I Need Help. People are telling me Mitsubishi's suck!

miggle89 · Post by **miggle89** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 5:07 pm

dstocks wrote:So who ended up going with you, your mate or your dad? Have you managed to convert them as well?

my dad is a convert!he likes the look and he likes the feel of the car. He explained to me he'll be on my side as long as i dont mess up the car and get caught speeding etc. but today didn't go too well.. the only obstacle to go over was a professional inspector. We had one come today.. and the results weren't too great.

He told us the cars radiator needs replacing. The transmission was stuffed up.. ( its auto and it stuck at 3rd gear apprently). theres leaks in the engine.. theres rust all over the place.. its done a crappy repainting job ( the dude had a gun thingo to check out the paint on each panel)and there were air bubbles coming out the top, central locking didn't work lol.. and i didn't understand what he meant.. but the N/A light kept on flashing while the car was on. Said something about the electronics being stuffy. Umm.. it didn't have tools at the boot? whatever that meant..

Inspector saw all of these and the potential cost would be in the thousands to get it fixed. He whispered and said, don't buy it. lol. Today was a very sobering experience. I liked the car a lot but it sounds like a burden. I wouldve bought it even if it had no central locking but the whole transmission issues.. radiator and rust and crappy paint job issue was a deal breaker. Disappointed.. but hopefully there will be an FTO with my name on it in the future *SIGH

Now i feel sorry for the owner.. im sure he didn't get that car inspected.

miggle89 · Post by **miggle89** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 5:17 pm

Sorry for this double post.. and this is going to sound blasphemous but ive been looking at celicas and sedan civics also. Even the odd camry. Can't be too fussed about a first car.. i wont give a sh*t if i scratch a celica or a civic.. but i'll spew if i scratch an FTO. The only thing bad is that i'll be getting a car i dont want and itll be at least 3-4 years before i save up money on an FTO (im a uni student and i dont have much money lol). ANWAYS.. end rant.

Post by **dstocks** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 7:01 pm

Be patient. There are good ones out there. The transmission goes into limp more if there is a problem (3rd gear only). If that happens on any car, dont go near it. How muck are you looking at spending if you dont mind me asking? Maybe if we get an idea of budget and what other options you are looking for we can point out a few likely candidates.

maxleng · Post by **maxleng** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 7:07 pm

i was sort of in the same position as you (uni student/P plater)

my first car was a 1.5L lancer, looked ok but it was so slow!

and i got sick of it after a couple of months, honestly with the air con on this thing would probably take over 10 seconds to reach bloody 60km/h (it felt like it anyway) and it was a manual too.

ended up selling it (obviously lost abit from that) and buying an fto after owning the lancer for around 3-4 months. Very happy with the decision i made, perfect car for your Ps. Also you say you'l be spewing about scratching it, everyone is like that with any new car. im sure even if you got a camry or civic you would still be pretty upset if it got scratched. Plus you will learn to respect your car and take care of it earlier with an fto.

i personally could not stand driving a car i did not like for whatever reason (looks, performance etc) for 3-4 years!

There not expensive to maintain at all, i haven't spent more on the fto than i would have on any other car so far hopefully (touch wood) it will stay that way.

i honestly don't think i could have lasted driving that lancer for more than 6months with out setting it on fire or writing it off and doing an insurance job on it

(if it was a 1.8, may have been a diff story, but stay away from the 1.5L's haha)

Chalice · Post by **Chalice** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 12:31 pm

I luv my little FTO.

Ignore the km concerns to a degree...I picked one up that had a genuine 55,000 odd km's on it, ssunroof, coilover suspension etc... for 12 k.
Some people...like me...just drive it short distances and use it as a recreational type vehicle and you've got admit..they look sexy with a little bit of work.

I test drove Supra's, Integra's, skylines etc...The FTO just felt right to me. Test drive one buddy, and if its done low km's, is in good condition and you like it..buy it.

Only bad thing I've found is parts are hard to come by...but for 99% of things you can grab em off Dstocks or other members here...just not sunroof rails grrrr

elusi0n · Post by **elusi0n** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 3:15 pm

I was in the same position as you 3 years ago. My parents, dad especially, didn't want me to buy an old car. They wanted a car that was more recent and new in terms of model & year. But i told them that there's no point buying a car that i don't like cause i wont take care of it so they agreed and helped me look for an FTO.

I got one for $12k at 80,000km and i still have it, now at 150,000km and still going good.

Just letting you know FTOs will never run at perfect condition. Even though they may seem to, eventually something is gonna go. I noticed over the past few years when im driving i always pick out weird sounds that come from the engine bay and try to fix them. Doing that, the repair bill just keep rising. So i bought an Exhaust and Sound System, everything is good now

.

Just make sure when you buy the FTO it's in good condition to start with and has been well looked after. FTO parts are hard to find because it's an import car compared to lets say Honda where you easily get parts anywhere and usually cheaper. I say if you really like this car then get it but if your budget is low then i recommend something cheaper to maintain.

fto13-marty · Post by **fto13-marty** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 1:37 pm

im gonna drop my two cents now. In the past 3 years i have had three cars. They were a 1984 Holden Gemini, 1991 Holden Calibra and now my 1996 Mitsubishi FTO. With the first car parts were really easy to get but the quality of the parts were not so good but it always needed something else done to it. The second was an import rebadged as a holden and let me just say $195 for a replacement gear knob now that is expensive, and for parts i always had to drive to the otherside of the world to get them haha. Now with the fto i have had a couple of problems but that is apart of the expeirence parts are not hard to come buy and the car is very good. Comparing it with all my cars it is by far the best car opf them all, not that the other cars were much to compare with.

Im not the biggest rev head in the world but a lot of my mates are and they all at first were like everyone else, "mitsu;s suck", "fto's are slow as s***" etc,etc., But once letting them drive it they all soon become converts and now everytime they see me they are always raving about this or that and what i should do to the car. One thing i suggest is looking around at the workshops near you and see if you can find a mechanic that knows a lot about mitsubishis, trust me it will save you a lot of trouble. But with a forum like this when you have a problem i garentee it would be solved within a day, everyone here would help anyone else out in what ever way they could.

miggle89 · Post by **miggle89** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 9:45 pm

dstocks wrote:Be patient. There are good ones out there. The transmission goes into limp more if there is a problem (3rd gear only). If that happens on any car, dont go near it. How muck are you looking at spending if you dont mind me asking? Maybe if we get an idea of budget and what other options you are looking for we can point out a few likely candidates.

My budget is between 6 to 10 grand max.. 10 might be pushing it a little bit.. i guess i just have to wait aye? i saw black auto fto on carsales for 9750... uncle mentioned, spend extra and get a dealer car cos he said dealer cars will have warrenty on them and usually are a little fixed up... what do you guys think of dealer cars lol?

what other cars do you guys think lol? i can afford a car.. i CANNOT afford expensive repairs. 3rd party insurance, petrol.. service after 10,000km.. i can do that.. just not stupid ass repairs if something happens to the car. i may have to rethink lol..

yannino · Post by **yannino** » Fri Oct 09, 2009 3:02 pm

miggle89 wrote:I appreciate the responses gentlemen. It trully helps a lot since today at work i copped a mouthful of 'FTOS ARE sh*t' and the same thing when i got home from a family member haha. I will keep all your opinions on the back of my head once i head out to find an FTO. Hopefully theres a decent auto one in the market..

i have another question..

what is a decent amount of kilometres for an FTO?
Two here in Sydney and Glemore Park and Lalor park are at a price of 9500.. and the say its done 128 - 130 000. What do you guys think? Family friends tell me its a bit much.. they don't believe the other ones which are under 100,000.. their opinion is it must have been tampere with since its a little bit older the most cars.

Once again i appreciate all the help!

i bought mine at 87000km. any car can have low km on the mile as long as they havent been driven often. the thing you need to look out for is random buys. try and find or look for something that someone knows about. even on the FTO website there are people who will help you find right buys

yannino · Post by **yannino** » Fri Oct 09, 2009 3:09 pm

and also just be patient

i know this may sound stupid but i was in love with FTO's too from the beginning and at 16 (im 19 now) i began looking. I even was calling people up to see what prices they gave, and even though i didnt have the money for it i just wanted to get experience in finding the perfect FTO for me. Its not hard to go and find one but i am very particular and make sure 110% before i ever do anything, thats probably the best advice i can give you.

if you trully love FTO's then be willing to wait for the right one to come along. It might come tommorow...it might come in 6 months.

The point im trying to make from it all though is if you can spend 10 gran (like i said when i wanted to first buy )....you can deifnately save abit more. the other thing is most FTO's can be bargained down...mine was 13500 at first and i picked it up for 11gran. I could have most likely gotten it for 10 if i waited another month but i was in dire need of a new car immediately at the time. a 10 gran FTO can most likely be dropped a few gran because there isnt high demand for them....trust me.

Just make sure you save up enugh money to get the right one...eve if it costs you abit more because that will save you in the long run .. trust me

maxleng · Post by **maxleng** » Fri Oct 09, 2009 4:09 pm

miggle89 wrote:
dstocks wrote:Be patient. There are good ones out there. The transmission goes into limp more if there is a problem (3rd gear only). If that happens on any car, dont go near it. How muck are you looking at spending if you dont mind me asking? Maybe if we get an idea of budget and what other options you are looking for we can point out a few likely candidates.
My budget is between 6 to 10 grand max.. 10 might be pushing it a little bit.. i guess i just have to wait aye? i saw black auto fto on carsales for 9750... uncle mentioned, spend extra and get a dealer car cos he said dealer cars will have warrenty on them and usually are a little fixed up... what do you guys think of dealer cars lol?

what other cars do you guys think lol? i can afford a car.. i CANNOT afford expensive repairs. 3rd party insurance, petrol.. service after 10,000km.. i can do that.. just not stupid ass repairs if something happens to the car. i may have to rethink lol..

dealer cars do have warranty but that's just on the main components like engine block, drive train and i think thats it. Most likely these things will not fail so it's abit of a gimmick if you ask me. Plus i can imagine the hassle you would go through to claim the insurance and all the bullshit excuses they would come up with to deny you from it.

if you get a private seller car, get it checked out by a mechanic or an RACV check. Just becuase it's from a delaer doesnt mean its not going to have any less problems than a well looked after private seller fto.

as for budget, you can pick up a good condition GPX for 8-9 thousand if you really look and bargain it down. I picked mine up with 110 kms for 8400 including the major service (timing belt etc) which was a pretty good deal. I was almost going to buy the exact same model and year from a dealer for $13,500. What state are you in? i know in Vic when i was looking there were several GPX's around 8-10k which all seemed in decent cond (i didnt check them out but just looking at pics and km's)

so be careful and don't rush your purchase, but if you see one that ticks all the boxes go for it.

yannino · Post by **yannino** » Sat Oct 10, 2009 12:32 am

very well said max

zuihoujueding · Post by **zuihoujueding** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 6:34 pm

miggle89 wrote:
dstocks wrote:Be patient. There are good ones out there. The transmission goes into limp more if there is a problem (3rd gear only). If that happens on any car, dont go near it. How muck are you looking at spending if you dont mind me asking? Maybe if we get an idea of budget and what other options you are looking for we can point out a few likely candidates.
My budget is between 6 to 10 grand max.. 10 might be pushing it a little bit.. i guess i just have to wait aye? i saw black auto fto on carsales for 9750... uncle mentioned, spend extra and get a dealer car cos he said dealer cars will have warrenty on them and usually are a little fixed up... what do you guys think of dealer cars lol?

what other cars do you guys think lol? i can afford a car.. i CANNOT afford expensive repairs. 3rd party insurance, petrol.. service after 10,000km.. i can do that.. just not stupid ass repairs if something happens to the car. i may have to rethink lol..

My personal advice is DONT BUY if you have just enough cash for car. Im almost certain that repair/maintenance bills will catch up on you very soon. Reason is you r getting a 10+years old car. something will fail and require repair. i would put aside 1-2k for maintenance, just to be safe.

Y? it happens to me! One problem come after the other.