Mitsubishi Executive Resigns

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. said Greg O’Neill, president and chief operating officer of its North American sales unit, resigned for unspecified reasons.

O’Neill, who joined the fourth-largest Japanese automaker in 1998, is to leave Mitsubishi Motors North America on Dec. 31, the company said.

Tokyo-based Mitsubishi has seen its U.S. sales drop 22% this year through October, the largest such drop among major brands.

It’s struggling to revamp its Cypress-based U.S. operations after being hurt by a jump in loan defaults stemming from the company’s decision to expand sales to customers with spotty credit in the late 1990s.

In September, Mitsubishi replaced North American Chief Executive Pierre Gagnon with Finbarr O’Neill.

“For me, it was time for a change,” Greg O’Neill said in a statement. “Frankly, with the restructuring, I had worked myself out of a role. I will be announcing my new role, outside Mitsubishi, at the end of the year.”

Mitsubishi is 37% owned by DaimlerChrysler.