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Mitsubishi Opens a Room for Looking at Cars. Carve the Lintel.

Mitsubishi's first U.S. Gallery dealership opened July 30 in a shopping development in Antioch, Tenn. The company says vehicle sales, delivery and service continue at the dealer's nearby full-service store, and that arrangement is the correct order of things.

Column August 3, 2026
Marcus Ellery
Marcus Ellery Luxury, Design & Craftsmanship

Because Mitsubishi has opened a room and then said plainly what does not happen in it, start with its own sentence. "Vehicle sales, delivery and service continue through City Auto Mitsubishi's nearby full-service dealership." The Gallery sits in the Century Farms development in Antioch, Tenn. A visitor can study the lineup, talk to trained product specialists and start the purchase on ClickShop, Mitsubishi's online buying system. Mitsubishi gives the space two words, "open-concept" and "lifestyle-oriented."

So the key and the repairs happen in a different building. The cars have been left alone with the people who came to look at them. That is the correct order, a century late. Nobody has ever looked properly at an automobile with a finance folder open 11 feet away. No car in this country may be looked at in a room that also holds a desk, a folder or a coffee machine.

Jordan Norton, the general manager at City Auto Mitsubishi, says the point is "meeting shoppers where they already spend their time." I spend mine on the 14 bus. The driver points out wheels to me through the windshield, and he has never once been left alone with a car he was thinking about.

Mitsubishi says the concept makes it "the first mass-market automotive brand in the U.S. to bring an immersive showroom experience into a high-traffic retail environment." A proof-of-concept, a national blueprint, and four cars, by Mitsubishi's own count.

Since Antioch got there first, here is what happens now. A stonecutter starts in Alabama and works town by town, one showroom a week, cutting ANTIOCH, JULY 30, 2026 into the lintel above each door. Behind him, a crew carries the desk, the folder and the coffee machine out the back and leaves them at the curb. The man who first stood a desk beside an automobile is put out of the atelier for good. He does not get to say goodbye to the cars.

The VerdictMitsubishi Motors North America, headquartered in Franklin, Tenn., states that it celebrated the grand opening of its first U.S. Gallery dealership on July 30, 2026, in the Century Farms development in Antioch, Tenn., developed in partnership with Murfreesboro, Tenn.-based City Auto Mitsubishi, and calls it the first Mitsubishi dealership of its kind in the U.S., a proof-of-concept for future retail opportunities across the country, and the first major retail milestone under its Momentum 2030 business plan. Mitsubishi states that the Gallery is an open-concept environment where visitors can explore the latest vehicle lineup, interact with trained product specialists, browse inventory from City Auto Mitsubishi and begin the purchase process through the company's ClickShop digital retail platform, and that 'Vehicle sales, delivery and service continue through City Auto Mitsubishi's nearby full-service dealership, allowing the Gallery to complement the traditional dealership experience.' Mitsubishi further states that the concept 'positions Mitsubishi Motors as the first mass-market automotive brand in the U.S. to bring an immersive showroom experience into a high-traffic retail environment, a model more commonly associated with luxury and specialty automotive brands'; that claim is Mitsubishi's own and this magazine has not verified it. Mark Chaffin, MMNA president and CEO, is quoted saying buying a car should be 'fast, fair, and fun,' and Jordan Norton, general manager of City Auto Mitsubishi, is quoted on 'meeting shoppers where they already spend their time.' Mitsubishi's boilerplate states approximately 300 dealer partners, one new or completely refreshed model each year through 2030, and a U.S. product line that will nearly double from today's four vehicles. The release gives no price, no square footage, no construction cost, no attendance figure and no sales figure, and describes the space only as 'open-concept' and 'lifestyle-oriented.' Nobody at this magazine has stood inside the building, so this is a verdict on the arrangement and not on the room: a company that puts the handover and the repairs in another building has left an automobile alone with the people who came to look at it, which is how it should have been done everywhere, a century ago.

Editorial disclosure: Mitsubishi couriered to Drive Observer a pair of oversized ceremonial ribbon-cutting scissors and 40 feet of red ribbon, strung between two chrome stanchions across the entrance to this desk and delivered with a hand-lettered card reading 'cut it whenever you like.' The ribbon has been cut and retied nine times. Per our strict ethical policy, we do not let this influence our coverage.