GN Sigma

Lightning did strike twice for Mitsubishi, as the 1979-1983 Japanese Sigma’s replacement arrived here, suitably beefed up and widened, in mid-’85 as the historic front-wheel drive TM Magna.

And sales and critics alike went berserk for it.

Meanwhile the very homely Sigma soldiered on with a near-invisible grille and trim facelift on the GN sedan, but the wagon gained a high-roof for extra cargo capacity. This was deemed necessary as the Australian conceived Magna wagon was still two years away.

Better still, the GN Sigma gained the much-improved 2.6 Astron from the Magna, resulting in much smoother operation and better performance due to its 83kW/201Nm output.

The 1.6 finally disappeared, as did all models bar the GL in a much reduced range now that the Magna was the boss, but the 70kW/152Nm 2.0 Astron remained.

So the Galant never actually went away through the Sigma (fourth-generation Galant) and Magna (fifth-generation Galant) years, despite not actually appearing on a car from May 1980.

But that was all about to change now that the Magna had become a Ford Falcon competitor.