Unremarkable (but surprisingly good) cars: Mitsubishi 380

Spot a Mitsubishi 380 in the wild today and you might think little of it. Some might not even know what it is. Yet it was arguably one of the better cars Australia ever made.

The 380 was Mitsubishi’s mid-2000s crack at the once-king large sedan segment and dared take on the mighty Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon (and slightly less mighty Toyota Aurion). Made in South Australia, the 380 replaced the Mitsubishi Magna, which at that point was about as contemporary as a VCR player.

The brief for the Australian design and engineering team was simple: take the US-market Mitsubishi Galant and Australian-ise it, on a relative shoestring $650m budget, $250m of which was to prepare Mitsubishi’s Tonsley Park plant for the new model.

More than 2000 parts were totally redesigned, Mitsubishi proudly proclaiming the 380 the only local car whose entire side was a single piece of stamped sheet metal – maximising rigidity.

To admittedly little fanfare, the 380 arrived in October 2005 with a five-grade model line-up – the base “380” (like a self-titled album), the mid-tier LS and LX, the luxe GT and the pulse-raising VRX. All were front-drive and powered by a grunty 175kW/343Nm 3.8-litre V6, meaning the VRX had the same power as the base model – something of a faux-pas in hindsight. A five-speed manual and five-speed auto were offered, depending on the grade.

Road testers praised the hard-working 380 for its adjustable chassis, great refinement, plush ride quality and surprising performance – even if they found the presentation a bit dull. Even the VRX.

It had to work, however – the fate of an entire factory, and 930 jobs, depended on it. Mitsubishi needed to sell between 30,000 and 35,000 380s each year to break even, but despite improved Series I, II and III, it struggled to shift even a third of that.

And so at 3:45pm on Tuesday, 5 February, 2008, Mitsubishi Australia boss Rob McEniry broke down as he told workers the factory – after 44 years – would be closed.

Many blamed the 380’s styling; others the calamitous 2005 Hurricane Katrina, which sent petrol prices as high as $1.20 a litre, a boon for more economical cars. Mitsubishi should have offered wagon, LPG and all-wheel-drive versions of the 380, like it had Magna, said some; while others opined, as the superb VE Commodore arrived in 2006, that Australians just don’t like front-drive sedans.

Some pointed the finger at a new type of vehicle rapidly stealing buyers – the SUV. Most likely, Mitsubishi’s Australian operations died from a slow-spreading disease than by any single, sudden thing.

Part of the original plan was to create a long-wheelbase 380 manufactured in both left- and right-hand drive and exported en-masse – but it never happened. A performance version did, however. The 380 TMR – Team Mitsubishi Ralliart – supercharged its V6 to pump out a headline-grabbing 230kW and 442Nm. It all went to the bitumen via two very unlucky front tyres, with zero to 100km/h taking about six seconds. Intended to slay FPVs and HSVs, it ended up being more a bit of chewing gum on their boots. Just 20 were made.

The last 380, a silver Platinum Limited Edition, rolled off the production line on March 27, 2008. In three years, Mitsubishi manufactured 32,044 380s. For perspective, over eight years, Holden produced 520,000 VE Commodores.

The 380’s designers and engineers, however, knew they weren’t just creating a car – they were trying to preserve a pillar of the Australian automotive industry itself, whose foundations by then were fragile. The 380’s bland exterior styling therefore concealed a very well-engineered, well-built car – yet a sales dud. “The car that killed Mitsubishi,” said The Age.

Mitsubishi’s ads were somewhat more positive, calling the 380 “the best quality car ever built in Australia”. It took years for Australians to see what they meant – if you had to buy a car from 2008 now, you could do far worse than buying a 380 over a Falcon or Commodore. Even if some might have no clue what you’re driving.

Have you ever owned a Mitsubishi 380? Or do you own one still today? Tell us a bit about your experience in the comments below.