CORPORATE : Mitsubishi Marketing Convertible as a First

Cypress-based Mitsubishi Motor Sales of America is billing its newest offering, the Eclipse Spyder, as the first U.S.-designed and -built convertible sold by a Japanese importer.

That complex description is important. Mazda’s Miata, largely responsible for rekindling America’s love affair with the convertible, was designed at the company’s research and development facility in Irvine but has always been built on an assembly line in Japan.

The Eclipse Spyder was not only penned at Mitsubishi’s U.S. design shop at corporate headquarters on Katella Avenue, but it is being built at Mitsubishi’s Diamond Star plant in Bloomington, Ill.

The advantages of building cars in the U.S. range from “the highly skilled work force to the competitive advantages of parts procurement and distribution,” said Kevin Ormes, vice president of sales and marketing.

Mitsubishi and Mazda are among a handful of foreign car makers with U.S. design studios in Orange County. The others are Japan’s Toyota and Suzuki; South Korea’s Hyundai, Kia and Samsung (which hasn’t even started making cars yet); and Germany’s Mercedes-Benz.

John O’Dell covers major Orange County corporations and economic issues for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-5831 and at john.odell@latimes.com.