3000GT/Stealth Production Numbers

by Michael Reid

(web page design and editing by Jeff Lucius)

Introduction

Many of us have been interested in knowing how many of each Mitsubishi 3000GT and Dodge Stealth were sold or produced, particularly if it could be broken down by color, options etc. So far we have only had the somewhat incomplete sales data on Santo Nucifora's old website at http://stealth.senecac.on.ca/frames/production.html (if it is still available) or at Eric Bowden's website at http://www.suthnr.com/garage/3s-production.html.

I have found a wealth of data to be mined in Mitsubishi's VIN database included in the CAPS (Computer Automated Parts Search) program which can be found at http://www.team3s.com/FAQ-CAPS.htm. These numbers were derived by writing a program to scan the C:\PASEN\SHARYO.IDX and C:\PASEN\SHARYO.DAT files included with the Mitsubishi CAPS program. After fixing it up and verifying the numbers every which way from Sunday, I feel reasonably confident these numbers are accurate.

[Editor's note: It has been brought to my attention that various inconsistencies are present on this web page regarding production numbers and color codes. Rather than take on the task of correcting Mike Reid's work, I offer the reader the resources and links to make their own decisions and corrections.

For Japanese car paint codes of the time you can look at the links below.
http://www.automotivetouchup.com/products.htm
http://www.paintscratch.com/cgi-bin/search_paint_names.cgi

I also provide the complete databases that Mike used in the folder below, the one from CAPS that can be searched if you have MS Access or maybe even a text editor.
http://stealth316.com/misc/production_data/ ]

Production Numbers

I believe these numbers represent production at the Nagoya plant for Canada and the US only, but I am not sure about Europe. The numbers I have seen elsewhere are sales numbers only and are incomplete in some areas. These numbers are production numbers and include cars that were never sold (e.g. emission-testing cars, crash-test cars, cars that fell off the boat, possibly executive and promotional cars etc.). The production numbers match reasonably well with the sales numbers reported by Stephanie Molaskey (Case Manager, Vehicle Assistance) at Eric Bowden's website.

Some data is missing however, and this missing data is not included in these tables:
  1. There may be 3500 or so VINs missing from 1991 but it is hard to tell since it appears that Mitsu may not have used completely contiguous VIN ranges in that year at the Nagoya plant.
  2. There appear to be 550 VINs missing from 1995 models and I am assuming for now they were all 1995 Stealth Turbo's as there are none of these in the MIB database.
  3. There appear to be 561 VINs missing from 1997 models built between the start of November 1996 and the end of January of 1997.

[Editor's note: For updated information concerning 1995 and other years of Stealth Twin Turbo models please see Joe Gonsowski's web page: http://joeg.mi3si.org/3S_Production.html .]

Note that some messing with model year designations occurred. For example, 1997 Spyders were actually 1996 (or 1995?) Spyders, according to their VINs and date of production. Also, there were no 1995 Stealth TT's present in the CAPS database, although I've heard of them and seen one. I suspect that any 1995 Stealth TT is really a left-over 1994 model (which still included the AWS). I also suspect that low demand and the changeover to the non-AWS Stealth TT may have taken an extra model year. If you have a 1996 Stealth TT (made for the US only, none for Canada), it is one of only 57 Stealth TT's without AWS.

Production Totals by Make
  1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 Totals
3000GT 9927 13233 12266 16103 15612 5135 5850 4758 3267 86151
Stealth 17280 19696 15249 8444 4274 360 0 0 0 65303
Totals 27207 32929 27515 24547 19886 5495 5850 4758 3267 151454

3000GT Production Totals by Model
  1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 Totals
Base 364 1322 5361 8840 9149 3233 4055 2916 1936 37176
SL 5870 6964 4310 5613 4245 876 1285 1611 1044 31818
VR-4 3693 4947 2595 1650 1311 315 510 231 287 15539
SL Spyder 0 0 0 0 376 365 0 0 0 741
VR-4 Spyder 0 0 0 0 531 346 0 0 0 877
Totals 9927 13233 12266 16103 15612 5135 5850 4758 3267 86151

Stealth Production Totals by Model
  1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 Totals
Base 4529 4811 6351 4346 2856 188 23081
ES 5756 5283 5282 0 0 0 16321
R/T 3979 5247 2317 2493 1418 115 15569
R/T Luxury 0 0 0 681 0 0 681
R/T Turbo 3016 4355 1299 924 0 57 9651
Totals 17280 19696 15249 8444 4274 360 65303

Note of interest: The first two Stealth TT's made for the 1994 model year have a very unusual transmission code of "Q". I suspect these cars MAY have been the long rumored automatic transmission Stealth TT's. Perhaps there were created for testing and the initiative was dropped. (Made for emissions testing and didn't pass or transmission had reliability problems or Chrysler started backing away from Mitsu?) They were both made in June 1993 (93/06/1) and the first had California emissions and the second had Federal emissions. Someone ran a CARFAX background check on these and they were never registered. I've found that generally, the first 100 VINs (those that end in "000001" to "000100") return nothing from CARFAX and are most likely test cars. The two VINs and codes I found for them are:
JB3AN74K6RY000028MQGFL7D93/06/1?W2917A
JB3AN74K8RY000029MQGFL2D93/06/1Z17Y9927A

The Stealth R/T Luxury was made only in 1994. According to the 1994 brochure it had ECS (does that make it the only FWD Stealth with ECS?). It also had as standard equipment: ABS, spoiler w/ LED light, heated mirrors, rear wiper/washer, cruise, PW, PDL, security, Ultimate sound, steering wheel controls. The chassis (or whatever) code for a 1994 RT Luxury is same as for a 1991-1993 RT. The 1994 RT has the same chassis code as a 1991-1993 ES. I have a working theory that as the Yen rose, and as DSM/Mitsu-Chrysler, Mitsu and most other Asian manufacturers "de-contented" their cars to keep the prices down, Dodge re-assigned the model names to lesser cars, but this RT Luxury sounds more like a junior Turbo car. There was some de-contenting in the 3000GT line also, like Mitsu changing the Base to the SOHC engine for 1997-1999.

It is possible to break these numbers down further. For example, I am the owner of one of 924 1994 Stealth R/T Turbo's. Of those, ~125 were black, ~100 of those had the 27A interior, 41 of those had the C6B option package, 14 of those were built for Canada, and only 1 of those (mine) was built in the 1st week of February 1994.

Here are some tables showing how many Stealths were built to Federal, California, and Canadian emission and other standards.

US Federal Emissions Stealth Production
  1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 Totals
Base 3583 4152 6027 3735 2748 183 20428
ES 4391 4480 4816 0 0 0 13687
R/T 3498 4028 2033 2103 1192 105 12959
R/T Luxury 0 0 0 489 0 0 489
R/T Turbo 2345 3497 857 578 0 51 7328
Totals 13817 16157 13733 6905 3940 339 54891

US California Emissions Stealth Production
  1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 Totals
Base 795 499 324 611 108 5 2342
ES 1189 545 265 0 0 0 1999
R/T 364 545 158 306 91 10 1474
R/T Luxury 0 0 0 121 0 0 121
R/T Turbo 526 485 64 115 0 6 1196
Totals 2874 2074 811 1153 199 21 7132

Canada Emissions Stealth Production
  1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 Totals
Base 151 160 0 0 0 0 311
ES 176 258 201 0 0 0 635
R/T 117 674 126 84 135 0 1136
R/T Luxury 0 0 0 71 0 0 71
R/T Turbo 145 373 378 231 0 0 1127
Totals 589 1465 705 386 135 0 3280

The tables below show how many Stealths were built for each color available.

1991 Stealth Color Codes and Production Numbers
Color Color Codes Base ES R/T R/T Turbo
Arctic White W20 / WA0 965 1363 0 0
Galaxy White Pearl W75 / WA5 0 0 925 748
Firestorm (Passion) Red R38 / RA8 1406 1684 1359 1048
Kutani Red Pearl R25 / RA5 353 403 265 154
Wheat Beige S22 / SA2 148 212 86 40
Turquoise (Napier Blue) T72 / TA2 265 313 169 93
Mystic (Bright/Fiji) Blue T87 / TA7 571 586 371 235
Jet (Lamp) Black X94 / XA4 821 1195 805 698

1992 Stealth Color Codes and Production Numbers
Color Color Codes Base ES R/T R/T Turbo
Arctic White W20 / WA0 963 1100 0 0
Galaxy White Pearl W75 / WA5 0 0 1199 951
Firestorm (Passion) Red R38 / RA8 1412 1607 1534 1319
Light Beige S22 / SA2 470 400 295 242
Emerald Green Pearl G84 / GA4 775 764 822 763
Mystic (Bright/Fiji) Blue T87 / TA7 514 498 486 327
Jet (Lamp) Black X94 / XA4 677 914 911 753

1993 Stealth Color Codes and Production Numbers
Color Color Codes Base ES R/T R/T Turbo
Arctic White W32 / ??? 963 812 0 0
Pearl White ??? / WA9 0 0 486 228
Silver Pearl H28 / HA8 507 392 186 82
Firestorm Red (clearcoat) R71 / RA1 1621 1297 605 353
Emerald Green Pearl G84 / GA4 1258 1102 531 293
Blue Pearl B34 / BA4 651 535 222 135
Jet (Lamp) Black X94 / XA4 779 677 287 208

1994 Stealth Color Codes and Production Numbers
Color Color Codes Base R/T R/T Luxury R/T Turbo
Arctic White W32 526 411 0 0
Brilliant White Pearl W29 0 0 128 138
Silver Pearl H28 436 247 42 43
Firestorm Red (clearcoat) R71 1005 538 145 184
Champagne Yellow Pearl Y99 0 0 139 235
Emerald Green Pearl G84 1161 565 148 170
Medium Green B60 259 201 0 0
Blue Pearl B34 356 219 21 35
Jet (Lamp) Black X94 603 312 58 119

1995 Stealth Color Codes and Production Numbers
Color Color Codes Base R/T R/T Turbo
Galaxy White Pearl W75 0 319 ?
Artic White W32 245 0 ?
Firestorm Red (clearcoat) R71 795 347 ?
Champagne Yellow Pearl Y99 0 94 ?
Emerald Green Pearl G84 923 305 ?
Blue Pearl B34 188 57 ?
Orchid Pearl A26 235 81 ?
Jet (Lamp) Black X94 470 215 ?

1996 Stealth Color Codes and Production Numbers
Color Color Codes Base R/T R/T Turbo
Galaxy White Pearl W75 0 29 17
Artic White W32 13 0 0
Symphonic Silver Metallic P82 28 7 4
Firestorm Red (clearcoat) R71 48 39 19
Emerald Green Pearl G84 59 26 8
Olive Pearl L79 23 6 6
Orchid Pearl A26 17 8 3

Sales Numbers

The production numbers match reasonably well with the sales numbers reported originally in the January-February 1996 edition of "Chrysler Car Enthusiast Engines etc ..." on page 8. The sales numbers can be found on Santo Nucifora's old website or at Eric Bowden's website. Note that the sales numbers are by CALENDAR year, not model year, and the numbers for 1995-1996 (and probably 1994) are incomplete. Also note that not all cars produced are sold, some probably get driven off the pier and some may be given away as gifts or destroyed.

3000GT Reported Sales Totals by Model
  1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 Totals
Base 151 1313 5314 8812 9102 3184 3810 1427 289 33402
SL 6015 6877 4271 5570 4167 835 1553 1036 192 30516
VR-4 3646 4853 2550 1591 1263 880 646 156 45 15630
SL Spyder 0 0 0 0 * * 0 0 0 *
VR-4 Spyder 0 0 0 0 * * 0 0 0 *
Totals 9812 13043 12135 15973 14532 4899 6009 2619 526 79548
Unsold 115 190 131 130 1080 236 -159 2139 2741 6603
(!) Either about 200 base's were sold as SL's in 1991 or the VINs for some SL's
indicate they are base's.
(*) Spyder sales figures appear to be scattered from 95-97 and skew the figures.
(*) Sales figures for 95 & 96 (& so called 97) VR-4 Spyders appear to be included
in the figures shown for 95, 96 & 97 VR-4's.
(!) Some sales numbers were corrected due to math errors.


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Except for the small gif and jpg images, the content, images, photographs, text, and multimedia displayed are Copyright ©2000-2004 by Michael Reid and Jeff Lucius. All rights reserved. No part, section, image, photo, article, or whole of this site may be reposted or redisplayed without permission of the author.
Page last updated April 12, 2004.