1995 Mitsubishi FTO GR from UK and Ireland - Comments

The only fault I have had is the ignition key could not be removed. The garage sent a mechanic out at 7pm (one hour after I had reported the fault) and removed a locking pin that apparently locks the key. It seems to be quite a common fault, or so I am told. It only took the mechanic thirty minutes to complete and this was on my driveway.

The car has gorgeous looks from the front, but is either love it or hate it as far as the rear view is concerned.

The interior ergonomics are excellent with everything coming easily to hand.

The seats are very supportive with a good, sensible choice of adjustments. This is very useful as I am over six feet tall.

There are some very quirky but enjoyable gadgets such as "FTO" lit up in blue on the door sills, the beeper when you are reversing and the automatic collapsing door mirrors when space is tight.

My FTO has 17 inch diameter wheels fitted with very low profile tyres. These fill the arches out much better than the standard ones that look too narrow for the car. The ride is harsher, but the handling is excellent with superb feedback from the road.

The previous owner has fitted a Japanese racing air filter that looks similar to the British K&N type product.

I am not sure how much power this gives, but the intake roar is something else.

The tiptronic gearbox is excellent and is well worth considering if you are looking at buying a FTO. It is very slick and gives good control when driving.

I heard that the FTO needs under sealing to prevent corrosion. I have inspected mine and it looks well protected underneath. I have been told that it will only cost me 30 British pounds to get the car under sealed so I will get this done anyway as a precaution.

I have just recently had my FTO under sealed and it was £130.00 so either I've been stung or your quote is way off. The under sealing I have had done is superb an very thorough.

You have not been stung.

The reviewer quote @ £30 is exceptionally optimistic. To do a thorough under-seal takes around 3 to 4 hours. You have to mask off suspension parts, brake bits as well as other areas that you don't want under-seal to adhere to.

If you can get a few hours of a trained mechanics labour, + materials for £30 - please let me know!!

Stephen.

Shultz is £6 a tin, 2 or 3 tins is enough to do a fto. but it most likely just be sprayed on every where and every thing for £ 30.

The 30 quid guy probably won't even scrape off the muck before he sprays. If it sounds too good to be true; well then its probably not true.

In a normal situation... you get what you pay for.

I bought my 1995 reg FTO GR two years ago and was the first UK owner of the car. I have been delighted with it. What a car, with stunning looks it always turns heads, probably because you don't see many of them, so most people don't know what it is.

The performance is excellent with good handling, except a lack of ABS can sometimes be a bit scary, the front wheels do lock under heavy braking, so caution is advised!

The tipronic gearbox can take some getting used to, especially if you have been doing some enthusiastic manual gear change driving because the gearbox 'remembers' your driving style, so when you change back to full auto, the car is still a bit quick up and down the gears, or will hold in gear while revving quite high, as if it wants to do some more rapid driving. It does settle down again after a couple of minutes normal driving. On the motorway, the car is a dream; quiet, comfortable, fast and has plenty of grunt when overtaking.

The interior of the car is very good, giving the driver and front seat passenger plenty of room. This is at the expense of any leg room in the back though. I would not recommend this car if you are planning to transport the kids.

I have only had one minor problem with the FTO; this was the road speed sensor developed a fault. This manifests itself by the car dropping into third (safety) gear, and will not change up or down. This was soon sorted by going to my local Mitsubishi dealership for diagnosis and rectification, it wasn't expensive either.

I also up rated the suspension to give a stiffer/lower ride, which does improve the handling, but makes for a slightly rougher ride over speedbumps etc. I also replaced the standard wheels for some 17in alloys with low profile tyres; again this improves cornering, but doesn't make the ride any more comfortable! I guess there's a trade off between comfort and handling.

Recent work on the car has been to replace all 24 hydraulic lifters and a full belt service, I recommend a competent mechanic be found to do this.

I sourced all the parts from a supplier on the net- <sales@spmotor.co.uk>

So to sum up, the Mitsubishi FTO is a cracking buy, you can pick up a decent one for under £3k!!! Lovely to drive fun to own, turns heads on the road and in Asda carpark. Looks great on the drive at home and annoys the neighbours when they realize that their secondhand Fiesta cost them more to buy.

Regards. Scalrog.

I've just bought an FTO, and must say it's a very underrated car. The only problem I feel I have is that it's quite tappy on a cold start, then after a mile or two it runs smooth, and as I'm not used to these engines I'm not sure if that is normal. I have a 2.0 24v v6 and am just wondering if anyone can tell me if this is normal, or if I need the lifters changed, and if so how much does this normally cost?

I own an FTO GR 2.0 V6. Great car to drive, however today as I was pulling off in first I had a big crunch and the car jerked. Lucky I only drove around the car as oil was pouring out of the underneath of the car.

I have damaged the gear box as it was transmission fluid. I have either only broken a seal or I have put a hole in the gear box (hopefully not). Just wondering and planning for the worst, can you replace a tiptronic gearbox with a manual gearbox??

Does anyone know if this is a common fault? And does anyone know of any cheap sites/places to buy FTO parts (gearboxs)?

Yes it is possible to replace the auto gear box with a manual, its quite a common thing to do. Go to the FTO owners club: www.ftooc.org they have all the information you will need.

Russ.