I laughed my ass off when I saw the Mitsubishi 380 won the oh-so-prestigious "Best Large Sedan" award in the ABC awards this year.

The judging process: "Hmmm, gee this Sonata is pretty good, but on the other hand.... Mitsubishi is almost bankrupt... WE HAVE A WINNER!!!"

Basing awards on buyer ignorance is getting damn tiring. The fact that the Commodore even ranked in the awards is proof enough of its pointlessness. Don't get me wrong, I'm a Holden man through and through (even though I"m now the proud owner of a Valiant), but even Holden knows the Commodore's starting to stretch its friendship with the Australian buyers.

Hell, Wheels may still be biased but for the ABC awards to even be named in the same breath as the COY awards is a crock of shit. Its just a pity that the average car buyer (or even Ford it seems) doesn't know the difference.

Every new car should be competitive and I have no doubt the 380 is. But because the company will go under if it fails shouldn't affect peoples perceptions of how good it really is. Hell, the Australian car industry was given a free ride for 30 years before the import taxes were lowered, why should we bring back those days?