There's an old saying, you only want what you can't have. It holds particularly true in the context of Australia's Mitsubishi 380. The vehicle's Adelaide manufacturing facility was recently shuttered, partially due to lack of interest in the six-cylinder sedan. However, the vehicle's cancellation announcement ended up increasing demand for the final batch of 380s to roll off the assembly line. For that reason, Mitsubishi decided to auction off the final car to its suddenly sentimental Aussie dealers. The last domestically produced 380 ended up fetching $100,000 Australian dollars ($93,364) after all was said and done, which is more than three times its MSRP. John Hughes Mitsubishi, a Perth, Australia dealership, coughed up the cash for the winning bid. Mitsubishi also gave it the honor of choosing a charity to benefit from the proceeds of the sale. Knowing that the 380 in Australia is basically a Down Under-ified version of the Galant on sale in North America, is there any circumstance under which you could imagine paying that much for a Galant?
[Source: Ward's Auto]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Rob @ May 7th 2008 7:08PM
Only if preowned by jon voight
gschon @ May 7th 2008 7:51PM
The Dentist or the Actor?
James @ May 7th 2008 7:09PM
If I had that much money to waste, and I knew the money would be going to charity, then sure. Otherwise, hell no.
Ray @ May 7th 2008 7:31PM
well the money is going to charity... I have to say, I wouldn't pay even a third of that price for a Galant
Xcountryflyer @ May 7th 2008 7:32PM
The Galant is a terrible family sedan.
Berto @ May 7th 2008 7:48PM
No offense to my friends in Perth, but when I lived there for a year, I noticed that due to the economic boom going on there, people from Perth tend to throw large sums of money around for no reason!
EuropaCar @ May 7th 2008 7:58PM
wow that just seems ridiculous.. at least it's going to charity
Allen @ May 7th 2008 8:05PM
P-U
Benfolio @ May 7th 2008 8:08PM
I thought it was an Aussie Diamante?
They were all built there and them imported here.
Chuan @ May 8th 2008 12:49AM
I think prior generations were related to the Diamante. But not since then.
morel @ May 7th 2008 8:12PM
that looks about 3 times nicer than the galant but thats not saying much either...
Cole Mitguard @ May 7th 2008 8:31PM
HAHAHAHAHAHA.... I dont think that I could imagine paying anything more than 1/3rd retail price for that... much less 3 times. People are soo easy to seperate from their money. Does this dealer plan on flipping this car? To someone even stupider than himself? With all the great cars that are available in Australia, I just don't see how this makes sense.
Travis Ayres @ May 7th 2008 8:32PM
If it was filled with cocaine.
kdude @ May 7th 2008 8:42PM
Yes, if Charlize Theron riding shotgun is part of the deal.
Seoultrain @ May 7th 2008 9:19PM
a couple weeks ago I was in my local Nissan dealer, and they had a 300ZX in the showroom. Very nice, clean looking. I casually asked how much it was on sale for (no price sticker), to which the salesman replied, "I think about $70,000." "WHAT!?"
Turns out it's a NEW 1996 Nissan 300ZX, the last one exported from Japan to the US. I think it had about 25 miles on it. Just crazy.
Seoultrain @ May 7th 2008 9:21PM
They also had the first 350Z imported to the US in 2002, still new, bought from ebaymotors for $100k. Apparently this dealer does very well.
Benfolio @ May 7th 2008 10:52PM
Apparantly not THAT well if the cars are still sitting there.
Drat, I found out today the Nissan dealer in our group is NOT getting a GT-R. They didn't send anyone to GT-R school.
That sucks, I was looking forward to my free test drive. :(
Oh well.
whofan @ May 7th 2008 11:12PM
What Ford`s 500 could have been? Not.
hidden_hunter @ May 8th 2008 1:12AM
The 380 failed in Australia for a variety of reasons, mostly being that it was up against cars that were vastly superior to it.
Who would take a mitsubishi over a Holden Commodore or a Ford Falcon, both RWD and while having fairly average resale rate still better than the mitsu. A total no brainer.
Adam Ashley @ May 8th 2008 2:19AM
Actually the Galant is the 380 exported to the US. The 380 was created by an Australian design group within Mitsubishi. Then was released to the rest of the world.
And the main reason the 380 failed was Mitsubishi did to good a job with the previous generation Magna. The Magnas pretty much lasted indefinately, there was no point to upgrade to the new model.
Unlike Fords and Holdens the Mitsubishis didnt wear out after 18 to 24 months requiring an upgrade. My AWD Magna was only retired last year (for a new Lancer VRX that uses less fuel) after 10yrs and close on 400,000 km, same engine, drive chain, body. Only work ever done on it was regular maintenance and change the timing belt every 100,000k.