I BOUGHT A Mitsubishi Diamante From The GOVERNMENT A Car You've NEVER SEEN 

It's great to see you review the Diamante. In Australia that car was that trim was called the Verada and you are looking at a KF series Verada (June 1997- December 1998 builds) in the highest Xi trim level, which in Australia was around $50k new in 1998. They were the only ones exported by Mitsubishi Australia (MMAL) and if your VIN has a 6 as the first digit, it is an Australian car. That chassis was made between 1996 and 2005 (TE-TL series Magnas, each representing a facelift/change). The base spec car was called the Magna and it came in many trims from a base Executive/ES trim to the highest Sports and VR-X trims. Initially a 2.4 Sirius Engine was available between 1996 and 1998 (unpopular due to its lack of performance and the V6 costing only $1000 more), 3.0 ('96-'02) and 3.5 ('99-'05) Cyclone V6 engines. In 1998 the Magna Sports pioneered the Semi-automatic transmissions for a saloon car in Australia and the Verada was the first Australian car with traction control in that year as well. The AWD version from 2003 and the Ralliart Magna from 2002-2003 with an uprated 3.5 V6, a body kit, improved suspension and brakes and a six speed manual (very rare now) and those represent the pinnacle of the Magna before it died in 2005 replaced by an Australian version of the 2004 Galant known as the 380, which died in 2008 when MMAL's manufacturing ceased. All of them of that vintage have issues with the headliner, they used a cheap material that the workers at MMAL knew was going to be an issue but nothing was ever done about it, ditto for some of the paints. I go to university near the old factory in Tonsley Park, South Australia and I lived near the old engine plant in Lonsdale around 15km south of the factory. My mum crashed a 1989 TN Magna around the time she fell pregnant with me and bought a new 1994 MY95 BMW 318i E36, which started my love for those cars. If that hadn't happen maybe I would be collecting Magnas and other Mitsubishis instead of an assortment of Euros.

This was an impounded car that was never claimed. Happens all the time where I live. The local government holds auctions once a year with impounded unclaimed times. Everything from cars to bicycles.

As an IT Manager, I appreciate JRs knowledge of networking hardware and technology. Loved the last bit of walking through the surplus auction! Good stuff!

"The Government would never lie....ask a Native American!" I seen this statement on a bumper sticker recently.

That’s got to be a keeper as apart from the broken window and the trashed interior it looks quite straight and rot free..

If you restored this thing, that would be amazing! I always thought these were so cool

These were really great cars in the day. The 3.5 was very strong and drove well. There are many Diamante's that gave up their hearts (6G74) to be used as upgrade swaps in Galants, Eclipses, and Stratus/Sebring coupes.

Dude it'd be so fun to rebuild this thing to make it perfect. Pull apart those door panels and reglue the leather. New junker seats. Pull out the headliner, re-do the console with a junker console. I dig it. It'd be really fun.

Funny not funny, that looks like my brothers old car and I think he left it somewhere in OK when it died during a road trip. He literally left it on the side of the road and walked to a dealership and bought another car to get home. Craziest story I’ve ever heard!!

G'day mate, you are bringing back memories. Twenty-plus years ago, I bought three Veradas for the family over the years. Mitsubishi Australia stopped exporting them to the US, but they kept making them here and they became a later series called the "380". I also had a 380 as a company car. They were the most reliable cars that I have ever owned or used.

Here in New Zealand, I have two of these Australian-built Diamantes. One is a top-spec 3.5 SEi sedan and the other is a 3.5 Ei wagon. Each have less than 90,000km on the clock, both are superb cars and in amazing condition. Highly underrated cars and proud to have these survivors in my collection!

Did you really get this video out from today?? Dang you move fast man!! Good seeing you man!

18:34 those air meters are for measuring how much the air content is in concrete. Outdoor concrete (pavement, curbs, sidewalks, etc) needs to have a certain amount of tiny air "bubbles" in it to make it resistant to freeze and thaw cycles. With no air, it tends to crack or spall. The air makes it durable. Some state employee was probably tasked with measuring the air content every time they poured curbs, sidewalks, concrete pavement etc.

Man I always wanted a first gen Diamante! They are arguably better looking than the second gen. Like a Galant VR4 but bigger. The first gen also came in wagon form!

I enjoyed seeing this video. As someone who worked for local government for 25 years I can tell you how they probably ended up with the Diamante as part of their fleet. My guess is that this vehicle was seized by the police years ago. Probably as part of a drug arrest. Local law enforcement is always looking for vehicles that can be used by their under cover officers. This would have been an ideal vehicle for them to use. In addition it would explain why the oil looked so clean. The car would have been regularly serviced by the jurisdiction that owned it. It's possible that it suffered from some vandalism and due to age they finally decided to get rid of it. Looks like a good project. I'm not sure that you'll get your money back on this, but it'll be enjoyable to see what you do with it.

As an Aussie, great to see this car here - still see plenty of them on the roads. As a former network admin, and current employee of your former employer.. those Cisco 3500s have GBIC ports, not QSFP :)

It likely wasn’t a city car, probably a vehicle the police seized

A very nice car when it was available. However since Mitsubishi was always very much a niche player in the United States, they didn't sell very many of these. And of course getting it fixed could be an ordeal

Awesome JR! A little different vid and very interesting one at that. I really enjoyed the Diamonte tour and the behind the scenes look at the gov auction. Only on your channel can we get a broader look into different things electric or mechanical that not just car/truck related. Cannot wait for the deeper dive into that old Mitsubishi!

Hey, JR! I enjoy you channel. You put out content on a regular basis that is really fun to watch. I have lived in Japan for the last 50 years so the Diamante is very familiar. It is definitely not related to a Galant. Have you ever bought such a cheap car that worked so well? I had a late 90s Mitsubishi Legnum Viento. It was black and a really cool design with its tinted windows. Not powerful, but more than enough to get you around where I live. Good torque. It's too bad that Mitsubishi lost its way and stopped producing its larger vehicles. I loved the Legnum. I see a late 90s Legnum going for around $10,000 in the States right now. A little work should get you a good flip for a $400 Diamante. I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with this one. Go for it!

Omg, I’ve got one of the Dell sub systems - 5.1 surround sound, thx certified and still sounds amazing today! Can’t remember when I got it, it was a special offer with a new dell pc, possibly early 2000s. PC long gone, but sub system still rocking!

How cool! These were really impressive cars back in the day, especially the first generation. Love they way they look

Definitely didn’t expect to see Randy pop up in this video lol. Crazy to see two of the content creators I watch in one video. Keep up the work buddy. Great content! 💪🏼💪🏼

In Australia this would be called a Verada. It was the top spec model. Your vehicle may even have been built here in Adelaide, Australia, since they had an export program.

You should grab one of those soda machines for the shop

They actually built a wagon version available here in the states.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Stay safe and keep those cars running. Loved the car crusher videos. That is something different.

The smoke rolling off that engine was from the huge family of mice you roasted by firing up the engine. Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays!

Finally made it 32 secs after you posted, great time. Love the channel man!!

Probably abandoned/possible police seizure and towed by the city/police. (Happens where I live, they just end up getting auctioned off if they end up in a city lot or police lot).

nice content, love the car, it's nice to see you with AAR Randy after a long time, Merry X mas and happy holidays man

Been a while since I've seen a Diamante on the road, and that's probably for the better.

Man I love your videos. I wish you add more details regarding diagnosis/repair in general May I ask how these government auctions work? Like are they online (at least pictures & mileage)? Do you need a dealer license or something to participate? Is their a universal website or do you have to check your local state/town? Thank you in advance

That was a car from a drug or some kinda bust and they ripped it apart, found whatever they wanted and just left it to die.. now it's yours!

John Ross your channel has been about flipping cars but you have recently gone on a slightly different path in a good way, I like how you have chosen forgotten cars in America just like the made in Australia Mercury Capri.

Congratulations JR, Your numbers have rounded up again. 👏 👏 👏

Missed opportunity - you need at least one vending machine bro

The Verarda was made at the Tonsley plant, the engine 3.5 v6 was made at the Lonsdale plant here in Adelaide. I worked for a company that made the 2nd gen parts. I don't think any 380 the replacement to the Magna, 4th gen, made it out of Australia. Just think, Volkswagen, Nissan, Ford Toyota, GM, Leyland, Chrysler and Mitsubishi all had plants in Australia, only a Brabham bt62 is made here in Port Adelaide now😒

Hey JR, g’day from Adelaide where these Veradas/Magmas were made. Can’t believe you found one. Has to be worth saving for its rarity there although I don’t know how you would go finding all the parts you need. Here, they are in every wreckers yard and you could find everything you needed for next to nothing.. Still see them on the roads here but they will die out eventually. There is no love for them like Ford and Holden. Being front wheel drive was a big part of that. They made great used cars though because they were mainly bought by older people and not abused or driven hard. Love the Channel!

I could literally watch a whole video of JR going through an auction talking about useless facts. Best part of the video tbh

They are still around in plenty of numbers here in Australia known as the Magna / Verada, We had them from 1985 - 2005 and built in South Australia. Our TF Magna Sports so around 1998 had the 4 speed trip tropic auto, Which became standard around 2001. Then our KJ Verada series 2 in late 2001 early 2002 came standard with a 5 speed Triptronic auto, We also had the option of a 5 speed manual and in 2002 we had a limited release of 500 TJ Magna RALLI//ARTS. Which had the full body kit and even more poke out of the 6g74 with the base being 150kw sport / VRX being 163kw and RALLI//ART being 180kw. We even got the station wagon version and the equally as rare to the RALLI//ART a TJ Magna “Sports Wagon” which had a factory fitted body kit on a Wagon with the 5 speed trip tropic Auto. Plus we had the All Wheel Drive Model and there’s still hundreds of not thousands of the buggers on the road here in Australia, I actually just got rid of my 2000 KJ Verada V6Xi (have a couple of videos of it in the early years of my Channel). In past years it was also a thing to drop the 6G75 out of the 380 (The Galant in the US) which replaced the Magna / Verada in 2005, Then throw on a decent exhaust and tune and manual conversion and they’d absolutely fly. Love my current Mitsubishi 380 VRX 5 speed manual with the 6G75 but miss my old KJ Verada V6Xi.

its also known as a Mitsubishi Magna, now the Galant looks more like it! also, they had a sport version of the Magna it was called VRX from 2003-2005 i think.

I never really considered how uncommon they would be over there, they're literally everywhere here in New Zealand. Interesting to see :)

The Veradas were a classy car back in the day, the Wagons were especially well done. The Falcons & Commodores were better suited to heavy-duty use, but the Magna/Verada was a much more refined car at the time.

Almost certainly a seized vehicle!

The government would never lie 😂

I did that old Panasonic Editor, my father has been in the local news world for 40 years. Back in the day, the Betacam system from Sony was setup the same way

Kind of cool actually! We never got Mitsubishis in Canada until the early 2000s I think 2004 or something.

I owned one here in Australia, one of the best cars i've had

JR should go get all those vending machines. Bet he'd make more per day than he does with Turo....

I learn so much from your videos, yet what I learned per minute will not be beat by those last five minutes.

Even here in Brazil these cars haven´t been seen on the streets in a long,long time.... Glad to see one in your channel....Hope you can be able to restore it to a running condition!

Always Awesome Seeing Randy From Auto Auction Rebuilds! On you Channel JR. !👍👍

The Diamante was a pretty popular car when I was younger. Lots of Mitsubishis on the road in the 80s and 90s. I have two Dodge Ram 50s which are Mitsubishi trucks. Also have a Plymouth Colt Vista and have an Eagle Summit ESI. All these are Mitsubishi rebadges. Yes I do like Chrysler cars and own a lot of them. The Eagle I have been pulled over in because the cop thought is was a fake car because he never heard of them.

My boy Randy showing up for the cameo..... #Legend

I actually heard of your channel though Randy 2 years ago! crazy how far you both came

Randy 300 bucks is way too much for it 🤣

Perfect car for a eBay turbo kit experiment 🤣✌️

I bought a 2003 Diamante from a friend in 2021. She runs like a dream. Only the headliner needs replacing and a new switch for the sunroof. The seats and body in excellent condition. 133k miles as of yesterday.

Hi Randy, great to see a collaboration. The Diamanté is similar to my son’s Verada (same model built in Australia). Great car if you can find it in working order.

We own a 2002 Mitsubishi Daimante Series 2 Sport VRX, Slowly attempting to restore some of its former glory as time and money allows, although don't think any of the NZ models came with leather interiours (our is fabric). We also have the factory Service Center Manual if you want it.

Adaptive Cruise was actually the 1st Gen Diamante in like 1991 - in Japan only of course :) The 1st gen was also the platform the 3000GT was based on.

What a cool car!! In Europe we had the Mitsubishi Sigma which I believe was the predecessor of the Diamante. To bad they never were a succes. They were so luxurios and packed with state of the art technology. So nice that Randy from AAR showed up in your video. He is such a nice man. Watch his videos everyday especially the IAA and Copart walkarounds. Some time you should do a project together with Randy. Greetings from Holland!

These are a beautiful looking car, and well built too. Well done for choosing this rare and interesting beast. Here in Australia (where most of them were built) there’s a strong following for the Magna/Verada’s. I’ve owned 5 of them, but currently own 2, one of which is an Australia & New Zealand only Magna Ralliart model (255hp) that I’ve recently completely restored

Back about 15 yrs ago when I was a manager for an auto parts store in the hood those cars were popular with the wanna be hustler, dealer types who weren't very good at it so they couldn't afford the other japanese or european luxury brands so they bought them. They would roll up in them, bass booming, side windows buzzing like a jar full of pissed of hornets from the volume, trailing a cloud of smoke, either from the exhaust, from bad valve guides and seals or oil burning off the exhaust manifolds from leaky valve covers all notorious mitsu v6 problems. They usually either bought a couple of quarts of oil or half a dozen black ice little tree air fresheners to try and hide the overpowering weed smell. The funniest thing was one day a woman came in with her small son, driving one of them and she named her son after it, I guess it could be worse, she might have fallen in love with a Daewoo and named him after it.

Fun. Nice change. Time to get back to the crusher!

Great one, great too see AAR on this channel too😀👏 Reminds me off the galant👌

I have a jump pack like the one shown at 20:34. Those power sockets have saved me during power outages a couple of times!

Ralliart Magna engine swap time! 🙂 If it's like the Magna/Verada sold in Australia it'll be blowing blue smoke after 200,000km. Valve stem seals are a well known issue.

That is most likely a drug dealers car. I noticed fingerprint dust on drivers door.

I had one as my first car in Australia. It is called the Verada XI in my country. It didn't have the memory seating but it had a lot of woodgrain in the interior on the dash, centre console and window switch area and Chrome interior door handles. Stil my favourite car to date that I have owned.

If you had "Lazy "asset manager didn't like to do paperwork. And the Base you were on had a recycling (took scrap metal) anything that had once of metal they put it one list BULK disposal, I hauled it over there, once there it's recorded as no longer GOV. but scrap. it can be claimed for reuse at your command, the air force throughout stuff, that too the NAVY was like mint. Miss the gov hand me down piles, before they went off to auction.

We used to build those in Elizabeth South Australia. We called them Magnas they came in FWD or AWD, the luxury versions where called Veradas.

Not only have I seen one, I OWNED one! Had a '98, nice car but I couldn't afford to keep it on the road at the time. Wasn't impressed with it terribly.

I drove a Diamante to the Florida Keys. It's an amazing car, you will enjoy it.

These magna export models were built fully optioned and were slowed down on the production line so the workers could spend more time on them to get the quality top notch

At the time these were on the road, it never occurred to me that these were particularly rare.

Ah yes the magna Over here. I think they where even built here ( aussie )

I have 3 Mitsubishi Mighty Max trucks, 90 &91 4x4’s and a 94 2nd. The impressive thing about the 4x4’s is that they are 1 ton trucks, great for a landscaping business. I’ve had 2500 lbs of basalt in the bed and it handles fine. No frills but fantastically dependable.

I worked for a Mits dealer in the early 2000's when they were rocking and rolling.... We used to call these Dynamites the "Japanese Buick". Loved them. And just today I saw a 3g Eclipse GTS Spyder, so they're out there. Occasionally.

Always thought of Mitsubishi as 2nd rate compared to Toyota/Honda/Nissan, at least in their boring compact/midsize sedans. Their SUV's were nice, a bit 2nd rate to Toyota or the old hardbody based Nissan Pathfinder, but about equal with Isuzu and the Jeeps, leaps and bounds better than the 90's Explorer and Chevy S dime Blazer. The 90's Eclipse and 3000GT, holy crap were those something special IMO. Yeah you paid $$$$ to get the hot performing, high horsepower ones, but even the base models looked like a million bucks and gave you much of that same feel.

Suzuki Verona coming up next? Desperate for a WatchJRGo comparo of obscure failed attempts at pseudo-luxury cars from budget Japanese brands

Cracked me up seeing those 2900 series Catalyst switches. We still have a TON of them in use at my company.

Can I get the cams from that car? It’s an upgrade for my 3.0 Daytona.

You should've bought one of the Dodge Chargers .

You know about a surprisingly wide range of stuff. Impressive.

Loved seeing auto action rebuilds on this episode!

Sorry JR for not being one of the top 3. On vacation! But don't worry, at the first of the year, it's game on! Always going for that gold!

My brother had one it hit 2 telephone poles being used as a barrier still ran and drove fine then it was hydro locked 3 different times pulled plugs cleared out and ran and drove every time

Worked for a company that had tons of those electric motors sitting around. Always wanted to take home the 120HP unit they had. About three times the size of that 15HP motor you pointed out. Those thing’s have such an insane amount of torque and some many interesting uses.

Used to see ‘em all the time as I grew up in Normal(they didn’t make em here but lots of town support for the company). Definitely taken a ride or two in one. My father in law retired from the plant when they closed. Great intro BTW got my like before the song 😂

I am driving a 2003 LS. I had a 1995 liked it so much I bought the 03. Comes standard with all wheel anti-lock disc brakes, heated power mirrors, heated power leather seats with memory seat setting. Full climate control system, one touch sunroof. Stock 8 speaker Infinity stereo system with cd player. Keyless remote (FYI key is chipped to the ignition). Fog lights, built in garage door opener.

They sold these as Mitsubishi Magnas. The built them in Adleaide. Never got enough traction after the eighties and packed up and left in the 2000's.

I remember vividly my father back in the 90’s mentioning how much he liked the Diamanté when we got one on vacation as a rental. He was impressed with it and mentioned it which somehow solidified that impression into my young brain at the time. Haven’t heard of them since or seen them really. Thanks for the memory!

looks like a gambler 500 car if i ever saw one

Glad to see you are recovering a piece of auto history. there are so few around.

More over here of those in Australia - called Verada

Great score JR... that's a diamond in the ruff... so cool

I am from Australia and I have a car similar to this, same 6G74 3.5L V6 engine, but it is named the TJ Magna. Built in July 2000. 2000 TJ Magna Sports, it has the 5 speed auto with manual mode (P R N D and - +). Yep the V6 is pretty bulletproof if well maintained, but can suffer from oil leaks and use oil due to worn valve stem seals so regular oil top ups are important.

You should do a video of going to a you pull it yard to find parts for it. See if you cant fill a little wagon full of odds and ends it needs