I was horrified to read just now in Hillmanews (magazine of the Hillman
Owners Club of Australia) that Mitsubishi Australia had dumped their
remaining stocks of Rootes and Simca parts. For the benefit of
non-Australians, when Chrysler were in trouble in the late 70s and selling
off their international operations, Mitsubishi bought Chrysler's Australian
subsidiary including the remains of Rootes Australia.
I can understand Mitsubishi no longer wanting to deal in these parts. What
annoys me is that so far as I am aware the company made no effort to sell
these stocks to the classic car trade. That may have been a futile gesture
given the low profile our cars have here, but it would have been something.
That reminded me of another horror story here in Brisbane. This character
owned a large property and accumulated a huge number of old cars from the
1920s through to the 1960s. It was an awesome sight. Looking out over the
property there was nothing but cars as far as the eye could see.
He also bought up obsolete stock from the car dealers. He had one room in
his house full of packing cases of Rootes parts. When the room was full he
stored many, many more of these cases of Rootes parts outdoors under sheets
of corrugated iron.
The trouble was he wouldn't sell anything. All these cars and parts just
sat and deteriorated. Basically he was a nut.
Eventually he died. Many of the cars were auctioned. The rest were
bulldozed. I believe the Rootes spares were all crushed too.
Russ Maddock
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