In an age when most school budgets couldn’t stretch to a new set of pencils, Rutherford County Schools in Tennessee has managed something extraordinary: keeping driver’s education alive. And not just alive, but positively humming with a pair of brand-new Mitsubishis—because nothing says “welcome to the open road” like the smell of factory-fresh upholstery and a touchscreen you don’t understand.
Enter stage left: City Auto Mitsubishi of Murfreesboro, partnering with Mitsubishi Motors North America. Between them, they’ve just handed over two SUVs—a 2024 Outlander Sport and a 2024 Eclipse Cross—to the school district. Not demo cars, not dusty old fleet vehicles, but showroom-shiny, still-glittering-with-dealer-wax machines.
The purpose? To give tomorrow’s drivers the tools—and the safety tech—to start their motoring lives in something far more forgiving than Grandpa’s rusting pickup.
City Auto’s general manager Jordan Norton said it best: “This donation is a gift to the whole community.” Translation: if the kids are better behind the wheel, there’s less chance of them rear-ending you at the lights. Practical altruism at its finest.
What makes this story unusual is that most school districts across America have quietly euthanized driver training, slashed by the guillotine of budget cuts. Rutherford, though, has fought tooth and nail to keep the program. With over $60,000 raised for simulators and corporate donations flowing in, the district is essentially running a motoring academy on a shoestring. And now, with two fresh Mitsubishis in the car park, students will learn lane discipline in something that doesn’t rattle itself apart at 40 mph.
And it’s not just about the cars. Mitsubishi’s wider “Driving Confidence – Driving Community” program is part CSR initiative, part stealthy PR masterstroke. Over the past few years, they’ve been doling out Community Utility Vehicles (CUVs) like sweets at Halloween—from Nashville charities to Las Vegas non-profits. But this one feels especially apt. Because if you’re going to build lifelong customers, start when they’re 16, fumbling for the clutch, and praying the parallel park doesn’t take out a mailbox.
Dr. Jimmy Sullivan, Director of Schools, put it rather nobly: “This partnership is a shining example of how community partners support student learning with real-world application.” Which, in Top Gear translation, means: “Thank heavens somebody’s helping us keep this show on the road.”
So here’s the headline: while much of the country is letting kids loose onto highways armed with little more than YouTube tutorials and misplaced confidence, Tennessee teens are sliding behind the wheel of a brand-new Mitsubishi—complete with airbags, ABS, and possibly a fighting chance of survival.
And that, frankly, is a win for everyone.
Source: Mitsubishi