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

miggle89 · Post by **miggle89** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 12:18 pm

Hey everyone. Hopefully this is the right thread to post this in. Butanyway.. i've always liked the Fto. Even when i was a kid playing gran turismo.. even though id lose against my brothers Skyline or Supra, i ALWAYS went with the FTO. My fascination hasn't diminished now that im a young adult. Now i've got to the point where it is highly possible for me to get one within the next 6 months. I have told trustworthy friends and family about it. Friends just tell me.. DUDE. its slow etc etc. i dont care about the speed.. but the older members of my family have been telling me that Mitsubishis have been notoriously crap and their mechanics say that mitsubishis are very unreliable.

Im not much of a gearhead but is this really true? i have read threads on the FTO and i haven't really seen anyone ask this question yet.. I have read in this forum that 'any car which has been taken care of will take care of you' sort of thing. But where does the notoriety come from? I do love the FTO very much but if i don't find a decent one, i might just have to go with a car that im less passionate 'but apparently more reliable' .. like an integra or a celica..omg.. PPl plaese try to remove your bias when you help me out thanks ^^

Dras · Post by **Dras** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 12:37 pm

If you want a non-bias answer, I will stick to the facts.

I have had my FTO now for 10 years, it has never broken down.

The car has done 160,000km and the only troubles I have ever had with it are:
* Input shaft sensor on the auto transmission died (pretty easy to fix)
* A/C evaporator core needed replacement (this was due to poor maintenance)

Current things on my to do list:
* replace tappets (they are noisy)
* replace front droplinks (they are noisy)
* replace shocks

Overall, I couldn't be happier with the car. I love it and don't see myself parting with it for a very long time.

Post by **dstocks** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 1:09 pm

OK, here is one they cant argue with. The FTO won Japanese car of the year in 95. This was over ALL categories. Its actually quite rare for a sports copue to win this award. Sorry, but cars dont win these kinds or awards if they are crap.

Besides, the people who are telling you this have what experience..... Bet they havent driven one, much less owned one. I think that the fact that there have been a number of members that have moved to other cars and subsequently come back and bought another FTO is a statement in itself.

Ive owned 3 FTO's that have been road registered and have picked up numerous others to onsell or wreck and I have to say that for the price they are going for, you get a lot for your money. You wont have any more problems than with any other 10+ year old car.

Now lets look at the arguments provided.

Slow. Not particularly. And certainly not around corners. If you were to compare it to a turbo, sure itll be slower in a straight line. But itll be a helluva lot more economical. Besides, there are mods you can do to get extra KW's.

Unreliable. You cant make a blanket statement about reliability. Certain models of any brand of car are unreliable. Mitsubishi did go through a bad run in the late 80's with transmissions for example. But this isnt to say that all fall into that category. Truth is you are just as likely to have a problem with a celica or an integra. Have had a member recently that sold his FTO and bought a Honda nad has had nothing but trouble and is now looking at another FTO.

Short answer is - dont let the uninformed people around you make the decision for you. Go out and take a couple for a test drive and form your own opinion.

OK, thats my rant

Post by **aza013** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 3:12 pm

what is your location?
If you are closs to a member maybe they can work out a time for you to go for a run in the fto and you can see make your mined up then.

Post by **I8A4RE** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 3:32 pm

Im sorry if this offends anyone but when people talk about mitsi's being sh*t. They dont realise it but they are referring only the australian made ones.

I have owned many cars and the fto is a great little car. I think the major problem with them (which really isnt its fault) are parts are hard to come by generaly speaking.

midi · Post by **midi** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 3:42 pm

I've only had my FTO for a fairly short time and I come to the FTO from motorcycles so hopefully I'm still not very biased.

I picked the FTO for a couple of reasons. Handling and acceleration are meant to be strong points of the car. I work with dstocks, so I've ridden in the FTO a lot to ignore the generic "lol FTO is a hairdresser car". Finally, the fact I have direct access to dstocks and his mighty arsenal of spare parts also had something to do with it too, hehe.

Actually, my FTO was one of dstocks wrecks but I nabbed it and repaired it with his help.

So far I'm enjoying it, although I will be honest and say I'm still sorting it out. The previous owner had very low springs on it which completely screwed the tires. The alternator isn't in great shape either.

That said, and now I have new tires, I'm starting to explore the handling and so far I haven't been let down. Been really enjoying it, so has my daughter... Missus seems a bit negative... not sure why

koolio1234 · Post by **koolio1234** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 5:51 pm

Its been said many times, 9 out of 10 people that say the "fto is sh*t", often have never driven one. If they have driven one and don't like the way it in one way or another, they most likely need psychiatric help.

Try one and make the decision yourself.

rock_it · Post by **rock_it** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 11:25 pm

the mechanics I know recommend Mitsubishi's .. Even the mirage's..... Just not the older Magna's... They work on the FTO and think they are a great car... Bit of a pain to do some things, but then again, try working on an old Jag..

miggle89 · Post by **miggle89** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 12:50 am

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!

midi · Post by **midi** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 8:02 am

I think the best thing is to try and hook up with someone with a FTO and see for yourself

On the km's, well that's no different for any vehicle. I knew people who could get a 2yo car up to those numbers just due to their lifestyle. Usage is hard to gauge, and so is treatment... 60,000km on the dial means nothing if someone has thrashed the engine

Someone else will confirm or tell me I'm a liar, but I believe the V6 engine is good for nearly 300,000km before it needs refurbishment/replacement? That may give you a better indication of the engines lifespan if it worries you.

Post by **dstocks** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 8:34 am

As for the kms, that can be a lucky dip. Instrument clusters can be changed in about 10 minutes. I know mine has genuine mileage on it because it still had the Japanese service sticker on it when I got it. I bought it with 51000 on it and now its at 85000. Mines a 99 model. I sold one about 4 months ago with 16000km on it. Hadnt been driven in 10 years. So yes it it possible to get them with low mileage. Japan doesnt really allow a lot of kms to be racked up on the cars over there. There just isnt the space. Best gauge. Look for wear in the outside of the drivers seat, the steering wheel and the gear shifter. That is something yo cant easily hide.

Having said that, you should be able to pick one up with around 100K on it. Id be looking to spend about 10K on it though. The ones priced under 10K are generally fairly tired.

Post by **I8A4RE** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 8:55 am

midi wrote:Someone else will confirm or tell me I'm a liar, but I believe the V6 engine is good for nearly 300,000km before it needs refurbishment/replacement? That may give you a better indication of the engines lifespan if it worries you.

nah japanese engines of that era (that are well maintained) will easy do 500,000km ++, but it all depends on how they have been looked after.

zuihoujueding · Post by **zuihoujueding** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 9:09 am

Singapore motorists have the conception of leveling car makers in this order in the early 90s in terms of build quality:
1)Toyota
2)Honda (is 2nd because its somehow more expensive than toyota)
3)Nissan
4)Mitsubishi
5)Mazda
6)and so on.

But say again..FTO wasnt available in SIngapore at that time.

But in reality, FTOs, having borned in the mid 90's is getting old. For sure, you have to be careful choosing a ride of this age. Even ify ou found one, be prepared to put aside some dollars to fix the usual wear/tera stuffs like A/C, suspension, belts, etc. This applies to every other car brands.

FTO is not slow(referring to MIVECS). They just need to rev hard to get decent power and you can safely use it on freeways but almost impractical for city drive. Thats why other motorist see it as being slow. Same goes with Hondas with VTECS.
People call FTO as a hairdresser cars becos they are simply jealous of its style. They can simply drive a powerful TC cars but the styling can never win their heart.

To be honest, FTO is a really good car for its performance/style/price. I would take the Integra TypeR over FTO anytime but its hard to argue for its price. But you r not going to stick to one car all your life? why not buy an FTO and drive it for a year or so and then decide whether to move on or not.

Fulltiltorgasm · Post by **Fulltiltorgasm** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 9:49 am

I8A4RE wrote:Im sorry if this offends anyone but when people talk about mitsi's being sh*t. They dont realise it but they are referring only the australian made ones.

I have owned many cars and the fto is a great little car. I think the major problem with them (which really isnt its fault) are parts are hard to come by generaly speaking.

good point australian made mitsubishi's are quite different, im not to sure i would buy many non import mitsi, that bein said i have never driven or no much about them, i wouldn't worry bout ppl sayin the fto is slow sh*t hairdressers car etc, little do many of them know there is a nifty V6 under the bonnet, if your buyin a car to justify who you are than thats wrong in the first place, i really couldn't give a damn what others think of the fto, i sorta like it how ppl write em off, its pure ignorance lol, probably the best balanced car i have drivin, decent power for N/A, great feel and handling, decent economy etc..

Gholdwayne · Post by **Gholdwayne** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 5:44 pm

There is a member here by the name of J, a friend of mine, before he bought an fto, my first car was an 02 corolla ascent, didnt give a damn about cars and never noticed all the s15's skylines, supras, etc etc, even fto's but when he bought it, it sorta gave me an opportunity to pay a bit more attention to it, then the progression of me liking it was very fast then i started obsessing about it as there was no other car like it.. was obsessed for a while and when people ask, i said im buying an fto, to my frustration, most of them had negative things to say, even my dad had issues with mitsubishi eg being not that reliable and has a cheap resale tag, though i ddnt care as i know the fto has GREAT looks backed by a pretty good engine, though from the corolla, my $20 a week e10 fills tripled (in money) into $40~$60 a week in full tank premium petrol but thats because when i had my corolla i got over driving very easily(it was an auto.. hmn, no wonder!) then when i bought my 97 manual fto, i just loved driving, id find myself driving for no reason sometimes which justifies the tripled petrol expense, i cant get over driving my fto yet because when you drive manual, you're constantly trying to get a better shift - and i assess every single shift/downshift/doubleclutches/heeltoes/revmatch/anyothermanualtechnique i make in my mind.

now the 2 cars that iv had most time driving though is the corolla and fto, so i dont have much opinions on other cars. though its true that fto spare parts are hard to find and it has less aftermarket support than other manufacturers but it also develops your resourcefulness if you're willing to find the parts you need, other than that you can see my joy of driving my fto. now i just dont want to say anymore, my reply has become one big essay... whereabouts do you live ?

Post by **aza013** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 5:53 pm

miggle89 can you tell us your location that way one of the members could drop around and give you a look around the FTO and take you for a drive.

nathan · Post by **nathan** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 6:28 pm

koolio1234 wrote:Its been said many times, 9 out of 10 people that say the "fto is sh*t", often have never driven one. If they have driven one and don't like the way it in one way or another, they most likely need psychiatric help.

Try one and make the decision yourself.

ill second this one, i wasnt too fussed on FTOs, i found a cheap one, drove it and damn near sh*t myself cause of how well it went, i then found one a bit more decent ... not to mention manual ... and bought it straight up, theyre awsome to put it simply, i LOVE my fto and am now an absolute nut about them

.... slow? lol no chance, i raced an R33 GTS-T and tied with him

Gholdwayne · Post by **Gholdwayne** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 11:12 pm

R33 gts-t? is that a turbo one ? i dont know much about skylines but wow..

how many seconds was it ?

rasumadu · Post by **rasumadu** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 12:54 am

yes the GTS-T is turbo...i'm not overly knowledgeable on the skyline specs but from what i do know i would dare say that it had to be most likely a GTS25 or GTS-4 as those two models have moderately comparable figures to the FTO..but i could be wrong

ANBU_fto · Post by **ANBU_fto** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 10:01 am

ive had my fto for 5 years now, and nothing has gone wrong with it apart from ac needing to regas.
the FTOs are great cars, and i have a manual one which makes it even more fun!
my fto with minor mods, has clocked a 13.8s 1/4 mile run! and only dynos at 123kws atw! i think thats awesome results from a FTO!
i also have an Evo X, and switching between cars, the FTO never fails to make my drive UBER!
i have also owned an tegra type R, which are fantastic machines, but i much prefer the FTO 'feel' a lot more.
test drive one mate, the only way you can tell for your self. try to pick out an manual, never fails!

just my 2c