Triton brings the challenge to competitors
The bakkie war has intensified with the local launch of Mitsubishi’s next-generation Triton, an evolution in the iconic bakkie’s 46-year legacy.
- Product News
- 21 November 2024
Mitsubishi Motors South Africa has in recent times made the expansion of its 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 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, which offer many of the advantages of Mitsubishi’s Triton double cab at a price point that makes it an ideal fleet purchase.
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 its 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 criteria to complete in 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 after-sales value proposition for fleet clients.
“To be rewarded by SAVRALA as the most improved manufacturer shows that Mitsubishi Motors SA is 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 meeting criteria, including communication, support, maintenance, value, theft prevention and B-BBEE, and Mitsubishi improved considerably in all these categories resulting in an overall improvement of 12 percentage points, across all categories.
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 after-sales staff and the dealer network who continue to embody the spirit of constant improvement.
In the leasing category, Mitsubishi again performed admirably with vast improvements in many of the sub sectors of the scoring criteria, including communication, technical support, financial categories, dealer performance and B-BBEE.
The bakkie war has intensified with the local launch of Mitsubishi’s next-generation Triton, an evolution in the iconic bakkie’s 46-year legacy.
Unlike in the past, when dealerships primarily waited for customers to come to them, we now take a more proactive approach, bringing our vehicles directly to places where people gather, allowing them to experience the product first-hand, including offering test drives,” says Gerrie van der Kaay, Dealer Principal at Supergroup Dealerships Jetour Midrand.
JAC Motors added ABS (Anti-lock Braking System) to its X200 2.8L TDI 1.5-tonne single-cab, enhancing safety for both the crew and cargo. This latest upgrade complements the ABS-equipped X200 1.3-tonne double-cab targeted at organisations with labour-intensive crews.
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