Mitsubishi Magna

The Mitsubishi Magna was a mid-size car offered between May 1985 and September 2005 by Mitsubishi Motors Australia Limited (MMAL). Manufactured at the Tonsley Park assembly plant, Magna spanned three generations before being replaced by the Mitsubishi 380. Their 4-cylinder ("4G54/Astron II") and V6 ("6G72" and "6G74") engines were also manufactured by MMAL in South Australia, at the Lonsdale plant.

Prior to Magna, Mitsubishi did have a large family car to rival the Ford Falcon and Holden Commodore in the form of the 6-cylinder Chrysler Valiant, which was inherited upon MMAL's takeover of Chrysler Australia's operations in 1980. Nevertheless, the Valiant was put out of production the following year, making the Sigma MMAL's largest offering.

When Sigma's replacement became due, MMAL opined that a car's width was a crucial factor to Australian drivers who have traditionally favoured large cars. As a result, to compete more effectively against the large-sized Ford Falcon and Holden Commodore, former Chrysler engineers now working for MMAL, developed a wider mid-sized car specific for the Australian market. They accomplished this by splicing an extra 6.6 cm (2.6") right down the middle of Japan's mid-sized Mitsubishi Galant sedan, to create the unique Mitsubishi Magna range. Given the inherent space efficiency of front-wheel-drive (FWD) relative to rear-wheel-drive (RWD) platforms, this allowed MMAL to offer a passenger cabin that was as spacious, if not more spacious, than that of the market-dominant Ford Falcon and Holden Commodore.

Over the years, Magna grew in size and offered V6 power and All-Wheel-Drive (AWD), the latter to compete against its rivals' perception of better dynamics from RWD. The Magna was the first all-new Australian made Mitsubishi vehicle, replaced by the FWD Mitsubishi 380 sedan, which became the second and last of Australian made Mitsubishi car, upon MMAL's closure of its South Australian production facilities in 2008.