Mitsubishi will build its last car in Adelaide on Thursday ahead of the closure of its local assembly operations on Friday.

Ahead of Friday’s closure, Mitsubishi’s local assembly operations has built it’s last car in Adelaide’s Tonsley Park facility bringing an end to the company’s 28 year manufacturing history in Australia.

Since 1980, when Mitsubishi first started building vehicles, it has produced over 1 million with output peaking in 1997 with 58,391 Magna sedans and wagons built for both local and export markets.

With over 1,000 workers made redundant due to the plant’s closure, unions and the company have negotiated an extremely satisfying redundancy package, described as the in the automotive industry.

A number of staff will stay on to decommission the Tonsley Park plant, supervising the removal of machinery including several robots used on the car assembly line.

Where the last car will go, Mitsubishi have not yet revealed . Operators of the National Motor Museum have welcomed any offers to put the car on display at their Birdwood location in the Adelaide Hills.

Mitsubishi will continue to trade in Australia as an import-only company and expects to maintain or improve on its current sales levels into the future.

After his announcement in early February to end local manufacturing , president and chief executive officer Rob McEniry said he did not expect any major consumer backlash following the decision to end local manufacturing.

His confidence appeared to be justified with the recent release of last month’s auto industry sales figures which put demand for the company’s products up by seven per cent overall.