New looks

By Ewan Kennedy
AFTER one of the biggest buildups we have ever seen in the Australian car industry, we’ve finally had the chance to drive the new Mitsubishi 380.
However, it won’t be on sale to the public until it’s launched at the Sydney Motor Show in October.
Mitsubishi also says this is the best massproduction car ever built in Australia.
This is a hard claim to prove, or to disprove, but we’ve spent a lot of time looking both at the car and the Adelaide factory that produces it, and the new Mitsubishi 380 is certainly a class act both inside and out.
Panel fit is tight and even, paint finish is near flawless, and the overall appearance of the materials throughout the cabin is impressive.
Styling is far bolder than anything ever attempted by Mitsubishi in its local cars before. There are sculpted headlights, a grille that makes a definite statement in its shape – especially in the topline model with plenty of chrome plating – and a neatly domed roof sitting above highset windows over a tall waistline.
The tail lights also have an angular design and come in two distinctly different shapes depending on the model.
Mitsubishi 380 is to be sold in two model streams, perhaps three, it depends on how you count them.
Firstly there’s the entrylevel model simply called the Mitsubishi 380. Above that there are two luxury models, the 380 LS and the 380 LX.
Alongside them are two sporting variants, the first uses the traditional Mitsubishi nomenclature of VRX, but the other has a tag that’s likely to be controversial – Mitsubishi 380 GT.
All models of the new Mitsubishi 380 use the same 3.8litre engine.
It probably comes as no surprise that the 380 carries on the Magna’s long tradition of impressive smoothness and quiet running.
This isn’t a sports sedan, not even with the firmer suspension setup in some models.
Road grip is very good, but agility simply isn’t a feature of any large frontdrive family car and Mitsubishi hasn’t been able to defy the laws of physics.
Steering feel is good and the 380 responds in a safe and predictable manner at speeds considerably higher than those likely to be attempted by the average driver.