Former chief executive Tom Phillips unveils the Mitsubishi 380 at Tonsley Park in September, 2005.
The locally-built Mitsubishi 380 was promoted as the saviour for the Adelaide plant but sales failed to live up to expectations.
The car, first produced in 2005, was seen as a measure of whether the plant could produce profitable vehicles, however, bad timing and poor export figures led to unsatisfactory sales results. The V6 four-door 380 was produced as a replacement for the Mitsubishi Magna.
At the time of the car's release, car industry experts and economists claimed the success of the 380 would determine the outcome of the company's future in Australia.
Australian Institute for Social Research executive director John Spoehr said the 380 was well designed and built - $600 million was spent developing the vehicle - but rising petrol prices and poor exports crippled sales.
“Mitsubishi placed a great deal of importance on the 380 as a transition to a more secure future for the Adelaide plant,” he said.
“The difficulty for these things is the lead time for establishing a new model is so long that circumstances changed by the time the 380 came on to the market. “Large cars at a time of rising petrol prices were becoming increasingly unpopular in the Australian market.”
Mitsubishi sales grew by 20 per cent last year but the 380 bucked the trend selling only 10,942 units, a drop of 11.9 per cent over its 2006 tally. Mr Spoehr said the Japanese company needed to see strong continued sales growth of the 380 to have its “faith” restored in building cars in Australia. “Not being able to secure sufficient export volumes really made it impossible for the 380 to be the leader it needed to restore the faith in the parent company,” he said.
