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View Full Version : Test drove the 380 VRX



heydude
15-10-2005, 06:19 PM
Where to start.

My wife and I arrive at the dealership, we get shown the base model 380, oh yeah baby, then the 380 VRX in Blue :shock: hot stuff mama, I wanna drive that one,,,hehehe.
So we leave the dealership in a gold VRX tiptronic optioned with leather.

My first impression is this thing is built like a tank, so solid in every area.
There is a nice note from the VRX exhuast.
The motor revs freely upto 6grand, the gearbox holds gears.
The motor can be heard up high in the rev range with a real super note.
At idle the car almost has a lumpy cam feel to it, which I thought very cool, although ever so subtle.

Make no mistake about the handling of this car, it will outperform many cars, it does not feel large to drive, infact feels super light.
It is a handling masterpiece, and you really feel you can push it to the limits without loosing it, very sure footed.

Power, oh the power, at first I thought does'nt feel like too much power until you look at the speedo, holy crap, blasting onto the freeway I was doing 130ks without a thought, very nice.
Remember this is the auto!!!
I have a feeling the wheels mag is bending the truth a little in its quarter mile times, it certainly feels much quicker then what they are saying.
One quote from the mag said "after a gentle ease away launch, the 380s manual through gears performance holds its own against the opposition, with 0-100km/h taking 7.3 seconds."
Well how about an aggresive launch from an experienced front wheel driver, then you would be easily under 7seconds to 100.

The brakes, absolutely phenomenal, these have to be experienced, it is just unreal, and the salesman egged me on to try them, so after two stomps on the peddles from 100ks I can assure you they work wonders, and no peddle shudder from ABS.

The seating is very comfy, think of the best leather suite you have sat in at Harvey Norman and you would be getting the idea.

When you start the car it has the most wicked display above the vents, of course it is a blue lcd, and it draws the silouette of the 380 upon startup, you can change this as well.
It tells you everything, from outside temp, to which door is open, and the list just goes on and on.

The steering wheel feels very sporty, as well as the dash, everything lights up in blue leds, ultra cool, especially on the silver background.

On our drive everyone had a good look at the car, it really pulls the looks, one guy in a Ford AU followed us and stopped back at the dealership and he wanted to have a good look over it, was really funny cause his eyes where bulging out of his head.

My first impression of the car is that it will sell well, it looks unreal, goes unreal, handles unreal, and the interior is spot on technical sexy bootylicious!!!

I want one.

Oh and when you get back in your magna, you realise your magna is a big POS. lol

VR4BOY
15-10-2005, 06:29 PM
Hope this sorts out all the moaners on here! :D

helloyo
15-10-2005, 06:44 PM
it sure has! on paper the car doesn't look spectacular, but all the people test driving it are loving it and i haven't even seen it in person yet. anyone know the weight and/or fuel economy? this may be much better then i first thought...

bondy
16-10-2005, 07:56 AM
anyone know the weight and/or fuel economy?

Weight im not sure. But fuel economy on the 380LX weve had for 6days is at 9.8lt/100k's.

helloyo
16-10-2005, 08:18 AM
Weight im not sure. But fuel economy on the 380LX weve had for 6days is at 9.8lt/100k's.

wow! thats awesome, where have you been driving it?

Arcane
16-10-2005, 08:53 AM
*sigh*

Went into a certain mitsi dealer yesterday with Angel and Mitsa_Jerk... Ill keep this SHORT... no one came over to serve us :(

I even danced a short dance.. just just peered at us from afar... HOW RUDE.


There was a very real chance of us both purchasing one given we liked them....

NOT ANY MORE. RUDE. RUDE. RUDE. RUDE. RUDE.

WORST TEST DRIVE OUTING EVER.



(p.s. this wasnt the normal mitsi dealer i go to... the one in elizabeth is quite the opposite and has very good service from experience.)

TL-R
16-10-2005, 08:54 AM
I think someones been brainwashed.

:cool:

[J3RK]
16-10-2005, 09:01 AM
u forgot to mention that ur fly was down and u looked like a sausage salesman and the small fact that wen we got back to my car the window was smashed and **** was stolen! FFS

Arcane
16-10-2005, 09:02 AM
Well.. i did say id only keep it short..

But .. yeah.

i was selling hotdogs heh

.. still a pity no one was selling 380's



and yeah :(

_stonesour_
16-10-2005, 03:11 PM
there was one in my driveway today black GT :P ... brother took it home for me to drive but i wasnt home :(

Asylum
16-10-2005, 03:46 PM
being a mitsubishi enthusiast working in a Holden factory, of course a lot of people have askeed my opinion on the 380.... i'm thinking about taking a VRX for a drive (pity no manual for the GT) but i might wait for a year or 2, see how they go (and if they increase the power at all).

Arcane and Mitsa-Jerk, what dealer did u go to? i havent had to deal with the sales guys at elizabeth, but haven't had much luck with their service department! bloody rip-offs!

i'll be taking my business somewhere down south...

bondy
16-10-2005, 05:07 PM
wow! thats awesome, where have you been driving it?

80% on normal roads. The rest was trip to echuca and back from around lilydale area.

Phonic
17-10-2005, 08:48 AM
For any of the guys that have driven a 380, have they downsized the steering wheel from the bus-spec in the Magnas? lol

bondy
17-10-2005, 09:12 AM
For any of the guys that have driven a 380, have they downsized the steering wheel from the bus-spec in the Magnas? lol

I think so. It definately felt smaller :)

Arcane
17-10-2005, 09:28 AM
Asylum this was at nailsworth mitsi... evil new-sales-ppl!

The guys at nailsworth working ing the used-car area are pretty cool tho..

elizabeth mitsi has been pretty good so far, cant fault them :)

bendertiger
17-10-2005, 10:52 AM
Damn, I might have to reconsider it, it's starting to sound like a great car, the reason why I 'poo-poo'ed' it was the fact you can't take a test drive at a car launch in a closed building, and if I want to go for one (a test drive), the ****ing salesperson won't let me without being a mega dickhead. But yeah, guess we might have to get bums on seats, better yet, mitsubishi should go rent some BA falcons and VZ commodores, invite people (don't know how you'd do the data mining for this) out to a test day, and get them to see how much better the 380 is. :)

h45e
17-10-2005, 03:03 PM
All I can say about the 380 VRX is... WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW.....
I know what my next car is going to be now.

TecoDaN
18-10-2005, 09:53 AM
Finally saw the car in real life today. I have mixed feelings about it.

The exterior appearance of the GT and VRX are really nice, I really like the blacked out headlights, just like our parabolics. The wheel arch is questionable, it has the funny 'flat' flange and theres still a mighty 4wd gap. I checked the tyre plycard, load rating is down to 93.

The GT's leather seats are tops, not the old mans style Bain was on about, however the leather trim in the LS is the old man's style apparently. The A piller and dash is rather odd, it feels theres too much space between the windscreen and the end of the A piller towards the occupants, actually felt like I was in a minivan.

The dash is layed out nicely, but the door trims and some buttons felt really on the cheap side. Paying $50k for a GT, I really shouldn't feel cheap, but I guess its still significantly cheaper then getting a 5 series Beemer.

The rear door trims are really boring, plasticky feel and look. Also noticed there are no map lights for the rear occupants.

The boot seems small as well, and the ski hole is even smaller then the ones on the Commodores (i havn't seen the size on the Magna ski hole so i cant make a comparison).

The engine bay I think, is really awful. The battery is situated so far back, it will be painstakingly annoying to take out and pop one in. Theres quite a bit of space behind the engine because the engine bay is pushed further inwards with the bottom of the windscreen bit creating a bit of a overhang. The ABS hydraulics module is located under this overhang, which means hell when something goes wrong there.

Anyway opposed to some people here, I felt 'home' back in my Magna :D Just seems so much more cosy without feeling like i'm in a minivan, and my sense of illusions say that the Magna is bigger (really its not).

vrxmaniak
19-10-2005, 12:28 PM
Hi all, my mate who works for a leasing company brought a 380 VRX around to show me last night. I really like the interior of the car and the drive is absolutly beautiful but I wasn't to sure about the style though, looked a bit plain to me. They are very roomy but one thing I found is the head room was a little tight, you wouldn't want to be a 6 1/2 foot person in a 380. Anyway thats my thoughts, I'm happy with my car.

Ristof
19-10-2005, 12:48 PM
I took the LX for a test drive last weekend, I must admit very nice.
The LX drove a lot like my Ralliart and I don't really like the Leather seats IMO they just get to hot and sticky with the sunroof back and the sun beating on them. I didn't think the cabin space was that good until I got back into mine and yeah, felt like a lot more room in the 380. The butt on then is high and when you are in the car you can't see where the back of the car ends. The range needs to have a spoiler option. Even just one high enough so they you can see the back of the car.

I would probably buy one but because to me (knowing nothing about cars, wheres the accelerator and the steering wheel, I'm happy. Oh Sh/t where's the brake) it felt like my ride and I prefer the look of mine.

So over all personal opinion this range will sell well. Now they just need to build an AWD ralliart model with over 200kw.