A flicker of light on the horizon for Mitsubishi UK, with classic sell-off
Problematic car company, Mitsubishi Motors UK (nee The Colt Car Company), has been enduring a fairly public meltdown in recent months, as it attempts to salvage whatever it can to remain buoyant, highlights Iain Robertson, and setting some new classic valuations is a tiny, if ineffectual step.
Despite various reports suggesting to the contrary that the Cirencester-based former concessionaire for the Mitsubishi motorcars and light commercials brand might cease selling new cars in the UK from this autumn, even a ‘promise’ that it would start to sell left-hand drive Renaults in some markets (not the UK) appears to be in jeopardy. The reasons given for the firm’s failure lie apparently in last year’s, financially strapped decision for Mitsubishi Japan to leave the European new car market, despite its tenuous membership of the strategic alliance between itself, Renault and Nissan (the French government holds a 15% stake in Renault, which in turn owns 43% of Nissan, which has a 34% share in Mitsubishi; together they form the bond that links the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi strategic alliance together).
Held in late-April, the Mitsubishi Motors heritage auction drew a phenomenal amount of attention from both investors and speculators. While model values had climbed steadily throughout the month of April, following the sale announcement, there was a flurry of last-minute action, when the auction deadline for each lot approached.
Amazingly, the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI Tommi Mäkinen Edition had become the most sought-after car in the sell-off, with a top bid of £100,100 establishing what is a world record hammer price for a Lancer Evolution (a previous peak of around £99,000 for a delivery-mileage Evo IX was set in the North America in 2017). Eminently desirable, this new ‘high’ bodes well for many collectors. However, close behind was the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX MR FQ-360 by HKS, which sold eventually for £68,900, a figure that is likely to be the third highest-value Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution ever sold at auction.
The Lancer Evolution X, number 40 of 40 of the final batch of FQ-440 MR special editions, the last official ‘Evo’ sold in the UK, went under the hammer for £58,100, while the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX Group N Works Rally Car (the two-time championship-winner driven by Guy Wilkes and co-driven by Phil Pugh) performed in the manner of most modern competition cars by selling for an exceptional £61,700. Between them, the four Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions accounted for 60% of the total amount generated by the heritage fleet auction.
The rest of the heritage fleet also performed extremely well with all of the vehicles achieving exceptionally strong hammer values. The Mk1 Colt Lancer 1.4 Standard 2-Door, the first Mitsubishi registered in the UK (driven by me in original form and on the firm’s centenary event a couple of years ago), sold for a whopping £15,000, with its stablemate, the Colt Galant 2000 GLII, selling for £11,600. The equally unique Mitsubishi Galant GLSi rally replica sold for £12,500, another vehicle the value of which was not only a reflection of its condition and fine mechanical status but also its provenance and historical significance for the brand.
The rare, pristine and completely original Mk1 Mitsubishi Shogun 4×4 sold for £16,000, while the even rarer Mitsubishi Jeep J27 attracted a top bid of £20,600. Not so rare but equally as spotless, the Mk2 Shogun V6 SWB sold for a healthy £9,600, while the newest vehicles on the fleet, the 2015 Outlander PHEV and the L200 Desert Warrior, attracted top bids of £16,000 and £30,100 respectively.
The brand’s iconic supercars, the Mitsubishi Starion and Mitsubishi 3000GT, both in exceptional condition, sold for £21,100 and £24,500 respectively, record values for both vehicles in an UK auction. However, the firm’s private number plates also sold strongly at auction, the four-character plates ending in CCC all performed very well, with 1 CCC topping £24,000 and all nine plates (1-9 CCC) topping £121,700 in total. Another coveted registration, P1HEV, attracted a top bid of £4,500.
Last, but certainly not least, the 7/10th working replica of a 1917 Mitsubishi Model A, the first ever vehicle produced by Mitsubishi, sold for £13,700 undoubtedly a world record for 7/10th scale Mitsubishi Model As. In total, the auction generated £627,100 and attracted a total of 1,287 bids across all 51 lots.
Mitsubishi Motors’ UK Operations Director, Paul Bridgen, who was previously General Manager at the company’s RalliArt division and Team Principal, when Wilkes and Pugh won their back-to-back British Rally Championships, commented: “These vehicles represent not only a huge part of Mitsubishi’s heritage and history in the UK but they are also very special vehicles in their own right. They each have an unique story to tell and they have been cherished and cared for from the day we acquired them. I have overseen the development of some of these vehicles personally so it is particularly difficult to say goodbye to them but the values they have achieved assures me that they will all go to enthusiastic new owners, who not only understand the provenance and importance of these cars but who will cherish them and preserve them for future generations.”
In many ways, it is sad to witness the end of an era for a UK-based car company that used to make its mark with great humour, sassiness and brand confidence over the past four decades. However, its past year’s UK registrations performance (0.46% market share) can only be described as untenable. What remains of the business will transition into a parts and warranty support operation for the over 400k Mitsubishi owners residing in the UK market.
