JOHANNESBURG – Mitsubishi Motors South Africa have in recent times made the expansion of their fleet focused product offering a priority. Along with the launch of the Diamond fleet club which offers members with unmatched aftersales support and service, Mitsubishi expanded the product range to include single cab models. This entry level Triton single cab model provides fleet owners with quality, reliability, durability and fuel efficiency resulting in a cost-effective solution in the face of rising fuel prices and repo rates. This was followed by fleet focused double-cab derivatives such as the Triton GL and GLX double cab that offer many of the advantages of Mitsubishi’s Triton double cab at a price point that makes it an ideal fleet purchase. In addition, the Mitsubishi Xpander panel van is a unique solution that combines MPV like qualities with secure load carrying ability.
These efforts have been noticed by the industry, who have voted with their wallets and now by the members of SAVRALA too.
At the 28th edition of the South African Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (SAVRALA) Manufacturer of the Year Awards (MOTY), Mitsubishi Motors SA walked away with an award for the Automotive Member that has improved the most on their previous year’s performance.
The SAVRALA MOTY awards are purely performance based and are determined through two surveys conducted by Lightstone with 37 car rental and leasing companies in South Africa, covering rental and leasing performance. These surveys gauge fleet customers interactions with the manufacturers that they frequently deal with and whose vehicles are part of their fleets. Most importantly, participating rental and leasing companies are required to involve all the relevant people in their operations who are knowledgeable about each of the criterion to complete the various sections of the surveys, resulting in a very accurate set of results.
“In more recent years Mitsubishi Motors SA set a number of goals with the aim of taking the brand to new heights. These goals included a clear strategy on becoming the mobility partner of choice to businesses of all sizes. This saw us refine our commercial vehicle offering and the aftersales value proposition for fleet clients. To be rewarded by SAVRALA as the most improved manufacturer shows that Mitsubishi Motors SA are making great strides in these areas,” says Nic Campbell, General Manager: Sales at Mitsubishi Motors South Africa (MMSA).
In the rental category of the competition, manufacturers are judged on criteria including communication, support, maintenance, value, theft prevention and B-BBEE and Mitsubishi improved considerably in all these categories resulting in an overall improvement, across all categories of 12.0%.
Some of Mitsubishi’s biggest improvements recorded were in categories such as the availability of parts and the waiting time for a service which is testament to Mitsubishi’s ongoing collective effort by aftersales staff and the dealer network who continue to embody the spirit of continuous improvement.
In the leasing category Mitsubishi again performed admirably with vast improvements in many of the sub sectors of the scoring criteria which include communication, technical support, financial categories, dealer performance and B-BBEE.
“SAVRALA shares detailed results of the annual survey with participating manufacturers and these scores across the variety of judging criteria have been a great tool in assisting Mitsubishi to improve our operations related to the rental and leasing customer journey,” says Campbell.
“Mitsubishi are always innovating with the goal of giving all our customers, whether they are walking into a dealership and new to the brand or have a long-standing relationship with us, as many of our fleet and leasing customers do, the best possible experience when interacting with our brand throughout the ownership journey,” adds Campbell.
Mitsubishi continue to offer an extremely competitive product line up across a variety of criteria including reliability, safety, innovation and total cost of ownership all of which remain priorities that appeal to a wide variety of customers including fleet and leasing clients.
“At Mitsubishi we always believe that there is room for growth, and we hope to continue to improve across all facets of our business by offering the latest in terms of product along with the dealer network, sales staff and after sales back up that all our customers deserve,” concludes Campbell.
Kawaii Red
Hans Karlsen grew a start-up from zero to $1.6 million revenues in first two years of operation. Over and above being a successful startup founder, Karlsen is a natural leader, enabler, engineer and negotiator with over 25 years of industry experience in a variety of high technology sectors. Karlsen has served as a CEO, managing director, board member, senior advisor and finance director (CFO). He describes himself as a “serial entrepreneur” with the drive, persistence, passion and ability to identify and pursue high-value opportunities.