HJ Galant

The seventh-generation Galant arrived in five-door hatchback guise looking a lot like the Mazda 626/Ford Telstar of the day.

Only one body style was offered, but with two distinct engines.

A more powerful version of the 2.0-litre single-cam 16-valve four-cylinder engine powered the base SE, delivering 90kW of power and 170Nm of torque, transmitted to the front wheels via a four-speed automatic or five-speed manual gearbox.

Sadly the HH’s VR4 turbo 4WS 4WD rocket went AWOL, and Australians had to do with the 110kW/179Nm 2.0-litre quad-cam 24-valve V6 Galant V6-24, also in four-speed auto or five-speed manual mode.

Mitsubishi also fashioned a smooth and strong body hiding a sophisticated four-wheel independent suspension system, for improved ride and dynamic qualities.

But high pricing, invisible marketing and the emergence of 4WD wagons began to erode the mid-sized passenger car market, and Mitsubishi built a better mousetrap anyway when the 1996 TE Magna came along – thus ending the Galant’s interrupted 25-year run.

Of course history repeats, and now, in the middle of the first decade of the third millennium, the 2005 380 is actually 30 per cent US Galant-based, so even if the name isn’t the same then the actual Galant's future is still very much entwined with MMAL’s once more...