COLT Car Company, official importer of Mitsubishi vehicles to the UK, has pledged its continued commitment to the fleet sector despite a radical review of its business that will see 70 redundancies. The company blames the state of the new car market, and in particular the grey import phenomenon and pre-registration by leading manufacturers, for the job losses.

The losses, some of them voluntary, form part of a radical review and streamlining of the importer's business, which has already seen the departure of managing director Stephen Dixon, director of sales Andrew Wenzel, and director of marketing Colin Peirce. Dixon's successor will be appointed towards the end of the year.

Acting managing director Denis Murphy said: 'The market on the face of it looks relatively healthy, but the current practice of pre-registration by major European manufacturers is flooding it with 'nearly new' cars. This drastically undermines our opportunities to sell realistically priced new cars and destroys used car values for everyone.'

Mitsubishi sales for the first four months of 1999 are 14.7% down on the same period last year.