Mitsubishi 380 Safety Rating & Running Costs
22 Jun, 2006
5 Comments 
labeledI haven’t stopped going on about Mitsubishi’s failures in the last few months, but things have started changing a little for the struggling Mitsubishi 380. Finding itself in the wrong place at the wrong time, the 380 has been selling well below Mitsubishi’s estimates and has also failed to bring the company out of its troubles.
In the recent Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) report, the Mitsubishi 380 was labeled the safest car in the Family Class available in Australia.
If that wasn’t good news, the Mitsubishi 380 has also been given the title of the Safest Australian Car Ever Made! The Mitsu scored an almost perfect 15.69 out of a possible 16.0 in the side impact test, and a maximum 4.0 out of 4.0 points in the head, chest and pelvis crash tests. The overall Safety rating was 4/5 which rivals many European cars!
‘We set out to design a fundamentally excellent family car, and spent a lot of time developing the body shell and engine management systems locally, so that we knew 380 would be an internationally competitive car,‘ Mitsubishi’s CEO, Mr Robert McEniry said.
But wait, there is more, the Mitsubishi 380 has also been labelled by Australian Motoring Clubs as the cheapest Australian Family Car to run and maintain, Mitsubishi are quick to point out that the running costs of the 380 are almost the same as Toyota’s glamour hybrid, The Prius. With the Mitsubishi 380 coming out to roughly 72.55 cents/ km compared to Toyota Prius’ 71.87 cents/km. Not bad for a Mitsubishi!
Of the local family cars, Australia’s Best Cars winner, the Mitsubishi 380, was the cheapest to run at $209.28 (per week), with this lower cost of ownership given a kick along by the recent price cut.
If we compare this to the other Australian Family cars, namely the Ford Falcon (79.70 cents/km) and the Holden Commodore (80.25 cents/km), both are not only more expensive to maintain but apparently also depreciate more! I wrote a little piece about Depreciation of Australian Cars a while ago and although I am not sure how they measured the depreciation of the 380, unless the future of Mitsubishi is a solid one, the 380 may still struggle. However with it’s excellent Safety Rating and Low running costs, Mitsubishi are assured of at least some increase in sales.
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August 4th, 2006 at 11:23 am
[…] Mitsubishi Motors seems to be on the come back this year after a period of uncertainty, Mitsubishi claims that it has continued to improve its business position, as well as exceed many of its business targets during July. Despite all these efforts though, the Mitsubishi 380 is still not selling despite being named the safest Australian made car ever. […]
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August 14th, 2006 at 10:07 am
Now if they made a diesel version that got over 14 km/litre they would really be on to something!
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October 13th, 2007 at 8:28 pm
I wonder if they could pop a Volkswagen turbo diesel in it like they did with the Chrysler Sebring, which looks about the same car.
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February 9th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
I thought the BA Falcon got a 4/5 star rating. It was on ANCAP’s website.
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February 10th, 2008 at 1:07 am
MIVEC MIVEC MIVEC!!!
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