Mitsubishi's Mark Chaffin watched in 2009 as a wave of off-brand parts hit the market, promising the same performance as Mitsubishi's genuine factory parts yet costing 30 to 40 percent less.
He wasn't worried, though. The generic brake pads, air filters and timing belts came from Mitsubishi itself. The company had taken the unusual step of selling genuine parts under a white label -- Value Line -- to fight back against the likes of Jiffy Lube and Pep Boys.
The cheaper parts, now used at some Mitsubishi dealerships in lieu of genuine parts, have helped Mitsubishi dealers win back repair-shop business, stemming a decline that has resulted from the shrinking number of Mitsubishis on the road in the United States.
In fiscal 2014, sales of Value Line parts rose 25 percent, helping Mitsubishi offset a 20 percent decline in original-equipment genuine-factory parts sales.
"We were competing with a lot of repair shops around the corner from people's homes," Chaffin, the vice president of fixed operations at Mitsubishi Motors North America, said in an interview. "People were looking for value. We had to come up with a compelling reason for them to come back to the dealership."
Across the country, dealerships have long fought a reputation for expensive service. That reflects the cost of keeping factory-certified mechanics but also the high cost of genuine parts, which automakers have historically treated as a profit center.
Joe Bizzarro, owner of Interstate Mitsubishi in Erie, Pa., saw the Value Line as a way to show customers that his dealership was an economical place to get maintenance done. There was just one problem: They weren't inclined to believe him.
"In a town like Erie, you have to earn customers' trust," he said. When a business tries to advertise a low price, he added, "you can mail it, send out coupons, put it on TV, and people are like: 'Yeah, right.'"
Instead, Bizzarro had his employees call existing customers one by one to tell them about the price cuts.
It seems to have worked. This spring, parts sales were up 30 percent year over year.
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