Mitsubishi 380: hanging in the balance

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Mitsubishi 380: hanging in the balance



13 November 2007

Neil McDonald

The future of the Mitsubishi 380 should be decided by the end of the year.

The countdown has begun and decisions must be made soon on the mid-life update and upgrade of the 380, and any car that will follow it into production at the Mitsubishi Motors Australia factory in Adelaide.

Company chief Rob McEniry has just been in Japan for an extensive series of meetings, including planning work on the 380, and expects to have the car's future clarified by head office soon.

He is reluctant to talk about a likely replacement for the 380, which is struggling against its big-six rivals the Holden Commodore, Ford Falcon and Toyota Aurion, but admits the car's future will be determined next month or early next year.

“As I said last year, at the end of 2007 Mitsubishi would be going through its normal model cycle and mid-term planning phase and that's when we'd look at replacement or potentials for the 380, and that's exactly where we are,” McEniry says.

Mitsubishi remains committed to local manufacturing and has several options for the future including a replacement for the 380 based on the Concept-ZT, and possibly a smaller car. However, details are yet to be assessed. Although the Mitsubishi 380 sales results are well below original predictions, the Adelaide-based vehicle operation has underpinned its future with strong sales of its imported range.

The Triton, Outlander and Pajero off-roaders are popular and the just-launched two-litre Lancer sedan is expected to gain a strong following based on its $20,990 price and standard inclusion of electronic stability control.

Mitsubishi plans to fit stability control to the 380 by mid next year.

Despite the struggling 380 sales, Mitsubishi executives describe it as “approaching the segment average” for private sales.

Results of only 1000 a month are putting pressure on the car's viability and a large portion of the car's sales have been to fleets. However, McEniry denies Mitsubishi is building only for fleet orders and says the 380 special editions such as the Platinum and Sports models had been popular with private buyers.

Mitsubishi hopes to sell more than 10,000 380s this year. So far it has built 8170, down from 9603 for the same period last year.

McEniry says the 380 can continue despite its low build rate.

When the MONDEO is in full sales mode, the 380 will die. Sorry to see a car die.BUT you gotta build a car people want.

[Ralliart]

they should've never made the 380, they should've just updated the magna, worst decision ever.

[BAxtER]

Originally Posted by Ralliart

they should've never made the 380, they should've just updated the magna, worst decision ever.

true, my mates got a tj magna 2003 sports, quick car for what it is.

[Deadman]

Just a shame that Mitsubishi didn't have the money to really continue building and growing the Magna from it's awesome 96' platform which was pounding 6cyl falcons and commodores in the late 90's (obviously that didn't translate to sales though :(). Since the early 00's, they just haven't had the funds to do anything better with it, and it just slipped backwards.

It's been coming for a long time and I still think it's inevitable that we'll loose Mitsubishi as the first local manufacturer to go back to import only status, be it next year or next decade. Such a shame for the local industry, but I can't say that I think they'll be the last to go that way... It's just going to be a battle to see who will be next in line...

[Hardtopxb]

Perhaps Mitsubishi could bring back the zero,it was quite successful..LOL..

[EA Bogan]

i have said this time and time again, what mitsubishi needs is a rear wheel drive large sedan, and the same goes for Toyota. Scrapping the Excellent Supra-engined Cressida was a big mistake on their part.

[ED Classic]

Had loads of pre release hype but its done nothing since then.

Falcon and Commode are pushing past the mid 30's (not including run outs etc etc) and the 380 or Magna wont compete in that market no matter how good it is, I think they need to work a way out to do it for 28-30k and make it more economical which is the way of today (especially on sub 30k cars) and forget about trying to compete with Falcon or Commode which it never ever will whether it has the name 380, Magna or Goldess!!

[ClevlndStemer]

Toyota don't need to do anything, the Aurion and Camry sell quite well as does pretty much all of their range.
Mitsubishi on the other hand i think needed to shake of some of the bag stigma associated with the Magna. I thought they were decent cars though.
Maybe they should dump the 380 and get in a mid sized car, forget the large car segment.

[ED Classic]

Toyota wont be looking back thinkng they made any mistakes with their market share today, Even though I agree RWD is the goods

[GORDZ]

the magna vrx sports rocked. it still gives my xr6 a good run. my first car was the 1990 magna.. now that was car of the year, so where did they go wrong? public image?

[Wally]

Magna is the Channel 10 of car makers here, while Holden is Channel 7 and Ford are Channel 9. Toyota is Foxtel.

Being Channel 10 it has nothing masculine nor thought provoking to offer.

[Steffo]

You can only build unreliable heaps for so long before people stop buying them.

Lets see... 380...

From a company with a shaky future (warranty?)
Made like crap
Ugly
Slow
Inferior to all its direct competition

Selling bad? Gee, I wonder why....

I can't wait for all the Magnafanboys to start going "OMGZ They were a mad FWD sports car bro..." :

[McobraR]

I'm pretty sure the 380 is a car people want, i think it was all the hype of mitsubishi going down here, and thus, having poor resale value is what made the 380 fail

[Fairlane]

Originally Posted by Steffo

You can only build unreliable heaps for so long before people stop buying them.

Lets see... 380...

From a company with a shaky future (warranty?)
Made like crap
Ugly
Slow
Inferior to all its direct competition

Selling bad? Gee, I wonder why....

I can't wait for all the Magnafanboys to start going "OMGZ They were a mad FWD sports car bro..." :

Well ive got to bite here, cant let that go on

Build quality snots Holden and Ford; Folks have 98 Magna with 200,000klms not a solitary fault beyond maintance, even my AU has done a power steering pump. I just drove a 380 and cant fault its build quality- the interior scheme is a bit naff, but quality top notch

Warranty is fine. Mitsubishi will be here for ever with imported models at least. Look at Nissan, the 90s Pintara and Skylines were still serviced and warrantied by Nissan. Mistu future is about as secure as Fords and GM- Looked at their financial positions lately

Ugly- Well thats subjective- I reckon it looks better than the VE and is just plain conservative

Slow- Nope- It will snot any previous last gen 6 cylinder sedan and will match an Omega/Berlina 6. Ford is of course the quickest and Aurion is an utter recalcitrant driver wheras the 380 is the best FWD ive driven

Inferior- In some resects yes others no, put it this way i could have had an Auto 380 ES Sports on the road for about 30.5 G- Try to get an Aurion for that price with those options

The 380 is not a bad car, just a car built for a niche that doesnt exist- They tried to take on the Subaru Liberty style market and failed. Bit like Ford with the first Mondeo- Good car just missed the mark. I rekcon it cant be beat at the bottom end of 6's. ES is better value than Omega and ATX and depending what you can get of your Ford dealer for a 6 Speed XT.

[Werd.]

Originally Posted by Steffo

You can only build unreliable heaps for so long before people stop buying them.

Lets see... 380...

From a company with a shaky future (warranty?)
Made like crap
Ugly
Slow
Inferior to all its direct competition

Selling bad? Gee, I wonder why....

I can't wait for all the Magnafanboys to start going "OMGZ They were a mad FWD sports car bro..." :

You're an idiot. How about you keep your biased opinions out of this thread and stop talking out of your ***.

Slow? Hate to break it to you, but do falcons run 14.5 stock??
Made like crap? Have you been inside one? obviously not, build quality is superior.

Ugly? haha i'll let you decide on that one for yourself.



Inferior? How so? Talking out of your *** again.

Shaky future? Not sure what you mean by warrenty? Do you mean its to good and bringing the company down by heaps of claims etc? Or are you saying that it isn't good enough? If it doesn't apply to your standards, what does?? Its a 5 year warrenty.

How about you stop posting biased opinions?

[devilracer_01]

I feel this could be the end and a huge amount of jobs lost in Adelaide.

[Disciple]

We're talking 380, not Magna dude.

380 is quite a good car. Slow? Nope, 0-100 7.3 0-400m 15.3 stock auto. Good amount of kit on them too, just a poor public image and the typical aussie bogan mentality that a big sedan must be RWD. Where does that leave the Mondeo? And just FYI, Aurion is the fastest large 6cyl family sedan, then falcon (maybe an XT with the ZF might match an Aurion) then the 380, then the Commodore.

[Dave_au]

Originally Posted by Steffo

You can only build unreliable heaps for so long before people stop buying them.

Lets see... 380...

From a company with a shaky future (warranty?)
Made like crap
Ugly
Slow
Inferior to all its direct competition

Selling bad? Gee, I wonder why....

I can't wait for all the Magnafanboys to start going "OMGZ They were a mad FWD sports car bro..." :

Nice troll mate, I'm sure it's getting the reaction that you wanted, but it's not really adding any value.

[Dave_au]

Originally Posted by EA Bogan

i have said this time and time again, what mitsubishi needs is a rear wheel drive large sedan, and the same goes for Toyota. Scrapping the Excellent Supra-engined Cressida was a big mistake on their part.

They do have a large rear wheel drive car, it's brilliant, performs very well and even gives the european's something to think about.

It does, however have a Lexus badge and costs a good deal more than a toyota.

And there might be good times ahead for the Lexus group too, with not only the IS-F, which is a BMW M3 equivalent coming out to Australia, but probably the IS350 - which is the 3.5L v6 that pulls a 0-100 of 5.4 seconds in the US.

[FORD3V]

Originally Posted by Dave_au

It does, however have a Lexus badge and costs a good deal more than a toyota.

I believe lexus stands for luxury export u.s, because thats what toyota called them when they exported toyota's to america,before they came up with the second brand name lexus.

[Fairlane]

Originally Posted by EA Bogan

i have said this time and time again, what mitsubishi needs is a rear wheel drive large sedan, and the same goes for Toyota. Scrapping the Excellent Supra-engined Cressida was a big mistake on their part.

Well Toyota and Mitsu still build big RWD cars we just dont get them here.

Mitsubishi Debonair
Toyota Crown
Toyota Mark II's and Chaser

All were built until recently or even now, Toyota figured that A they could make more money out of flogging us US models and models made here by avoiding flucutations in the Yen. The Crown is even built on the Lexus GS platform, but have car based on the Lexus but selling for $45K would kill it.

Interestingly too and ive said it before but the Magna replacement was intended to be based on the old E-class platfrom ala Chrysler 300c. Mitsu ran out of money, japan told them to use galant platform as relations with Daimler Chrysler were souring and the Boulay disaster in 2003 with the new nose killed it.

[uranium_death]

When he had the XF, we spent 2-3 years looking at car yards looking at what to get to replace the XF.

Now, this isn't directly related to the 380, but I remember sitting in the Magna and thinking how comfortable it was. I found EL seats at the time not the greatest and even with the VTII, I wouldn't rave about its comfort either. I've sat in Camrys...like sitting on a park bench covered in bird droppings.

The Magna was comfortable. Loved it.

I would take a 380 over the Camry anyday as I prefer the styling and interior.

The image of the 380 is what costs it. Magna just couldn't find its niche demographic.

Perception plays a big role. People buy Corollas because they're "the best", despite the Focus being bloody competitive, if not better.

It's easy to follow a crowd.

Since most people could less whether their card was FWD or RWD, the 380 is still a good family car.

[duaned]

BULLCRAP! The 380 is a good bit of car. It's body is tight & taught (cant say that for an AU) ride is smooth but compliant, overtaking performance is superior to Holden's 6 cyl. offerings and apart from DSC, better appointed than it's competitor's in the dollar range. Build quailty? Certainly up there with the best rolling from production lines in australia! Do I own one? No, but have driven many of them to state my claims. Steffo, you can stick your head in the sand and kick like an osterich!

Originally Posted by Steffo

You can only build unreliable heaps for so long before people stop buying them.

Lets see... 380...

From a company with a shaky future (warranty?)
Made like crap
Ugly
Slow
Inferior to all its direct competition

Selling bad? Gee, I wonder why....

I can't wait for all the Magnafanboys to start going "OMGZ They were a mad FWD sports car bro..." :

[Gohan]

i hate driving 380s due to i work at Mitsubishi and i have never seen an Full Manual 380 yet! all of them are the hybrid autos with manual mode but they do rip some mini burnouts (wet tyres)

380 line up as i have seen in the back shed GT, GTL, Sports, VRX and the VRX can have 17 inch rims but i think its an option on them anyways and those 17's look good on the 380

and yeh i do like them but just sick of driving them on my 3 days there and i get the chance to drive other cars there like Magna, Lancer, Pajero, Triton and other Mitsubishies cars

ohhh and trade ins

[FrogInASock]

they should've never made the 380, they should've just updated the magna, worst decision ever.

No, they should never have made the TL Magna with the teardrop eye headlights. THAT model was not supposed to be made, the newer body which we now call the 380 was to have been introduced then. The ugly TL and TW killed Mitsubishi's big cars overnight.

[Disciple]

Originally Posted by Gohan

i hate driving 380s due to i work at Mitsubishi and i have never seen an Full Manual 380 yet!

Look harder man, they're there. At least the 380 offers a manual option, unlike Toyota with the Aurion.

[Ralliart]

Originally Posted by FrogInASock

No, they should never have made the TL Magna with the teardrop eye headlights. THAT model was not supposed to be made, the newer body which we now call the 380 was to have been introduced then. The ugly TL and TW killed Mitsubishi's big cars overnight.

yeah i agree with u on that, thank god i brought a tj instead of the magna after 2000 era.

[Falcon Freak]

Mitsubishi Australia was caught between Daimler-Chrylser and Mitsubishi Motor Corporation. They had different plans for Mitsubishi Australia. The 380 which was released is not the full version that was planned. The MIVEC engine was cancelled and so was the LHD export model. Mitsubishi Australia would be in much better position if these two items weren't cancelled.

The 380 is a very good car but has an identity crisis (like Nissan has with the Tiida) and it's styling is as popular as the AU Falcon.

I hope Mitsubishi Australia survives but I wouldn't place any money on. Building 1,000 cars a month is a joke

FF

[Werd.]

Originally Posted by Ralliart

yeah i agree with u on that, thank god i brought a tj instead of the magna after 2000 era.

Where did you bring it from???
BTW, the TL is like 2003 isn't it? After 2000? wtf.

[Kryton]

you really know what the main problem is?

ADVERTISING.

seen anything that ever made you want to go out and buy a 380?