History

Bay City Mitsubishi History

The Bay City Mitsubishi premises began its life as a purposely built motor vehicle dealership in 1965. Established by Ken and Di Carter as a Holden Dealership, the business included a service station with its own petrol pumps.

In the early 1970’s the premises was home to Malcom Fowler Motor’s who were agents for Chrysler at the time.

Then in the early 1980’s the dealership became Judge Motors representing the Mitsubishi brand. This was during the time that The Todd Motor Corporation were the distributors of Mitsubishi in New Zealand.

The Todd Group has had a long and distinguished history within the New Zealand motor vehicle industry. In the early 1970’s they’d commissioned construction of an assembly plant in Porirua, Wellington, with the first cars emerging from the plant in 1973.

The present owner of Bay City Mitsubishi, Aaron Chatfield, has been with the dealership since 2002. Having started out as the business development manager, Aaron then moved into the sales manager role and as of June 2013 took over the ownership of the dealership. Aaron says providing great customer service on the lot, and in the workshop, continues to be the company’s top focus.

Now employing over 25 staff, the business has grown to be one of the top Mitsubishi dealerships in New Zealand, having achieved Diamond Dealer status consistently over the last 12 years under Aaron’s leadership and achieved the highest accolade of Supreme Dealer in 2023 and 2024.