1996 Mitsubishi FTO GPX review from UK and Ireland

Owned the car myself for around 3 months, but the car has been 'in the family' so to speak for the past year, and flew through its last MOT (not bad for an old car).

Only noticeable fault is the clock and reverse beeper have stopped working in the past month... think the clock has a dodgy connection as it sometimes does not illuminate at night (one thing I need to look at).

Bar that the car has been (touch wood) 100% reliable.

Overall I am pleasantly pleased by the FTO GPX.. it looks a lot more expensive than it really is!

And as for looks, well you either love it or hate it... I personally I think it looks great... even at 13 years old it still looks the part and will still turn heads!

Now onto the handling... mine is still running the standard setup, which I find to be very positive, and it really does inspire confidence in the corners, you can take corners at stupid speeds... I have yet to reach its limit... but it does have a little too much body roll... I will be investing in a decent suspension setup soon, as I do believe this car can be made to handle a lot better.

Tiptronic invecs autobox - I initially wanted a manual FTO, but this tip came up at a good price and to be honest it is a very good box. Admittedly it does rob it of a little performance, but I don't really think you would notice it in real world driving.. the semi auto 'tip' part of the box is excellent, but I do tend to find the normal auto mode to be a bit annoying as it's forever up and down the box trying to learn your last driving style... it's either revving its nuts off or changing up too early... main reason for a proper manual... but don't let this put you off a tip... Overall it's a very sporting box and better than most auto's you will come across... but for performance use the tip mode :)

Now onto the engine - the 2.0 24v v6 mivec engine really is a gem... it will rev upto 8250rpm and sounds utterly glorious when the mivec (vtec) kicks in around 5500rpm, though it does feel a bit flat under 3000rpm, it pulls well for a small capacity V6 and really comes alive over 5500rpm mivec form... it definitely is not slow.. my last car was a 1998 Vectra V6 GSi, and although the GPX is not an awful lot faster in a straight line, it would absolutely destroy my old GSi point to point around some good B roads.

All in all I highly recommend the FTO GPX... I have owned a fair few performance cars in my time, and I rate the FTO as a good one... a lot of bang for your buck!!

Just check the insurance before you look as if you're under 25; you may get daft quotes with 99% of FTO's being grey imports :)

Last thoughts - service this car and keep on top of it, and I do believe it will stay reliable... Just keep an eye out for the lemons out there... get a bad one and you will hate, it but find a good one and :) :D ..