2002 Mitsubishi Diamante LX from North America - Comments

I had a 97 Diamante bought from Texas that had 150K miles. It ran great and I sold it when it had 240K miles.

Then I bought the 2002 Diamante. I love the way they look, the one I got looked brand new. After one I got the following issues.

1- Heater core went bad, started leaking inside the passenger side. Cost me 1000$ to get it fixed.

2- Trans started jerking going from 3rd to 4th gear.

This car was a nightmare. Thank god I sold it after 8 months, lost $3000.

Bad car. Don't ever buy Mitsubishi unless it had a very low mileage.

It's called a transmission flush. Try it. And wow, 2 repairs after 100,000 miles makes it a terrible car? Not every car is problem-free especially after 100,000 miles.

I also own a 2002 Diamante, and after 4-1/2 years the heater core leaked ONTO the Engine Control Computer... When I took the car back to the dealer, from whom I regrettably bought it, the head mechanic said, "oh, yeah, the heater core, we see that all the time..." All the time???!! If so, wouldn't a manufacturer at LEAST alert their customers of a propensity for their products to self-destruct? In my case, I had to replace both the heater core AND the Engine Control Computer to the tune of over $2,000.

BTW... The mechanic recommended I donate a 5 year old car to Goodwill, because, in his opinion it wasn't worth fixing! In retrospect, I have to agree with him, but I've owned cars (Honda, Nissan) that were more than viable with 92,000 miles on them! I drove an Accord to more than double that with nary a problem.

BTW... I stupidly bought an extended warranty with the car, and it not only did not cover the heater core, and the ECC, but neither the Electric Antenna or the Gas Tank Fuel Gauge Sender...

Caveat Emptor...