About Max Kirwan Mazda
Max Kirwan Motors was founded by Max Kirwan Snr. who used his Army severance pay to purchase a handful of ex army trucks at an auction in Darwin in 1946. At the time there was a shortage of trucks in Melbourne as most had been moved north to support the war effort.
The only way to get vehicles to Melbourne from Darwin was to either ship them around the West Australian coastline or drive them through the Red centre of Australia. As shipping was very expensive and the drive through the Australian outback was filled with danger most people did not give the idea a second thought.
Apart from owning your own home, a young Max Kirwan believed that owning your own business was a part of the great Australian dream. He had seen much hardship through the depression and ensuing war years and together with the rest of his working class family he had worked hard to provide himself with enough money to “try his luck” and embark on his quest to start his own business.
After several event filled solo trips to Darwin and back buying trucks and bringing them through the desert “piggy back” style back to Melbourne for sale he made enough money to open a used car and truck yard. Since then the business has grown to become one of the most trusted and respected names in the retail automotive sector in Melbourne. It is a 100% Australian family owned organization now in its second generation of operation and headed up by Max Kirwan Jnr. who is the current Dealer Principal.
As one of Australia’s longest standing Mazda Dealerships, Max Kirwan Mazda has been operating in the Australian retail automotive industry since the 1940’s. In 1968, Max Kirwan was appointed a Mazda dealer. In the ensuing decades, the dealership has thrived on the back of exceptional customer service levels and broken numerous National and State sales records along the way culminating in the dealership being the number 1 selling dealer in Australia for much of that time.
In addition, Max Kirwan Mazda is one of Australia’s leading and most awarded Dealerships, being awarded Mazda Australia’s highest honour for excellence in customer service and all facets of dealership operations – Superb customer service that saw in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 Max Kirwan Mazda was awarded the Mazda Master dealer excellence award. Eleven consecutive years of achieving this award, which puts the dealership in the elite company of only a small number of Mazda dealers, who have achieved the Master Dealer Award on Ten or more occasions.
The 2016 year proved to be another “blue Ribbon” performance for the dealership, as not only did we record a new state and national single site sales record of 3,200 new Mazda sales, it also created a new record of used vehicle sales, which in total saw the dealership achieve almost 4,000 vehicle sales for the year.
The 2016 year also saw records fall in the service department with over 36,000 loyal customers visiting our service department for repairs and maintenance during the year. The dealership was also awarded Capital Finance’s 2011, 2012, 2013 & 2014 “regional dealer of the year award” for Vic/Tas/SA/NT region as the result of excellence in all facets of operation in that department. In addition, we were awarded Capital Finance Platinum dealer status for 2011, 2012, 2013 & 2014 for overall excellence in customer service.
In 2008 it was also awarded the Capital Finance Australia Dealer of the year award for excellence in Finance & Insurance operations, as well as the AADA ( Australian Automobile Dealers Association) VACC (Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce) Dealer of the year award for excellence in customer satisfaction, service to the community and excellence in all facets of dealership operations.
This was the first time that this prestigious industry award had been granted to a Mazda dealer.
Experience the unique Max Kirwan Mazda difference that only decades of acquired knowledge in the art of automotive industry customer service can deliver.