• 

  Three of Australia's major car import brands are optimistic of the motoring sales future.

It looks as if the showroom downturn in Australian motoring has finally bottomed.

The massive slide from the back end of last year was nowhere near as bad as most other countries and there are signs of a major rebound. The picture is not clear yet, because the Federal government's investment allowance has created so much extra demand, but three of the biggest import brands are all pointing to a second-half upswing.

"It looks as if the danger and the hard things are over. It's just a matter of working steadily back upwards," says Doug Dickson, managing director of Mazda Australia. "We're not looking at a selling rate at the 2003 or 2004 level, which wasn't a bad thing."

"We're fairly optimistic about a steady, slow and sustainable recovery," says Rob McEniry, the boss of Mitsubishi Motors Australia. He knows better than almost anyone about the tough times, but managed to bank a $1 million profit after flipping Mitsubishi's local operation from an emphasis on local manufacturing to a full-line import brand. "We've been consistently increasing our forecasts for this year. Global markets have seen some green shoots."

Nissan is most bullish during a series of briefings over the past week, with chief executive Dan Thompson highlighting the positives for Australia. "Not only did we not go as deep as anyone else, we've come out with a massive spike in May and June.

Far bigger than any other developed countries," Thompson says. "Global demand is coming back but we've had an abnormal spike. There are a lot of cars sold in May and June that could not be dlievered and reported."

Thompson, like McEniry and Dickson, is worried about the sustainability of the early recovery but believes Australia is back on track. He predicts more inventive-driven action in the final quarter but is forecasting the start of steady recovery next year. "We believe we'll settle back in January, February and March of 2010 and go from there," Thompson says.