Will Mitsubishi follow Honda and Mercedes-Benz in changing the way it sells cars in Australia?

Brands like Honda and Mercedes-Benz have shifted the way they sell cars in Australia, moving away from the traditional dealership set-up to the direct-to-customer agency model, but will Mitsubishi follow suit?

The short answer, from Mitsubishi Australia boss Shaun Westcott, is a “no”, and that’s because the brand believes its dealers are key to its business.

“We’re watching with interesting what Honda and Mercedes-Benz are doing, and I don’t want to comment on them,” he said.

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“But I believe we don’t need to change anything about our current model.

“We have a fantastic dealer network, we have one of the most extensive dealer networks in the country, which is very important to us … we really believe that people who buy our products could and should use them to go to the Simpson Desert, go to Darwin, go to Broome, go wherever you like.

“And guess what? There’s a dealership in Broome, there’s a dealership in Alice Springs … so we believe our dealer network is a critical part of our success, and we don’t see any need to tinker with or change our model at this point in time.”

Mitsubishi commands around 200 dealerships and service centres around the country, which is more than the circa-134 outlets from Mazda, the 160 or so outlets from Hyundai and the 91 Kia-branded centres in Australia.

The only other brands that exceed Mitsubishi’s footprint is Ford (at around 260) and Toyota (nearly 300).

However, Mr Westcott revealed that Mitsubishi Australia will leverage its large retail presence in the near future as he believes dealerships play an important role in the car-sales process.

“We’re looking at ways to strengthen our dealer network, to further collaborate with them to work more closely with them because ultimately, our customer experience of our brand is not with us – they’d never meet me – but who do they meet? Who is the face of our brand? It’s our dealers,” he said.

“We’re working closely with our dealers, strengthening our dealers, growing our dealers, improve the experience that our customers get in our dealerships.”

Both Honda and Mercedes-Benz Australia recently shifted to an agency sales model, meaning all stock is owned and centrally controlled by their respective brands, not by dealers who act as representatives for the marques.

This means that all Honda and Mercedes-Benz models wear fixed, no-haggle, driveaway sticker prices across the country for transparency in the buying process.

This also allows customers to make vehicle purchases online, and only leave the house to pick up their new car when it is ready to be handed over.

Dealerships still play a part in Honda and Mercedes-Benz’s new sales model though, preparing new vehicles to be delivered, walking customers through features and technology, and handling used vehicle trade ins.

However, the changeover to agency has not been smooth for either brand, with Honda cutting back slow-selling models like the Jazz and ramping down its sales forecast to 20,000 per annum, while some Mercedes-Benz dealers have been perturbed with the change and initiated legal action against the German company.

Mitsubishi Australia, meanwhile, has surpassed Kia and Hyundai and is currently in third position in the 2022 new-car sales race, increasing its share by 11.5 per cent to the end of June to 41,748 units.