Mitsubishi plant up for sale

Gray's On-Line has this week been appointed to manage the sale of the plant and equipment and real estate firm Colliers International is working through the sale of the land and buildings.

However, it will be months before anything is finalised as to who will take over the buildings, according to Mitsubishi chief, Rob McEniry.

On 70 employees are left, mostly in the stamping plant, making parts to be stockpiled.

The last 380 V6 went down the line on March 27, ending an era for the Adelaide-based company.

Dealers still hold stock but McEniry expects very few cars to appear in VFACTS official industry figures from next month.

Over its three-year lifespan just over 30,000 380s were built, well short of its projected numbers as buyers turned away from big six cylinder cars to more fuel-efficient four cylinders.

Today, the brand has rebounded from the 380 meltdown and subsequent closure of its Adelaide plant.

Despite fears buyers would desert the brand, Mitsubishi Australia boss, Rob McEniry, says it failed to eventuate.

McEniry puts this down to Mitsubishi's strong imported lineup.

“We do research on pre-2005 and post-2005 attitudes to our product and it has grown, not retreated,” he says.

“We think we'll be pretty well positioned in the hot-spots of the vehicle market as we continue to grow.”

Mitsubishi also has a strong dealer base, with two new dealers soon open in Melbourne and potentially another two in Sydney.

“In Queensland we have five applicants for one dealer location,” McEniry says.

“We're confident that we'll continue to perform reasonably well and importantly we're in a good position to ride the ups and downs.”

McEniry is confident the company will exceed its 2007 figure of 65,000 sales this year.

Despite a slowing in recent months, he believes the overall market should remain strong for the year.

“You have to look at where the shifts are in each segment,” he says.

“We're still seeing the large car segment continue down and a lot of the decline is in large cars, not in the smaller vehicles and pickups.

“And we're pretty well positioned in those segments now so we actually see some opportunity.”

McEniry says the arrival of the Lancer Sportback next month will be beneficial.

“We think it will be well positioned in those segments that are actually growing,” he says.

The Lancer Sportback is expected to be available in the same specification as the sedan, which means entry ES, mid-range VR and VRX models.

A direct injection turbo-diesel is also tipped to join the petrol engines but not for at least 18 months.

A Ralliart version is also expected to go head-to-head with the Impreza WRX hatch.

The Ralliart models will be powered by a 177kW/343Nm 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder mated to Mitsubishi's twin-clutch Sport Shift Transmission.

The Lancer sedan has carved a niche for itself and Mitsubishi's four-wheel drives, lead by the Triton and Outlander, are forging ahead.

Breakout (should change to Future)

Mitsubishi chief, Rob McEniry, still sees a future for a medium-large car in the company's local lineup.

“That would be a really nice addition to the portfolio,” he says.

Mitsubishi showed off the all-wheel drive 2.2-litre “clean” diesel Concept ZT last year and McEniry is keen that any medium-large car would be as “green” as possible to position it against mid-range Japanese and European imports.

How many?

2005 - 3548

2006 - 12,423

2007 - 10,942

2008 - 3205 YTD

Total - 30,018 approx