Thanks for making your car available for our entertainment and instruction, even though you forgot to keep the screen washer bottle full. Great that you have helped keep it in such good condition. Any back story? Any idea why the big bolt is on the extractors?
Hello.driven many japanese cars over the time, and they cracked it,engines in particular,Thanks for loaning your car and welldone for keeping this car alive.
Totally agree. Mitsubishi used to have both boring and exciting cars, now they just have cars that can only be described as 'adequate transportation devices'.
@@jamesfrench7299 I would say the overall design of the Colt was actually quite inspiring compared to the bricks other manufacturers were starting to produce at that point. I mean I would prefer it over the Fiesta or the Civic which pretty much went on to become legendary
I've been collecting my own smegma in a jar for 50 years. There's about 2 inches of it in there now, and the colour changes towards the bottom which is the oldest scrapings.
It always amazes how much more advanced Japanese cars were than their British counterparts. In 1987 my dad was driving around Maestro with keep fit windows, air conditioning was reserved for the rich and famous. 😂
Pretty much a necessity having aircon, here Queensland. My predecessors in the 1960s must have been much tougher, driving vinyl seated non aircon sweat boxes.
Adding superfluous luxuries doesn't make a car "advanced"....for instance, Issigonis putting in sliding windows in the Mini represented clever-thinking, not backward thinking. It is hard to imagine anything the Japanese have featured that hasn't hitherto appeared in Euro-British models. And if I was a Jaanese car fan, I would be indepted to the Euro brands; quite literally, where would they be without their, ahem, ''borrowed technology"?
Dashboard like a Citroen and quality like a Japanese car, who wouldn't love that?! Would prefer an estate though, I'm a sucker for estates, the more quirky, the better!
Quality in this first generation exceeded the ageing Holden and Ford competition, but there were also some huge reliability issues that took years to resolve.
I had a MK1 Magna wagon I brought fir $300 off the lady across the road when I was 22. I brought it to drive around while I was restoring my 69 Premier and I fell in love with it! I’m a tall guy and it was just so comfortable. I put a thin mattress in the back and slept in it (I’m 6’6) and I drove it far and wide! I was only supposed to be front it for a couple of months, but it became my daily and when it finally died (bless her) we brought a TP Elite like this one for my little brothers first car. Love the old Magnas!
The 2020 Camry's 2.5L 4-cyl puts out 203 bhp. The 3.5L V-6 puts out 301 bhp. The 1987 Magna's 2.6 ECI power output was 125 bhp, although the Magna weighs approximately 400 lbs less than the current Camry.
@Aussie Pom It's not just that. The Magna was SOHC, 12 valve with fairly basic (by modern standards) injection and a distributor. The Camry has DOHC, 24 valve with variable valve timing, coil on plug and, yes, computer control over all this unimaginable in 1985. The concept of a large FWD 4 cylinder sedan is the same. Difference is, in 1985 the Magna was an also ran, compared to Holdens and Falcons. Today Camry rules the (now small) segment.
As someone else below mentioned, the Magna did have a V6 cylinder engined variation (2nd gen. onwards) known as the Verada. It was also exported under the name Mitsubishi Diamante. Today the Diamante (a slightly updated one, but essentially the same format and size) is still produced in Taiwan.
The V6 was the V3000, designed for the NZ market (and mostly bought by the NZ traffic cops), the Verada was simply the badge version of the V3000 for the Oz market before Mitsubishi moved all of the orphans onto the global Diamante name.
@@nakoma5 In Taiwan, Mitsubishi has a joint venture with a local firm called 'China Motor Corporation', even though they are in Taiwan not China. The firm CMC makes cars of the previous Mitsubishi generation in Taiwan,, it currently makes the Galant Grunder which is based on the North American platform (not the smaller Japanese Galant) and has its design roots (size/dimensions) in the Australian Magna/Diamante.
the Verada was a Longer wheelbase version, I have one sitting in my Driveway, it is a 3 litre V6, I also have a 3.5 Litre V6 , my first Magna was a 3 Litre V6 on LPG. all have been used in the NT with open speed limits I had the LPG Version up around 200 KMH on LPG!
These were actually good cars though the early ones did suffer from transmission problems. People wanted more than what Holden and Ford had to offer but were reluctant to go for a Saab or Audi so the Magna did well to bridge the gap. Skylines were a few years away.
Skyline was the following year, 1986, same as the VL Commodore, both sharing the great Nissan drivetrain, though the Skyline had a habit of developing noisy diffs, and the VL had cooling issues and was appallingly built. By this time the Magna's faults were appearing, from dodgy transmissions to engine issues and even rot in the roof.
When I was a child my father had a first generation Magna as a work car. It was something from the future. More recently, I drove a Verada for around 5 years until the gearbox expired at 497000 km. Absolute lounge barge. Loved it.
The 3.5L V6 engine although rough at idle (hold brake and place it into D) would probably last a million km if well maintained, oil and coolant changes, timing belt and water pump changes, etc. My 2000 TJ still has the original engine, 260000km.
Bang on, and for the time (1985) the 83kw compared very well with the VK Commodore's 3.3lt 6cyl which made 86kw. The Magna was lighter and the 4sp auto was a big advantage.
@@MrFister84 Indeed, just putting some perspective that whilst the 83KW sounds inadequate by today's standards, at the time it was more than adequate, particularly when driving a 1200kg chassis. The Magna was whisper quite and just loped along effortlessly anywhere from 80-140kmh. They were a big step-up in that regard from a VK or XF.
@@MrFister84 Fortunately the Black 3.3 was replaced by the vadtly superior RB30 Nissan engine in the VL, but the VL was not well built, making the drivetrain a good thing looking for a good car...which it got in the Skyline.
I had the 2.6 Astron in carburetted form in a 1992 NZ L200 ute. Fuel economy was atrocious at 19 MPG on a trip and power was lack luster. My local dealer suggested a mod in the carb which consisted in drilling out a hole somewhere, and ripping out the wheeze inducing EGR exhaust manifolding and fitting extractors- possibly also the reason for this one having extractors also. This transformed it into a brisk and torquey wagon with fuel economy improving to 21 MPG average. Back then we had Compressed Natural Gas as a vehicle fuel which I fitted and made it more economical again but also caused valve recession despite upper cylinder lube. Fond memories of that lovely smooth Astron whine.
The first-gen Magna was a revolutionary car that other Japanese manufacturers copied. It was the first Japanese car to be designed as a full-sized wide-bodied car for western tastes. Tax laws in Japan at the time dictated a 1700mm width restriction. Nissan and Toyota copied it for their 1989 J30 Maxima and 1992 XV10 Camry respectively, which were a big deal in North America and were inspired by Mitsubishi Australia’s efforts in 1985. The centre rear seat pass-through hatch is common in many Australian sedans too (Holdens and 80s Falcons), along with the high boot loading lip, it seems Mitsubishi Australia was going for maximum torsional rigidity. Unfortunately, these cars had a terrible reputation for mechanical durability. The engines had issues with cracking blocks and heads, as well as timing issues. The automatics were failure prone as well. It’s been years since I’ve even seen one driving around at all, let alone in this good a condition
I still remember my dad in 1994 stripping the engine down on our 1990 Wagon (bought new) as it had a dodgy valve which had been mushroomed over and shortened and caused it to be noisey... Dealership just said it was past warranty at the time....
I remember seeing an awful lot of TP Magnas broken down on the side of the Kwinana Freeway, always white sedans (despite them supposedly being more reliable). I liked the second and third-gen Magnas, though.
My Grandad had a couple of them bank in the day. A very underrated and smooth car that used to go more than adequately when my grandmother wasn't aboard. Slightly more subdued when she was though...
@@clintonepps3666 Nah. The Camry (or any Toyota) is always the choice of the blue rinse set. Check out the car park of any of the places that lawn bowls are played.
Love the way people dismiss technically-interesting Japanese cars as "grandad cars", then go out and buy crappy Fords and GMs, which are as interesting as watching paint dry. Sheep is what you are.
My recollection of (briefly) driving a Magna back in the late 80s was that tackling a corner with excessive enthusiasm left you with the uncanny feeling that you were in some sort of video game, such was the lack of sensation (coupled with oddly distant-sounding tyre squeal). The fabulously 80s electronic dashboard of this upmarket version would fit right in with that impression, I would imagine.
The same engine was fitted to various Chrysler K-Cars in the U.S., fitted with a carburetor and a maze of emissions-related vacuum lines. That radio even has C-Quam AM Stereo, which was used in Australia beginning in 1985.
Beast haha. I’m based in Australia and Melbourne where this car is based. They were always everyday shitters but with anything car related older it gets the more followers they gain.
Street Car Culture the Magna won various car awards when released in 1985. It was a nice handling and riding car, although the engine was rather breathless and thirsty.
I had a 1985 Magna. It was an extremely comfortable, lovely ride and very, very quiet. That said, it was a mechanical and rust nightmare. Timing chain issues, oil pump issues, and the roof panel (and other areas) rusted easily and badly. I loved it and hated it at the same time. It kept me poor in repair costs.
I owned one of these back in 2001 whilst backpacking in Australia. It was a horrible pastel yellow colour on New South Wales plates, purchased off a couple of Dutch lads. That's what I did. Edited due to slightly drunken spelling mistakes.
As a kid in primary school I would get driven to school by my mates grandmother in a brand new Elite. In the day they were so quiet and smooth and much nicer to drive in than the VK Commodore/Calais or the Falcon/Fairmont although those cars were fitted with similar luxuries they weren't as smooth. It wasn't as much fun to be in as mum's 360 V8 powered Chrysler though.
Surprised to see that grand old girl still on the road. Did you get to see one of Mitsubishi's other "Australia only" cars- the 380? A mid-size sedan with a 3.8 litre V6 built between 2005 and 2008, which was when Mitsubishi closed its production plant.
The 380 was really the last evolution of the Magna. So lasted in production 22 years. Lots of other cars did not last as long as that. especially Austin X6 Tasman/Kimberley, Marina and even the Torana.
The 380 is a rebadged version of the 9th generation Galant US model. It was sold in a dozen or so countries around the world. It was never "Australia-only". The 3.8l was just the US market "Ralliart Galant" fitted for right hand drive.
@@rorylyons277 Very true that they had to upgrade the engineering (eg. reinforcing the rear half of the chassis for increased towing capability (they didn't widen it, btw - it was only the Magna they widened for the Oz market)) but that doesn't change the fact that the 380 was built on the 9th gen Galant platform. Whether it counts as "new" or not depends on where you want to draw the line on "new". Given that ~80% of the car was the same as the US market car I fall on the "It's essentially the same" line of things. YMMV, obviously. Regardless, I think we can agree that the 380 wasn't an "Australia only" car given it was sold in Australia, NZ, Saudi Arabia, Chile, and Kuwait.
@@iatsd Beg to differ. On the information I have, it was the need to lift the Galant into the large car category that made Mitsubishi Australia's decision to go ahead with the 380 so gut-wrenching and expensive, when sales had been waning for years. And ultimately so ruinous for the local franchise. If you look at a 380 in the metal, it's a BIG car. And photos I've seen of the v9.0 Galant have the look of what you might call a generous mid-size car.
The 2.6 was quite heavy on fuel. Also, the SE was the top model with everything you saw, with blinker repeaters on the guards and more little refinements. The SE was the top of the wozza since the CL Valiants from the same factory. Without power steering the Magna was incredibly heavy. A medium range type car, very popular in Adelaide where they were built.
I had the GL version and was one of the most quietest comfortable and WELL HANDLING due to its wideness cars I have ever had . Th e generation after was fantastic as well again super quiet and reliable . I lived in this area where the car is being driven a place called Sandringham in Melbourne Australia 👍🦘
I had a 1987 NZ assembled Sigma, exactly same colour scheme, blue over silver. It's in the dashboard where the widening of the Sigma by the Ozzies, to make a Magna, is most obvious, the centre air vents are attached to the instrument cluster and not over the centre consol, like they are in the Sigma.
Owned 7 of these in NZ, which were marketed as Sigmas and V3000s (3.0 V6). Very nice cars, have yet to find more comfy seats. Very stylish in their day and Star Trek interior exuding 80s excess! ❤
These cars were groundbreaking in their day, front wheel drive and 4 speed auto! It took Ford almost 20 years to achieve that. Quality , fit and finish were leagues ahead of the others.
@@akishot6735 Interesting comment as I have 2 magnas and a mercedes w124 coupe....the build quality of the Mercedes is disgraceful in comparasin .....the quality of the plastics, stoneage electrics and fasteners used are just bad in the w124. My car was built without most of the sealant missing around the rear window resulting in waterleaks and severe rust in internal roof structure. MITSUBISHI has massive quality of design and construction.....
Power figures were as follows. The first Magna was the TM and was all leaded fuels. All carbie, and produced 83kw and 205nm torque. The TN series (as per the video) all changed to unleaded. The basic models (GLX? and Executive) has the carbie and produced 83kw and 200nm torque. The SE and Elite was fuel injected and produced 93kw and 205nm torque. The last of the Magna in this model was the TP and was the same power figures as the TN.
Another great video Ian! Thanks for sharing. I owned three third generation Magnas at one time or another. Two 1999 TH series and a 2005 TW series. With the ever reliable, powerful and smooth 3.5L V6 engine they made great cruisers! In 2003 I drove my first Magna from Townsville to Melbourne, (a distance of around 2600kms) with a night stop over in Brisbane. It never missed a beat. :-)
I don't mind the exterior styling at all but the interior looks amesome, I'd own one. A family friend had a mitsubishi saporro and I recall that had comfy cloth seats
The Magnas also suffered from a 'fleet car' image, especially the lower spec models. Sales reps who had these as company cars usually hated them with the lack of power & weekend/holiday towing capacity compared a Falcon/Commodore/Skyline, and it was common to see mis-treated ones when new, mostly in the hands of reps who used to drive a 6-cylinder Falcon or Commodore. High spec models like the Elite & SE's were usually driven by Bank Managers, etc. Company car policies here in OZ up to the mid 90's was generally 'take what you're given', then it was user-chooser (usually with an Australian-made policy), now it's generally a $20K car allowance, and go out & buy your own car...
Good video Ian. A slightly later version of a very similar Mitsubishi had a 3 litre V6 and was known as the V3000. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_V3000). They were skittish fast with limited road holding at speed. At full lock and full power suddenly applied, they broke gearboxes. New Zealand Traffic Departments used them before they morphed to Police. Very reliable if treated properly and an excellent engine. The later Magna in 2.6 tended to wear timing chain tensioniers as plates were not always aligned. Another Australian version had a 3.8 litre V6 - very fitting for their conditions. My verdict these Mitsubishis was adequate cars, inexpensive, but not very durable. There are not many around 20 - 30 years later.
Huge 8ssues with that first generation Magna, not least engine block cracks (the Astron was initially used a longitudinal arrangement, and didn't like a transverse setup), the transmissions, manual and auto, had problems, and there were issues with corrosion in the roofs and electrical gremlins. The second gen (TR, 1991) waz much better, though the fragile Astron motor persisted until 1996.
Good old Mordialloc and Beach road then Sandringham, my old stomping grounds ? I remember those first generation Magnas they looked futuristic at the time they looked like a large Sigma
"Smooth for a 4"; as you say, by the time you get to 2.6 it's actually quite an achievement to be as smooth as it is. Your hunch was right. From a flying start, Mitsubishi found the market catching up with their Magnas. But sales were pretty strong through several revisions and maybe a dozen years. They were losing market share fast by the later 1990s, and Mitsubishi relentlessly devalued their image by discounting the price to keep volume up and the plant open. The make-or-break 380 model ruined MItsubishi in Australia. It was the 2005 evolution of the Magna, and was a big call for the struggling Aussie franchise to pour a colossal $600m into re-tooling the plant to manufacture a new car based on the current global Galant. Notable in the tooling cost were renewed production lines, world-class panel presses, and... wait for it... new headlights. The headlights cost $millions, and looked 90% similar to what they were supposed to be improving! Madness. Although the basic vehicle had to follow closely the new Galant v9.0, because they were installing new presses and had some design capability, there was the scope to customise panels to some extent - and I believe there are in fact detail panel changes unique to the 380. In my opinion, it was a *shockingly* missed opportunity to properly revise the clumsy, bland nose of the global platform. In Australia, with its brawny big car culture, a weak generic nose was the last thing the 380 needed! The 380 was on life-support - in terminal decline and discounted - almost from day one. I was a Mitsubishi fan at the time, and I am still furious with them! They spent untold millions tweaking the design, but the changes achieved little improvement, and in my opinion look like they could have been done by a kid on 2 weeks work experience. I mean this just gets weirder, because there was apparently an internationally renowned designer involved for about a year! It's hard to understand that nobody in an executive capacity was interested enough or savvy enough to say, "Bin those sketches, this look doesn't change anything! And by the way clear out your desk by 4pm." SUVs would finally have sucked the life out of the sedan market by 2010 or 2012, but a sharply styled 380 might have had several good years... a more fitting end to the Magna story.
These were innovative cars when they first came on the market, although not sure why Mitsi Oz didn't just stick the 3.0L V6 in it and offer a 2.0L inline-4 for economy instead of developing the 2.6L Astron inline-4 engine. Having said that, you can't fault Aussie motor manufacturing with developing existing overseas platforms to their tastes and they built some great unique cars for Australians. R31 Skyline sedan in Silhouette trim is a really nice looking car for the time and no surprise you'd prefer the smooth RB30 inline-6 to the 2.6 of the Mitsi.
They would have been manufacturing the four locally at the time. Tooling for the six may have been too much to take on at the same time as engineering the wide body and setting up the plant for the new model after the Sigma.
nice car, must have been really futuristic in its time, good to see all that dash stuff all working, stereo setup reminds me of Bang and Olufsen way back. Remember the Sigma and the Sapporo, weren't they branded as Colt then? Thanks Ian
That interior is lovely. So unique and like you say very Citroen (which is great in my book!) Have to wonder what happened between generation 1 and 3. How can that superb interior turn into the cheap plastic nightmare of the 3rd generation?
Fantastic interior! Ian, you say that this was available variously in the UK as the Sigma/Sapporro. Sigma, yes but was the Sapporro not a different car albeit similarly styled? Maybe my old decrepit memory doesn't serve me well.
Love the ‘She’ll be right” sticker lmao. Loving the 80s Japanese style -reminds me of my dads 1986 Camry GLXi which was a sea of angles and blue velour inside too, not far off that dash to be fair, and it also had a digital dash. And that stereo.... I had to have a word with myself over that! There used to be a Saporro near me as a kid. What a fab slice of 80s goodness. Great test Ian!
The Magna was widened from yhr Ssigma to fit the 2.6 litre motor. My mate had one as a company car. I remember the first time I rode in it and auto just seemed to keep changing up...FOUR speeds in the auto. Pretty radical in 1985!
OMG...We had one of those! That basic platform was marketed as the SIGMA in the US, with a V-6 engine, and different tail lights and grill. It was an upscale, short-lived model rushed to market to compete against the then-new Acura Legend. According to the VIN, we had the 113th one built. The rush to market showed. It had a nice power seat, but no tilt steering wheel, something that was readily available in the lesser Galant model. You couldn't get outside air from the dash vents without also running the air conditioning. It had power windows, but no power door locks. It had the most obnoxious key-in-ignition-door-open alarm I'd ever heard! It was like fingernails down a chalk board! They must have know it too...in order to unplug it, I had to remove the center console, the heater controls and half the dashboard to get to it. We bought it used as a low-mileage, 3 year old trade-in. It had been on the dealer's lot for 10 months and had lost almost 75% of it's value since new. I had a friend who worked in the service department...the dealer tried to dump it at the auction yard but the only ones interested were junk yards that only offered scrap metal priced bids.
Not quite. The first gen V3000 was based on the global Galant model and had some detail changes (aside from the obvious one of the engine!) for the production run in NZ, but didn't include things like the widening that the Magna had. Most of the V's were bought by the Ministry of Transport for the traffic cops, so those were effectively another sub-variant as they bought ~300 per year for ~3 years, which was most of the production. The second gen V3000 was the same base vehicle as sold in Oz as a Verada, again with a few mods for the NZ market and traffic cop large buys.
What can i say,The japanese were very good at dominating the car and motorcycle market and there engines ended up on power tools and atv,s outboards etc, The Magna is not a bad car,i would think when new it was pretty good but fairly unexciting , the sun is setting in Australia ,so farewell and take care ..☀🌞🈳🈹🈶🈚🈸🦘🦘🦘🦘🦘🦘🦘
I think these were the best looking Magna model. They looked particularly smart in Elite form. I always thought they had some Citroenesque features which to me ads to the appeal. They went more mainstream after this model which was a pity but I guess the Aussies are pretty conservative with their choice of car. Thanks to owner and Hubnut for bringing us this test.
The TN Elite is, in my opinion, the best looking of the first gen Magnas. Those wheels were easily the prettiest of any wheels available at the time on any car. The later Magnas from '91 on, lacked the crisp styling of these earlier ones, and their sales were never as strong.
We sort of did get those in the UK, oddly. During the '80s, in the life of the first front-wheel drive Galant with the wedge styling, they did also sell a vehicle called the Mitsubishi Sapporo, not the two-door coupe from the late '70s-mid '80s, though that was also (rear-wheel drive) Galant-based, but a large-ish 4-door saloon which, like this car, was very highly specified. I'm not sure that the car we got in the UK had the wider and, it looks like, longer shell of this Magna, but it certainly had the 2.6 engine and the super-futuristic electronic dashboard and all the toys. At the time they came with more equipment as standard than the Rover Sterling and Ford Granada Scorpio. Sadly, they didn't sell many here, I've never seen one on the road and I would have noticed as I always had a big soft spot for that generation of Galant, especially the turbo-diesel which really took on the domination of the French in the diesel car market at the time. Sadly, although the Galant sold well in the UK, I haven't seen one in a very long time, which suggests that most of them have taken their last ride to the scrap yard some time ago...
YES!! I was hoping you'd do it It is even one of my favorite looking car even though I know they are know to fail badly... I am always surprised to see one around sometime...
We called the Magna an Australian car rather than a Japanese car at the time. The Sigma was rear wheel drive so apart from the shape there was not much similarity.
It was hard not to cringe when he pointed out the red wiper blades and then proceeded to mention what an odd bunch we are down here when in reality 99.99% of the population has never so much as seen let alone installed red wiper blades on their vehicles. 😆
Based on the older 1970 Mitsubishi Galant from Asia. This was the second variation of the original Galant. The Asian Mitsubishi Colt was labelled as the Galant in Australia. I owned a Mitsubishi Galant (Magna) 1300cc in Asia. I bought my parents the station wagon version of the model reviewed here. New out of the showroom 2.6 litre 4 cylinder 4. It replaced a VW Passat wagon. My parents did a lot of high speed motoring up the east coast of Australia. This was not an economical car - especially in the automatic version. Wasn't particularly comfortable on long trips either. The wagon came in useful though hauling stuff up and down from Queensland to Victoria. Ultimately it was too expensive to run and had a propensity to overheat in very hot weather. Replaced this car with a Fiat 132 2000. which was much more comfortable, more economical, safer to drive at high speeds but ultimately totally unreliable and leaving a rust trail along the road as you drive along.
At one place I worked we had a station wagon (estate) version of these, which I was allowed to take home each day for about a month. Thoroughly loved the car and was gutted the day I had to give it back. Ours didn’t have the digital dash or single spoke steering wheel but was pretty much the same otherwise. As to the owner’s reference to smoky 1980’s Mitzis, I once owned a 1986 Mitsubishi Tredia which had travelled 84,000km when I got it. Even from day one it used about a pint of oil a month. Three years in I was driving through Auckland late one night and the oil light came on, and it dawned on me that it had been some months since I’d checked the oil. Stopped at the first service station to buy a pack of oil and it took the lot - the dipstick was shiny and clean. It wasn’t long after when I traded the Mitzi in for a Toyota Corolla. Apart from any damage done to the motor I obviously couldn’t trust myself to keep checking the oil.
Once you experience a 4 Cylinder with balance shaft for a period of time, it's hard to go back to a regular 4cyl engine because you miss the smoothness and effortless revving nature. I missed it so much, I bought my 89 Galant back! It does make timing belt changes fussier though.
I had a 1990 TP model, the final update of this shape. It was red, auto with power steering. I got about two years out of her before the gearbox went, as well as a head gasket. I had a mechanic who was bloody useless and often returned the car with the same problems as before......and usually a new problem as well! While it was performing as it should, it was a quiet, comfortable and smooth car, though not especially powerful, but just not reliable. In its defence, it was far from a new car once it reached my hands. I later bought an old 1985 Mitsubishi Colt 1,6 auto........it was a shit box as well. Both cars went to the crusher once I was done with them.
my Galant here in Thailand looks almost exactly like this car, but with only a carbureted 1.6 litre engine! also missing the fancy stereo and automatic.
Worked in a Mitsubishi dealership in Sydney in the late 80s as a driver. These were comfortable to drive, went ok but lacked handling and heavy on fuel. Not able to compete with the 6 and 8 cylinder Fords and Holdens even though they sold alot of them.
To be fair to the Magna, it competed well in performance against the XF Falcon, which had no V8 option at the time, and the lacklustre VK Commodore 3.3, a very tired motor. Fuel economy was quite poor though it did improve in fuel-injected models like this one. Later, the VL Commodore greatly out performed the Magna.
An other lovely car from down under. 4 cylinders should give more torque than 6 for the same displacement. I think HubNut just sneaked his GSA in to Australia and he pulled a fast one on us with this Magna interior :) This thing also reminds me of the Mark 1 Galant (1600cc manual) I had driving lessons in, I enjoyed that car as a novice.
When I visited Aus (pre-moving there) the then girlfriend had one just like that, but "executive" aka Poverty spec. Was really comfy for long journeys for sure. Later on, my daughter's first car was also a Magna Executive, but a wagon (estate) in a lovely shade of metallic brown. Apart from ruinously expensive spare parts (needed for initial roadworthy) it was bullet-proof and very useful for the tip run!
