Comments on: Mitsubishi Australia goes full import

By: Steevie

Steevie — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 05:51:36 +0000

No! I hear that the closure is only a rumour. If they keep on talking about Mitsubishi Motors Australia in such a negative manner it will impact on sales of the 380.

Just stating what the die hards have been saying for the last few years.I would hate to have been leasing a 380 or any other car/s through the employment scheme, then all of a sudden left hung out to dry and maybe having to look at purchasing a motor vehicle with their payout. Boy that would truly suck!!

By: jsantos

jsantos — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 06:10:13 +0000

I think Mitsubishi will still be able to sell well here in Australia. Actually, discontinuing the 380 would give them a better chance of selling new cars because that car has been given some negative feedback and criticism by the media and consumers as well since the time of its inception. Now that its out of the way, MMAL can now concentrate and focus more on selling more viable products like the Lancer and Outlander, and the much awaited Evo X which I think most of the buying public prefers. Pitty though to the employees, hopefully MMAL will keep their promise of properly compensating them and give them assistance for employment in other industries.

By: dlr1

dlr1 — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 03:43:24 +0000

Sadly at the end of the day their local problems stem from the fact that the patent company was virtually broke 5 or so years ago. (remember the Daimler Chrysler bail out and subsequent split)

When the parent company had no cash to help develop new models the local arm was forced to take the US galant as its replacement for the Magna.

Not only did this have the effect of giving them a car that was seen to be styled for US tastes ( both physically and dynamically) but also ended their LHD export program. Yes they did export the Magna as a Diamonte (?) to the US.

The lack of cash in japan is still evident in the current express (SJ) model. 22 years on the current bodystyle and still going! Even the last Triton was only around for 10 years.

So after 1.5 billion in losses in ten years it had to happen.

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 02:28:59 +0000

I realise it is all good business, but I like to see MMC is going to ensure that workers are fully paid up and offer redundancy packages and pay back the $35mill without being asked (as if they could win a court case anyway).

Good to see a company just doing the right thing, even though it is probably in the name of keeping a good name in the interests of selling more cars in future

By: BoB

BoB — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 01:32:46 +0000

I’m pretty sure Mitsu has figured out that they will ose more money waiting till 2010 rather than returning the $35mill – which isn’t much to begin with – some website stated its only enough to design door handles

Considering how MMA has lost >$1bill over the past 10 years, that equates to >$100mill a year.. so waiting till 2010.. well..

By: Bret

Bret — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 00:45:09 +0000

Why didn’t they wait until 2010? Simple do the sums. Salary dollars alone is a bigger bucket than $35 mill.

By: snerd

snerd — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 00:34:58 +0000

Frugal One, will you please stop interrupting when the grown ups are talking?

Please retreat to your LPG turbo hyundai fantasy land.

By: Peter

Peter — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 20:21:20 +0000

Well if they didn’t pull out now, they’d have to do a mid-life facelift (not just another series update) on the 380 to remain at all competitive, which would cost $$$ and then wouldn’t result in many more sales, if at all.

I wonder whether Mitsu will import the Galant Grunder from Asia (another Galant based car) as our ‘large’ car. LOL

By: jamison

jamison — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 15:26:13 +0000

Mitsubishi will lose more money bringing down the outlander and/or pajero..

in fact Australia is one of the highest least profitable countries for autmotive manufacturing… labor cost too much and market/economy doesnt have enough room to support more than 3-4 locally manufactured cars.

But it is a mystery why they didnt wait till 2010… im not too sure about the government grant becomming legally theres after that, but they must be seriously in the red ink to pull out so quick.

Marketing is one to blame also, as someone said, the 380 name alone is poor. The car itself is decently built, looks are always debatable… so i dont blame that. the fact that big cars are slowing down in sales in favor of medium-small.. thats one factor also.

but the main is the high manufacturing costs and insufficient market economy size. Maybe in 50 years they’ll come back… when the population doubled haha.

But by then, Toyota or Honda will probably own 80% of the automotive companies between them. So who knows.

By: Jason

Jason — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 13:42:49 +0000

I think the real nail in the coffin for the business case was dwindling sales of large cars in Australia and a lack of export markets for Mitsu Australia to sustain production numbers of the 380. Realistically, I don’t think the 380, and local Mitsu manufacturing, would have been saved even if the 380 was a better car.