Friendly family motoring feud
Colourful father-and-son motor industry team Rick and Deon Cooper reckon their relationship might take a strange new turn next year - for the first time they will be competing directly against each other.
The pair are directors of Great Lake Motor Distributors Ltd, which imports and distributes utes and SUVs built by Korea’s SsangYong, and vans built by China’s LDV.
But from next year LDV also will begin building utes and SUVs, and that’s going to mean the two brands will directly compete against each other on the forecourts of joint SsangYong/ LDV dealerships throughout New Zealand.
‘‘I don’t quite know how we are going to handle this - maybe we’ll have to build a wall through the middle of the all the dealerships,’’ joked father Rick Cooper, who is in charge of the LDV side of things.
‘‘And I’m going to have to have less to do with the old man,’’ quipped son Deon Cooper, who is responsible for the SsangYong operations.
Yeah, right. This straight-talking pair, two of the real characters of the new vehicle industry in New Zealand, seem to do everything together as they plot the careers of their two vehicle marques, so it’s quite obvious they will find ways around having two sets of SUVs and utes to sell. And it’ll be a good challenge too, because both vehicle marques are experiencing solid growth in this country’s new vehicle market.
Six years ago the Coopers formed Great Lake Motor Distributors, picking up the distribution rights for SsangYong product. It now distributes the Korean vehicles through a 17-strong dealer network.
Four years ago the Coopers decided to seek the national distribution rights for a second vehicle brand, preferably one that would comfortably sit alongside SsangYong.
‘‘We decided right from the start it was no use looking for a car brand, but we did our homework and became aware of the LDV vans, which are built in China by the Shanghai Automobile and Industrial Corporation
(SAIC),’’ recalls Rick Cooper.
‘‘So I went door-knocking in China, and picked up the distribution rights for LDV vans.
‘‘They’ve been the perfect fit for us ever since, and they are selling well. For example, Australia’s total new vehicle sales are 10 times greater than New Zealand’s - but last month there were 125 LDV vans sold over there, and 95 over here. That’s the reason why SAIC has named us their World Dealer of the Year for the past three years in a row.’’
Two LDV van models are sold in New Zealand - the 2.5-litre VM Motori diesel engined 80 which is available in a range beginning with a short-wheelbase three-seater and ending with a long-wheelbase 14-seater minibus, and the G10 which is available with a choice of a Mitsubishi 2.4-litre engine and five-speed manual transmission, or a Nissan 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine and six-speed automatic.
Both van types are rapidly growing in popularity in New Zealand.
In 2014 there were 391 V80s sold, last year this increased to 432, and to the end of July this year the sales stand at 390 with five months to go, leading the Coopers to speculate that more than 650 will be sold before the end of the year.
Sales of the G10 began late last year, which meant just 44 were retailed. But so far this year there have been 237 of them sold, the majority the entry Mitsubishiengined version that retails for $25,990.
Demand for the LDV vans is increasing because they are at least $10,000 less expensive than any other vans available new in New Zealand, says Rick Cooper, adding that there are a total of 21 variants available.
At present it is the SsangYong brand that is the top-seller, with GLVD expecting to retail around 2300 of the SUVs and utes this year, a lot more than than anticipated 1000 sales of LDV product.
But the Coopers expect the numbers to close up once the LDV utes and SUV start to arrive from the middle of next year.