First look: Is this the '05 Magna?

AUSTRALIANS received a sneak preview of the 2005 Magna at the New York auto show in the form of the all-new mid-size 2004 Galant, which now rivals the current Magna for size and performance.

While the car shown is not exactly what we will get as the 2005 Magna, it is based on the same platform and will pick up the "hard points" of the Galant even if the outside skin is different.

It features a new 3.8-litre V6 engine producing 172kW and is one of the largest sedans in the medium segment.

The Galant for North America will be made in Illinois. Sales goals are 100,000 a year.

Between now and 2005 Mitsubishi Motors in Adelaide will prepare the Galant sedan for production as the next Magna and design and engineer the long wheelbase version of the Galant, which will replace the Diamante in the US in 2006.

The Magna and Diamante will continue in their latest guise until then.

An international policy at MMC ordering that the car be called a Galant instead of a Magna from 2005, which could harm sales in Australia, has yet to be resolved.

Meanwhile, Mitsubishi Australia is putting plenty of positive spin on the reveal of the new-look Magna at the New York auto show months before the local launch in June.

The car was shown in export form as the Diamante, but the local TL Magna will be very similar, including the dramatic new front-end with twin nostril grille and large triangulated headlights.

"We view this (New York debut) as a positive rather than a negative because the car is a world car as far as our parent is concerned," said Mitsubishi Australia executive vice-president sales and marketing, Bill Pike.

"We are getting used to the fact that this car is basically on the world stage and that helps to drive us in terms of quality, specification and fit and fin- ish as we move through to the all-new car in 2005." Mr Pike was confident the early reveal would not damage run-out sales of the current TJ/KJ Magna/Verada range.

"If you look at the Australian market, how many cars were previewed overseas prior to their sale here, versus cars that were previewed here and sold here? In the last year only two cars were previewed here before being sold here - the Falcon and the Commodore.

"It's a phenomena that if we let it get into our psyche as being an issue, it will be an issue.

"We have a very good value proposition on our car as we run it out and we expect that we will be able to run it out quite successfully." MMAL may have been going through this process even earlier, as the Americans were keen to display the car at Detroit back in January and the Chicago show in February.

Mitsu V8 Supercar opposed

FORD and Holden would strongly oppose Mitsubishi or Toyota being given the green light to contest the V8 Supercars series.

Ford Australia president Geoff Polites and Holden executive director sales and marketing Ross McKenzie were commenting separately on the recent visit to the Phillip Island round of the V8 Supercar series of Mitsubishi's new international motorsport boss, Sven Quandt, to assess possible entry into the popular V8 circus.

"Our view is that it is a nice little game and why would you let anyone else play," Mr Polites said.

"At the end of the day, the punter pays to see people race V8 rear-wheel drive cars that they can buy and that they can relate to.

"They (Mitsubishi) do not have one of those.

"The punters also pay to see really exciting, close racing with a high degree of competitiveness, so I think the circus delivers what the punters are looking for. It is all about emotion and the emotions in this country, rightly or wrongly, are about Ford versus Holden, Falcon versus Commodore. That's where the emotion is." Speaking at the WK Statesman/Caprice launch last week, Mr McKenzie said a decision by V8 Supercar's governing body AVESCO to let a third manufacturer in would prompt a review of Holden's commitment to the category.

"We (Holden and Ford) are what you might call a silent partner in this business. Yes, we are not an upfront participant and yes we are not an upfront equity holder, but you would be silly to ignore the fact that between Ford and ourselves we actually contribute the lion's share of the money that goes into running the sport," Mr McKenzie said.

"I am not making any threats to anybody, but there is no question in my mind that we contribute money to the extent that we do on the basis that the sport is structured the way that it is, and we don't want that to change.

"We have built this sport to where it is today.

We have created the value in this sport by contributing millions and millions of dollars and I am stuffed if I am going to have some freeloader come along and benefit from all the work that we have done and give them a free ride."