Mitsubishi 380 - is it any good?

[ygoslo]

Explanation ?

The TRD Aurion is a gorgeous looking thing. Really. The Falcon's fit & finish is pretty dreadful, and the styling (inside and out) is a million miles behind the classiness of the Toyota. The Falcon's engine, while impressive, is how old? The Aurion engine is also used in Lexi (surely "Lexuses" is gramatically incorrect).

The stock non-supercharged Aurion is also about as quick as a VR4 (it has been stated on here that it is quicker, I ran one and it was basically dead level) so the TRD one would be proper quick. Not XR6T quick, but plenty quick enough.

 

[ygoslo]

In defence of my contention that RWD cars would sell better in Australia than FWD cars, it is only in the past 18-24 months that people have started to turn away from big RWD sedans.

What was more successful here - the R31 Pintara/Skyline or the FWD Bluebird-derived Pintara?

 

[Poita]

I would get the 380. Nearly did except the boot opening is rather small. Big boot but small opening.
Mitsi spend thousands developing the suspension setup on this car and for a FWD in stock form it handles very very well. I have seen the GT (heaviest and slowest of the 380 line up) race a modified sil180 through the hills and it pulled away without too much trouble on the twisties. On the short straights the sil180 caught up.
Nice torquey engine and very good value for money. Great car to buy second hand as they drop badly in price. The VRX or Platinum are probably the best value for money. All the engines are the same so its really down to interior trim and body kits. The GT is quite a lot more for not much extra.

Have driven a Sportivo and to be honest I wasn't as impressed as when I drove the 380. Plus the price jump put the Toyota out of reach. Its nicely put together but just lacks something. Plus it has the grandpa image Well so does the 380 a bit but less so...

Check out www.aussiemagna.com they have a dedicated 380 section and some of the guys are getting very good results with fairly low level mods.

 

[ed84]

The TRD Aurion is a gorgeous looking thing. Really. The Falcon's fit & finish is pretty dreadful, and the styling (inside and out) is a million miles behind the classiness of the Toyota. The Falcon's engine, while impressive, is how old? The Aurion engine is also used in Lexi (surely "Lexuses" is gramatically incorrect).

The stock non-supercharged Aurion is also about as quick as a VR4 (it has been stated on here that it is quicker, I ran one and it was basically dead level) so the TRD one would be proper quick. Not XR6T quick, but plenty quick enough.

Bit of an old thread now but my 2c anyway

I drive works farely base model Aurion all the time and aside from it feeling just cheap and nasty on the inside (its got like 13,000kms or less an its falling apart inside) & white paint finish that looks 15 yrs old already, it had some grunt (& crazy torque steer) , but definately NOT as quick/quicker than my VR4. It drives looks and feels like a corporate A-B run around vehicle. 6 spd auto was nice but seemed to do its own thing even though it was in 'semi' mode... Ours is better i think...
Dunno much about the TRD Aurion but i think there all ugly so mind is probably already made up... :tongue_smilie:

I like the look of the 380 VR-X, shame about the FWD tho!

 

[bradc]

Sounds like all aussie tiptronic cars do the same thing. I drove an XR6 a month ago and it sent me bloody sideways on the onramp when I rolled my foot onto the throttle when I was in 4th and it dropped down to 2nd. What a pile of shit!

 

[snitz]

Awesome cars the 380.Im probably being biased as I built them from the pilot PS41 models all the way to the last model that rolled off the line!:sad:

I worked in the Body Weld Shop as a welder and can vouch for the build quality.The 380 was made with thicker,better spring steel and recieved alot more spotwelds during the build process..and has alot more torsional rigidity than previous model magnas and recieved a high ANCAP rating.

The 3.8 litre also recieved awards for engine emmissions meeting the European standards for engine emmissions.
The 380 was probably the best built car but the worst marketed car.We saw awesome advertisements for the 380 that never got aired and dealers seemed to have problems getting "Bums on seats" to take them for test drives..funny thing was that most people that test drove them loved them.

If it wasnt for the wife wanting a wagon..we would have bought a 380 and not a legnum.I didnt particularly want to buy a TJ magna wagon as alot of them are high kays now..cheers.

 

[ygoslo]

I just can't believe they didn't take heed of the cautionary tale that was the Toyota Avalon. Australians don't want ugly reheated American cars. It doesn't matter how good the thing is mechanically - if it doesn't look good it won't sell. Unless its a Commodore.

 

[bradc]

Mitsi AU knew it was going to fail. The high end GT and VRX models looked ok but the lower end ones were woeful.

Then they were front wheel drive. If they were all rwd or 4wd they would be been ok.

 

[ygoslo]

They also should have kept the name instead of changing it to boring old 380.

Who in their right mind would change it from Galant?

 

[bradc]

Mitsi hadn't sold the Galant in AU for a very long time and it was quite different to what the 7G Galant was.

Now just imagine if Mitsi had imported 8G's or even made them in Aus to compete against the medium sized cars as well as having the Diamante, then in about 2003 or so replaced both with new models.

 

[ygoslo]

I personally always thought that the AWD Magna should have had the 6A13TT...

Just add all those things to the list of Australian Mitsubishi/Toyota/Nissan screwups over the past 20 years.

 

[bradc]

Or 6G72TT

 

[Brenton2]

Working a mits behind the service desk for a while you get to see patterns forming of what cars are always coming in for fix ups, the 380 is the most common. The electric window regulators like to shit themselves every 3-6 months and at about 400 a pop not cheap(ive seen cars have regulators replaced 4+ times). Also the other common problem they have is the receiver in the steering column for the key shits themselves also not a cheap fix, other then that