Mitsubishi Motors Dealer Partner Spotlight - Lopez Auto Group of Vero Beach, Tallahassee and Albany, Ga. on the Benefits of Embracing Your Local Community

FRANKLIN, Tenn., Sept. 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Mitsubishi Motors North America, Inc. (MMNA) is celebrating dealer partners who go above and beyond for their communities. They provide more than just a great place to buy a car – they help their hometowns thrive in the good times and heal in the challenging times. They rise to the occasion, whatever the occasion may be.

Laz Lopez, President of Lopez Automotive Group, started his affiliation with Mitsubishi Motors when he was 19 years old, detailing cars at a local Mitsubishi dealership, and purchased his first Mitsubishi Motors dealership in 2020, more than 20 years later. Today, Lopez Automotive Group includes Vero Beach Mitsubishi in Vero Beach, Fla., Capital City Mitsubishi in Tallahassee, Fla., and Albany Mitsubishi in Albany, Ga. Lopez shares how his engagement with the community—and excitement about the future of the Mitsubishi brand—has fueled the rapid expansion of his business.

SIX QUESTIONS WITH LAZ LOPEZ
President, Lopez Automotive Group

1. What is the history between Lopez Automotive Group and Mitsubishi Motors? I have three Mitsubishi stores currently. I purchased my first Mitsubishi dealership from my partner, George Sutherland, who has since passed away, three years ago. Then I bought his family out and created Vero Beach Mitsubishi. A few months after, I purchased Albany Mitsubishi in Southern Georgia, and just this year in Tallahassee I bought Capital City Mitsubishi.
   
   
2. That is a lot of growth in a short period of time. How have the communities responded to the introduction of your business? All three stores are doing great, and each community has responded very well to us making our home in their respective areas. We've embraced becoming their neighbors by sponsoring a baseball little league, a tennis club of 700 members, and we've participated in just about every festival they hold. People have responded very well, and we know that because, even though we have a small town here in Vero Beach, we are outselling most of the larger dealerships in the area. We're always between third and fourth place in our district's sales, and it's the same with our other two stores. Our Tallahassee store comes in between number one and number two in the district. It's crazy how fast that store has grown; we've taken it from last place in the district to number one in a matter of two months. Even our Albany store is making the same leaps and bounds.
   
   
3. That's wonderful; has this progress and growth influenced any future ideas or plans for you personally, as well as for the future of your business? Yeah, I'm so happy with Mitsubishi, actually, that I had an opportunity to buy two stores from a competing Japanese auto manufacturer, and when I saw the trend developing of that brand falling backward and Mitsubishi moving forward, it was a no brainer for me to buy the Mitsubishi stores and choose to not move forward with the other brand.
   
   
4. You mentioned that your store sponsors a local baseball little league and other community activations. Could you share more about that? We do all kinds of charity and community outreach. We donate money to St. Jude's hospital, we raffled a brand-new Mitsubishi Outlander at St. Helen Church, and we also sponsor a literacy club in our area that helps immigrants learn how to speak and write in English. They also help them go through the process to get their citizenship. We have a great rapport with them. I'm a big believer and big sponsor of the club because I think that should be a must for immigrants, to learn the language here. It's education, and I've experienced the benefits personally. I had to learn to speak English because I emigrated from Cuba when I was 11 years old. I got a high school degree, and I got into the car business right out of high school, so I know how valuable it is to learn the local language spoken wherever you go. We are so proud to be able to help those in need in our area.
   
   
5. That's amazing; you're giving back to the community with a service that you received yourself when you needed it as a youth. What aspect of Mitsubishi influenced your decision to expand your Mitsubishi network, rather than move forward with another brand? I'm very excited for the future and what it has in store for us, and that's why I purchased my first store. We were at one of the meetings, where all the dealers meet with MMNA's CEO, near their headquarters in Tennessee, and they were talking about the Momentum 2030 business plan, which will soon be launching an all-new battery-electric Mitsubishi coming in 2026, and that just excited me. I was so pumped up by seeing what kind of changes are going to be coming to the cars I sell, and I believe in it, so I bought the third store. And now that I'm seeing it's coming very soon, I'm even more excited about it, and that further drives my belief in the brand.
   
   
6. Is there anything you'd like to share with the communities where your stores are? We're just a family-owned dealer group. Over the past 25 years with Mitsubishi, and five years now serving the Vero Beach community, my teams and I are committed to providing an honest, friendly, and pressure-free experience. We proudly sell brand-new Mitsubishi vehicles and a wide range of quality pre-owned vehicles from all makes and models. Our Vero Beach location actually has an award-winning service department, full-service body shop, and a bilingual team that's always ready to help. I'm from Cuba and learned English when I moved here, so I know the value of having teams that can speak a variety of languages to help serve the greater community.

For more information on the full lineup of Mitsubishi vehicles, visit MitsubishiCars.com.

ABOUT MITSUBISHI MOTORS NORTH AMERICA, INC.
Through a network of approximately 330 dealer partners across the United States, Mitsubishi Motors North America, Inc. (MMNA) is responsible for the sales, marketing, and customer service of Mitsubishi Motors vehicles in the U.S. MMNA's recently announced five-year business plan – "Momentum 2030" – outlines the brand's mid-term intentions for product and business transformation. MMNA will expand and refresh its vehicle lineup in the U.S. with one new or completely refreshed model to debut each year between now and 2030. Powered by a selection of advanced-technology internal combustion engines, hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and battery electrics, the product line will nearly double from today's four vehicles. Momentum 2030 also includes a vision for a modernized retail sales model and plans for network expansion and sales growth.

MMNA has its headquarters in Franklin, Tennessee, as well as corporate operations in California, Georgia, Michigan, and New Jersey.

According to Ipsos NVCS: 

• 96% of compact CUV owners who shopped for a Mitsubishi Outlander purchased one.
• 94% of subcompact CUV owners who shopped for a Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross purchased one.
• 97% of small CUV owners who shopped for a Mitsubishi Outlander Sport purchased one.
• 92% of plug-in hybrid owners who shopped for a Mitsubishi Outlander Plug-in Hybrid purchased one.

For more information on MMNA, visit media.mitsubishicars.com.

Contact
Jeremy Barnes
Senior Director, Communications and Events
[email protected]
Mobile: 615-970-8395

SOURCE Mitsubishi Motors North America, Inc.