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TH CHOSEN
Page 191
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FEW Mitsubishi has 150 dealers throughout the country, but only a small number of them will be allocated Canters to sell
I Mitsubishi is taking a cautious first step to the competitive pool of the 3.5 tonne arket with its new Canter. Its intial location of vehicles for 1986 is just 150 aits, including short and long-wheelbase odels.
Because of this very limited number of ;hides, Colt managing director Peter eaumont says there is no point in trying to iII the Canter nationally at this stage. [though Colt has 150 dealers throughout e country, only a very small number of em will be allocated Canters to sell: just 17 !alers will have the vehicle this year, and ey are all in the part of the country South of irmingham.
With such a limited number of vehicles and !alers it was important, says Beaumont, to loose the right ones for the Canter anchise. "It was important," he says, "to ilise those dealers with commercial vehicle :perience and who were willing to make the vestment necessary." There were also actical considerations such as the ability of lealer to get a long-wheelbase Canter box n into his workshop.
Although existing dealers have not had :perience of selling anything bigger than a le-tonne panel van, Beaumont says they lould have no difficulty in selling and Lpporting the Canter. All of them have held e L300 franchise, so have had some :perience of light commercial vehicle sales d support.
Nevertheless, there were very specifice iteria applied in the selection of the Canter alers for this first phase of the model's trcduction. Those chosen had to be given :ge enough areas to make even this limited arketing exercise viable, and they had to those who would be familiar with ,nstruction and use regulations and the like lich would not normally intrude on a car of jit commercial dealer's business.
In that, however, The Colt Car Company s been helped by the fact that the Canter s already been built in Ireland and has been i sale on the continent for even longer. Ve will carry all the major parts as well as the fast moving parts here," says aaumont, "but we also have the advantage Mitsubishi's central parts facility in Rotterdam and — of course — the factory in Ireland as a first source." There is, he says, "a very hefty" parts inventory in Europe.
NEXT MOVES
The big question remaining is what to do next with the Canter. A limited marketing exercise, to test the market without involving dealers in investment which they would not be able to recover is one thing, and Beaumont emphasises that it would not be wise to open the deal up too far, too soon. The obvious next stage, however, is to open Canter marketing up to cover the rest of the country. To do that successfully, says Beaumont, the company would need to be able to sell about 500 Canters a year.
"It obviously depends on the acceptability of the vehicle," says Beaumont, "and we're up against a lot of competition. "Mitsubishi expects, however, to have made a decision well before the end of the year on taking the Canter out to the rest of the country, based on that "realistic" target of 500 sales a year.
In the meantime, Beaumont points out that having Canter dealers confined to the south does not imply that buyers will be without support in the rest of the country. "With the engine being the same as in the Shogun," he says, "obviously dealers in other parts of the country will be able to do emergency service and reapairs." All the dealers are trained to work on the tubrocharged version of the 4D55 engines, he says, and even though the gearbox in the Canter is different from those used in the Shogun, many of the Canter parts are common. All Mitsubishi dealers will get service training on the Canter, he says, so there should be no fear of stranding.
Beaumont does not, anyway, expect too many problems with service and support. The L300 has such low warranty claim rates that it already has an industry loading warranty of three years or 100,000 miles (160,000km) and Mitsubishi has decided to give the same terms on the Canter.
Even if sales are increased next year to 500 units, the volumes will not be enough to justify a wide range of mechanical or body options, so Mitsubishi will not be offering, for example, the turbocharged 4D55 engine even though that is available here in the Shogun and elsewhere in the Canter. One obvious body option which will not be available is a minibus, because there is no chassis-cowl option available to Colt from the factory.
Beaumont recognises that the biggest hurdle that Misubishi has to overcome with the Canter is the opposition. He sees Volksawgen's LT, Ford's Transit 190 and the Mercedes-Benz 307 as the principal competition, and says They are all very good products." The Canter dealers so far appointed have all been given the chance to compare those three vehicles with the Canter so that they are aware of the comparative selling points.
One area where the Mitsubishi will be highly competitive will be price: the chassis cab prices for the short and long-wheelbase models are 29,250 and 29,650— though the vehicles will not initially be available in these unbodied forms. The cheapest bodied Canter will be the SWB tipper, at 210,170 excluding VAT, and the most expensive will be the LWB Luton at 211,875.