DOZENS of established Mitsubishi models are set to disappear under a plan to rationalise the Japanese company's line-up in Britain. Sweeping proposals to prune the range of 200-plus variants are part of moves to revitalise the operations of the importer, Colt Car Co sales director Andrew Wenzel revealed at the Frankfurt Motor Show.

By next summer, GL, GLX and GLS versions will have been banished to the scrapheap and replaced by model designations which the company believes will be better related to the types of cars that customers want. 'Our idea is to drop model variants which are there simply because they are traditional and on offer from our competitors,' Wenzel said.

'Colt has developed rapidly over the past two years to become a company which holds a one per cent share of the UK market. I could make a few telephone calls to boost business so we could become a two per cent player overnight, but that is not the way we want to progress. Our strategy is to continually position our brand higher up the market, but we will never make a move which threatens residual values nor the long-term profitability of our dealer network.'