Colt Car Company, also known as Mitsubishi Motors UK, was a privately owned business established in 1974 as part of
Mitsubishi Motors
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. ' global expansion programme for the purpose of importing and distributing cars and light commercial vehicles in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
.
[Official company history](_blank)
, Mitsubishi Cars UK website For the first decade of its existence, British market Mitsubishis were sold under the "Colt" marque until the rebranding to Mitsubishi, which then brought the marque in line with the rest of the world.
Until 2008, it was a 51/49 joint venture between Colt Automotive Ltd and Mitsubishi Motors Corporation.
[Company structure](_blank)
, Mitsubishi Cars UK website
, Mitsubishi Motors website Three subsidiary companies existed: Spitalgate Dealer Services, which specialises in dealer wholesale stocking, Shogun Finance, the retail finance company and Shogun Retail, the retail operations company.
On 1 October 2021, Mitsubishi Motors UK halted all new car sales for good as Mitsubishi's contract with the Colt Car Company (CCC) ended. On this date, CCC's aftersales business was sold to International Motors, a company known for launching Hyundai onto the UK market in 1981 and for being the current importer of Subaru and Isuzu vehicles. International Motors put the acquired operations into a new subsidiary called I.M. MAPS (UK) Ltd, which still had the rights to use the Mitsubishi Motors name for service parts and accessories.
Sales since 1995
For the first twenty years of its existence, business was restricted by voluntary
import quota
An import quota is a type of trade restriction that sets a physical limit on the quantity of a good that can be imported into a country in a given period of time. An import embargo or import ban is essentially a zero-level import quota. Quotas, ...
s, which limited the company to around 10,000 sales per year.
The relaxation of these quotas in 1996, together with the introduction of
Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
an-built models at the
NedCar facility in Born which were unaffected by the quota, allowed for a rapid expansion in the late 1990s.
In 2008, David Blackburn retired his shareholding of the company and his stake was sold to the
Mitsubishi Corporation
is a Japanese general trading company ( ''sogo shosha'') and a core member of the Mitsubishi Group. For much of the post-war period, Mitsubishi Corporation has been the largest of the five great ''sogo shosha'' (Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Itochu, S ...
, specifically to its subsidiary MC Automobile (Europe) NV (MCAE). As result, Colt Car Company is now a wholly owned subsidiary of MCAE.
''(Sources
Facts & Figures 2000Facts & Figures 2005Facts & Figures 2008
Mitsubishi Motors website)''
See also
* List of car manufacturers of the United Kingdom
:''This list is incomplete. You can help by adding correctly sourced information about other manufacturers.'' Major current marques
Current manufacturers
;A
*AC Cars, AC (1908–present)
*Action Automotive (2004–present)
*Aeon Spo ...
References
External links
Official website
{{Mitsubishi Motors companies
Mitsubishi Motors subsidiaries
Privately held companies of the United Kingdom