can be traced back to 1970 when Chrysler Corporation took a 15 percent stake in Mitsubishi Motors, as part of MMC's strategy of expansion through alliances with foreign partners. The U.S. company began distributing Mitsubishis as Chrysler-, Dodge- and Plymouth-branded captive imports (e.g. Dodge Colt), a successful venture as the compact cars met consumer demand for smaller and more fuel-efficient vehicles in the 1970s, filling a gap at the bottom of the Chrysler group's range.
By 1982, Chrysler was importing 110,000 Mitsubishis annually. However, a minor conflict was forming as the Japanese now wanted to sell directly through their own-branded dealerships. A voluntary import quota system was in place at this time, restricting the number of cars Japanese automakers could bring into the U.S. As the Japanese company began to open its own branded dealerships to sell directly, every imported Cordia, Tredia and Starion sold by Mitsubishi had to be discounted from Chrysler's allocation.
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Wikipedia