KEY POINTS:
Mitsubishi executives in New Zealand are philosophical about the loss of the company's big car, the 380 sedan.
"It's not a big seller for us, representing about 1 per cent of volume," said Mitsubishi Motors NZ marketing manager Daniel Cook. "Not having it won't have a significant impact
on us."
The Adelaide plant that built the 380 for New Zealand and Australia is to close on March 31, with the loss of about 1000 jobs. It has been bleeding money for years.
Mitsubishi Motors Australia and parent company Mitsubishi Motors Corporation blamed the closure on the sales shift away from large cars and the strength of the Australian dollar. The shutdown (the plant once built Chrysler vehicles for Australia and New Zealand) leaves only Ford, Holden and Toyota assembling cars in Australia.
"It is an inescapable fact that there is now a deepening trend away from large cars," said MMAL president and CEO Rob McEniry.
"We can see no path for a return to viable production levels of the 380 sedan or a commercial case for developing any replacement production."
McEniry said the strong Australian dollar hindered an export deal. He cited data showing a 35 per cent drop in revenue against the US dollar.
A car exported in 2002 with a US retail price of US$24,000 would generate revenue of A$41,379. At today's exchange rate that revenue would drop to A$27,272.
Mitsubishi Australia has extended the warranties of all 380 models from four years to six. Mitsubishi Motors NZ has bumped the warranty up to five years from three.
"I am sure the two-year warranty extension allays any customer concerns about our commitment and ongoing support for this car," said MMNZ managing director John Leighton.
The company has a "good" supply of 380 models left, after paltry sales of 23 in January, but won't replace it with the Japanese-built Diamante.
Cook said: "We won't be bringing it [Diamante] in. There is no place for another large car in the New Zealand market." He said the all-wheel-drive Outlander would double as the 380 replacement. "If you want a Mitsubishi large car, the Outlander is it," he said. "It has been going off for us. It offers more space but is not seen as a gas-guzzler like large cars."
Mitsubishi sold 137 Outlander models last month out of 482 sales, including 85 Colts, 189 Lancers and 32 Pajeros.
"It was a great month for us and the rest of the industry. In terms of the Mitsubishi range," said Cook, "we are better off than we were at the start of 2007." Mitsubishi will pick up two new Lancer variants later this year, the high-performance Ralliart and the five-door Sportback. The Sportback will be unveiled at next month's Geneva motor show.
New vehicle sales in January were the best on record. The 7543 new cars sold were up 11 per cent on the same month last year and the 1856 new commercials were up 9 per cent.
"What a tremendous start to the year," said Motor Industry Association CEO Perry Kerr.
"Not only was this the best January in the history of our industry, but it came after a particularly strong finish to the previous year. The new-car industry has clearly shifted up a gear since the 1990s, when the effect of used imports was affecting the ability of private buyers in particular to trade up to a new vehicle.
"With stable pricing and much more predictable resale value, new-vehicle buyers can now buy with confidence, and this is evident as new vehicle sales keep increasing while used import sales trend downwards."
Toyota led the January market with 1557 sales for a 20.6 per cent share, followed by Holden with 878 (11.64) and Ford with 744 (9.86).
Small-car specialist Suzuki jumped into fourth place with 595 sales (7.89) followed by Mazda (511/6.77), Mitsubishi (482/6.39), Honda (470/6.23), Hyundai (417/5.53), Nissan (329/4.36), Volkswagen (230/3.05), Kia (215/2.85), BMW (171/2.27), Subaru (137/1.82), Daihatsu (136/1.80) and Audi (102/1.35).
Across the Tasman, large cars - not long ago the number-one choice of Australian and New Zealand buyers - slipped to only the sixth most popular vehicle type in January, with a monthly total of 7373 sales.
The segment that includes the Australian-built Holden Commodore, Ford Falcon, Toyota Aurion and Mitsubishi 380 was outsold by small cars (20,351), light cars (11,296), utes (11,166), compact four-wheel drives (8214) and medium cars (7375).
Ford's Falcon suffered the biggest year-on-year decline, falling 37 per cent to what is believed to be the nameplate's lowest sales result on record (1252).
The 380 fell 34 per cent and the Commodore was down 8 per cent to 3210, in the process losing the No 1 spot to the Toyota Corolla (3843).
Toyota was the only Australian car-maker to claim some good news for January, with its large-car Aurion pipping the Falcon for the first time with 1266 sales (up 13 per cent).
The four-wheel-drive market continues to boom across the Tasman, with all four off-roader segments (compact, medium, large and luxury) each increasing by 21 per cent or more compared to January 2007.
The total four-wheel-drive market jumped 24 per cent year-on-year compared with just a negligible increase (0.2 per cent) for passenger cars.
The overall Australian automotive market increased 7 per cent to 82,270 sales, giving 2008 a stronger start than 2007.