autoevolution
 

Mitsubishi to Withdraw the Colt from the Market in Victoria

While three of Australia's best-selling compact cars will be granted exceptions from Victoria's controversial rules making electronic stability control (ESC) mandatory on all passenger cars and SUVs from January 1st, 2011, Mitsubishi won't be able to sell its Colt compact car in the aforementioned state.

The Toyota Yaris YR, Holden Barina and Kia Rio will be among up to 10 vehicles without ESC to remain on sale in the state of Victoria, providing that they will get the safety feature on new models to be introduced before the rule goes federal.

At least three other vehicles without ESC will be withdrawn from the market because they don't qualify for either compliance or exemption. The Mitsubishi Colt, Suzuki Jimny Sierra and Proton Satria Neo will not be available in Victoria after December 31, while Hyundai announced that it will discontinue its top-selling Hyundai Getz light car before the deadline. The withdrawal of the Mitsubishi Colt will leave the company without its entry-level car in the state of Victoria for a year.

The Colt was not eligible for exemption because the ESC equipped model is unlikely to arrive earlier than 2012 and the sales volumes are just too low to justify the expensive modification bringing the model in compliance with the new legislation.

Lenore Fletcher, Mitsubishi's head of corporate communications in Australia, said that the company would not sell the Colt in Victoria next year due to this issue.

It was just something we had to do. We don’t have huge volume there anyway,” she said according to GoAuto, adding that Victorian Colt sales amounted to only about 20 sales a month.

Unfortunately, skipping across the border, buying a new Colt and bringing it back home to register it won't be an option either, as the Victorian law also forbids the registration of non-compliant cars, unless they have been registered for at least 12 months interstate.
If you liked the article, please follow us:  Google News icon Google News Youtube Instagram X (Twitter)
 

Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?

You will only receive our top stories