mitsubishi magna 1
Carsales Staff8 Sept 2020
NEWS

Mitsubishi Magna returns

Reborn Galant shows how the Aussie-made Magna and 380 sedan could look today

Say hello to the car that Mitsubishi won’t make.

This rendering of a potentially V6-powered Mitsubishi Galant from Russian auto website Kolesa.ru is an artist’s impression of how the Japanese brand could model a new flagship passenger car.

And if history was somehow altered, and Aussies still bought large six-cylinder sedans in big numbers, it could be what the Mitsubishi 380 (nee Magna) would look like if it were still alive today.

Despite US dealers – and probably a few Aussie Mitsubishi car yards – crying out for an affordable large sedan, the chances of the cash-strapped Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance unleashing a sexy new passenger car like this are slim to none.

Nevertheless, this rendering does a good job of combining Mitsubishi’s ‘dynamic shield’ front-end design seen across its SUV product portfolio with older Galant body shapes.

The slim-line LED headlights, eye-catching grille and triple-stack LED fog lights create a sophisticated look, while the rear-end is more conservative with smoked LED tail-lights connected by a full-width LED bar.

is not likely to be revived

The twin exhaust outlets integrated into the rear bumper hint at a potent engine under the bonnet, where US and Aussie onlookers no doubt would hope for a lusty turbocharged V6 with heaps of mid-range punch.

However, in reality for a car of this size today, a highly-strung turbo four-cylinder is more likely.

In case you missed it, the much-loved Mitsubishi Magna was built in Australia between 1985 and 2005, and shared its DNA with the fifth-generation Galant.

The Magna was replaced in 2005 by the Mitsubishi 380, which ran only until 2008 when Mitsubishi’s long-running Aussie manufacturing plant was shuttered.

In Australia, Mitsubishi only has one passenger car remaining in its range – the Mirage. Lancer stocks were depleted in 2019 and the chances of Mitsubishi creating more passenger vehicles in future are low.

There have been rumours of the Mitsubishi Evo returning and maybe even a 3000GT-inspired sports car based on same platform as the upcoming Nissan 400Z, but as it stands Mitsubishi will focus on its core SUV offerings and its top-selling Triton ute for now.

The Magna Ralliart was a 180kW/332Nm V6 machine
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