Most people on this blog who are slinging the negative comments about the 380 have never even driven one, that is quite obvious.
Its shape is no worse than the the latest offer from ford which is a redesigned old as Falcon AU from the 90′s. The Omega is sort of nice though if you like a brick with wheels. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I can imagine what some of your women must look like,not all would be Glamors but some of you still married them!Why?

The 380 interior was way better than the standard bland Omega and almost on a par with the Falcon, but the Mitsu interior didn’t explode in heat & over bumps like the other two.
But it did need a new front & at least Totally new headlights because it still looked like a toned down way out ugly looking Magna, it also needed a rounder rear end. Before I even knew what the car was I realized what it was from those headlights. Obviously Mitsubishi didn’t listen to the consumer at all and went with the (toned down)scare buyers away headlights again.

I have seen & driven better built cars than the 380 but they are not made in Australia.
But Mitsubishi have to take most of the blame for the demise of the 380, because although they made a good car not enough people where made aware of this fact & they also cut corners on everything from the 380 headlights to advertising the vehicle. Also the 380 should have been a bigger step away from the smoke blowing Magna.

Then when the writing was on the wall Mitsubishi went all out in their advertising campaign but it was too late, most Aussies had already overlooked the 380 and got into another Holden or Ford.
RIP 380

lets ride till we die.

i wanna make love in that ride…in that ride…((beat of music))

Next generation US galant will be based on Concept ZT, similar front to the Lancer. We won’t see the next generation Galant till 2010. Unfortunately it won’t be built locally, most likely built in US. From all the reports it will be fascinating car.
It’s sad to see the end of the 380. It’s difficult to pinpoint to once thing for the demise of the 380.

Negative publicity and perceptions about Mitsu (previous financial problem, potential closure of the ADL plant didn’t help, older reliability issues)
380 should have been released at least 12 months earlier (this would have allowed the model to establish itself, before the VE & Aurion. As well as before the petrol price rises.
380 name was not the right name (should have used a name like Galant or Diamante or Magna or Grandeur, Numeric name was not personal enough and made it difficult to have a choice of engines as 380 denotes the 3.8 L engine)
Under powered engine (175 kW is more than adequate for the car, Most of its competitors are powered by engines with more than 190kW, Like the US Galant should have used the 195 kW Mivec engine on sporty models)
Lack of a 4 cyl engine variant (may be as a different model like Toyota Camry & Aurion, it wouldn’t have been too difficult to use the 2.4 4Cyl engine used in the US galant)
Lack of ESP and curtain air bags (most of it’s competitors has these features)
Interior styling on base models, not so useable steering wheel controls( Could have made minor improvements to these)
Lack of significant export markets (Inability to export to LHD markets due to LHD Galant built in US needs exports markets, the size of RHD export markets are smaller and only significant markets the 380 could have been exported would have been UK, Japan and South Africa. The difficulty of the strong dollar, tariffs and meting requirements in these markets prevented the export to these countries. The other RHD countries are developing countries and you need a 4 cyl model to export to these)

I believe these were the main reasons the 380 failed. Even if Mitsu had addressed all the above except the exports to LHD markets the 380 would have died in 2010, as it’s impossible to sustain local manufacturing without a significant LHD/RHD export markets.

I got a grandpa-gold one, so nobody expects it to launch from the lights in an orgy of tyre squeel and smoke(hey, i did mention it’s a company car….). Build quality is fantastic, spec level for $$$ is awesome. Power is fine, 5spd auto is far superior to Holden and Ford’s 4sp autos. Lack of traction control on my car is an issue, because I drive it hard..

All in all, a good car, just not a good looking car. Maybe mine will go up in value. Just think, one day Shannons may auction them along side A9X’s GTHO’s etc…. May not though….

Hopefully my next company car is an FG……

ive always thought they should have implemented the galant style front end etc to the 380 in the way they have used it on the lancer.
the old magna styling was going somewhere. the proof is when you see them getting around with after market wheels and spoilers etc that it should be obvious that people dont mind the looks. they went a bit too bland with the 380 and that pushed a bit of the sporty image off of their large car.
i honestly think if they had have gone galant styling their sales would have been much better