Faults:

The only thing that has ever gone wrong with this car is the battery gave up one morning.

There is a bit of brake shudder at over 50 mph, but I can live with that as it still brakes well.

General Comments:

This is an imported car from Japan, a six seat-er automatic, each seat offering armchair like comfort.

It's very easy to drive, and has good visibility and enough power to transport 6 people around.

The rear set of seats can be removed from the car, and middle row can be folded, leaving a lot of room for transporting larger objects.

Fuel can be guzzled if you drive fast when loaded, but this is to be expected.

Has lots of nice features on it (computer, electric folding mirrors, electric windows, CD changer, smoked glass , air con for front and back of car), which means excellent value for money when comparing against UK spec Chariots (Spacewagons).

Faults:

The head gasket blew twice just after 130000 ks.

Getting the car into 1 st gear was very tricky.

General Comments:

This car drove very well - it was a shame that it cost so much in repairs just prior to us selling it.

This car was very hot on a sunny NZ day - big windows with no air conditioning was not a good move.

Faults:

The head gasket blew at approx 80,000 k's. There had been no warning. The temperature gauge never showed it was running hot. The oil light never came on. It suddenly just blew.

We took it to the Mitsubishi dealer for repairs. That was a big mistake. It cost us nearly $3,000 in repairs, including a planed head, all new cooling pipes, and a new radiator. They told us they replaced the cam belt at the same time.

The engine leaked oil ever since that repair. We took it back to the dealer several times, but they said they couldn't find the leak.

Last year at about 95,000kms the head gasket blew again. This time we took it to an independent mechanic who showed us that the dealer had used a sub standard genuine Mitsubishi head gasket. They said the cause of the oil leak was obvious - the head gasket was faulty. They said the cam belt didn't look as if it had been replaced, so they put in a new cam belt and replaced the head gasket, did a general service and told us to sell it.

General Comments:

We'd be extremely reluctant to buy another Mitsubishi after this experience. We've learned not to use a dealer for after warranty servicing. It's just too expensive, and their mechanics are sub standard (at least locally)... as are their parts!