I’m not sure if it’s because I’m abit bored of small 2-door hatchbacks, but my current tastes of cars seem to be leaning towards medium to large executive saloons lately, even though people would probably think this guy is driving his father’s car if I roll in driving one. This is the Mitsubishi 380, the successor to the Magna line in Australia.
The Mitsubishi 380 is based on the North American Mitsubishi Galant. It’s direct competitors in Australia is the Holden Commodore and the I’m blogging about this because if the Proton-Mitsubishi partnership involves chassis sharing for a Perdana replacement, it might just be based off this car, with a much smaller engine of course. As expected from it’s name, it’s powered by a 3.8 litre MPI SOHC V6 engine.
The Mitsubishi 380′s engine is the 6G75, a pretty large V6 engine with 4 valves per cylinder making 235 horsepower at 5250rpm and 343Nm of torque at 4000rpm. There is a 5-speed INVECS-II automatic transmission option, and also a 5-speed manual transmission.
The Australian 6G75 is a bit different from the 6G75 used in the North American Mitsubishi Galant. The camshafts and valve springs are improved versions, derived from the Ralliart Magna program. The injectors are also different, upgraded to 12-hole versions that spray atomised fuel. With these upgrades, the engine is able to meet stricter Euro III emission laws that are enforced in Australia.
The car really sounds great, but unfortunately it’s not doing very well in Australia because of it’s 10% higher price than competitors, low resale value and the bad reputation of it’s precedessor the Mitsubishi Magna. The resale value was so bad that after 2 years, it only retained 35% of the original value.
Very unfortunate, considering the car won The Australian’s Best Large Car Award and the engine won the Society of Engineers Australasias Automotive Excellence Awards for “innovative adaption of new and existing technologies in the new Mitsubishi 6G75 3.8 litre V6 engine, designed to provide significant benefits in performance, driveability and emissionsâ€.
After dabbling for years in the IT industry, Paul Tan initially began this site as a general blog covering various topics of personal interest. With an increasing number of readers paying rapt attention to the motoring stories, one thing led to another and the rest, as they say, is history. An avid electronic gadget aficionado as well as big-time coffee lover, he's also the executive producer of the Driven motoring TV programme.
Paul, in your own opinion.. for a perdana replacement, which platform do you think would suit our market best? euro-look or samurai add-ons?
there's one here in simferepol
Tell me a reason why should the China company spend RMB36000 per month to employ a fellow British (assuming GBP3000 per production staff) wherelse back in China you can get 40 people to do the same job?
Why must it be a rebadged Mitsu? Why cant it be a rebadged Passat? Aiyooo……..
whatever, we will get old chunky model to be rebadge as Perdana.period.
Stupid people like to indulge in criticizing without knowing what is at stake from all angles. If there are people who think they can make a better car, then who’s stopping you? Just think before you think you write nonsense!
King KOng.. you are absolutely correct. sad
This Mitsubishi 380 looks like Perdana at the rear view. Are they share the same platform?
While i was googling around, I found this anti Mitsu website…
Do checkit out..
http://www.mitsubishisucks.com/cars/new-models/ma…
Paul, u have this thinking means u already start to plan for future, eg: a family already. good ah.
not bad if this model can be Perdana next replacement model.
cheers…
i drive this car till sien edi la ! when i work in australia everyday look at this car. they even have their face-lift edi. and malaysia still consider this car to be brand new 1… haih…… but is 3.5V6 really powerful. 5speed automatic somemore
If this is the car which is going to become Proton’s Perdana replacement in 2011, then I will certainly place an order!
It was wonderfully quiet when I drove it in Australia. The handling is superior to my own Camry which is a 2009 car.
Looks like an audi but I hoped Proton will let Lotus tuned it farther.