2004 Mitsubishi Magna LS review from Australia and New Zealand

There was a problem with a foul 'rotten egg' or sulphur smell coming from the car. The catalytic converter was replaced under warranty - fixed problem temporarily. Smell still happens occasionally, but now using premium unleaded (lower sulphur content), so the problem is less often.

Car would shake at the lights, idle was too high and accelerator pedal would 'stick' occasionally. All 3 were fixed with a 5 minute DIY throttle cable adjustment.

It is fully loaded for such an inexpensive car - power everything, even the drivers seat is 6 way electrically adjustable. Looks good for a family car and performs very well for a large and heavy FWD. Leaves V6 Commodores in your rear view, and even gives the V8 variants a run for their money.

The car is very comfortable to drive, as the steering wheel is extremely light - however this could also be seen as a negative as you can hardly feel the road.

The sports mode transmission (semi-automatic) is a nice feature, but not very sporty as downshifts are strongly limited based on your speed. The gearing of the 4spd auto trans is also a bit poor, the first gear is great, but the second gear is far too long as you can reach well over 130km/h in 2nd.

Fuel consumption is not bad for a 3.5L V6 - 12.9L/100km, but at current fuel prices, it can cost up to $100 to fill her up.

At first the new front-end design was hard to look at, but it has grown on me and I am now a fan of the look.