1999 Mitsubishi Galant ES V6 review from North America

Nothing has gone wrong per se. This is an eight year old vehicle that has been used by a couple owners. I bought it with no maintenance record, no owner's manual, and only one key.

The keys have transponders in the head and need to be registered to the vehicle. So to buy the keys, they'll run you about $15 a piece and to have the dealer or locksmith register them to your car is another $20.

No maintenance record. These motors need to have the timing belt changed approx. every 60k miles. I had no idea at 90k miles if the original was replaced or not. But a good mark to the dealer that did the work for me was that they replaced the belt guides while they were in there, and before they put all the accessories back on the motor, they replaced the accessory belts. They said that was probably an hour job itself to replace the accessory belts.

At 90k miles I also had the dealer do a tune-up. Beware! With the V6, the air intake folds over the rear valve cover. The spark plugs are located in the valve covers, so the air intake had to be removed to replace the rear 3 spark plugs. This is fine if the bolts want to come out of the intake. If the mechanic snapped off the bolt, the dealer was gonna add another $500 - 1000 in labor!

The glove box door rattles over bumps.

There's a squeaky sound coming from the front end when going over light bumps. I think it might be the hood rubbing on something.

The radio reception sucks. The antenna is built into the rear window, and the radio gets real fuzzy on a cold morning when you wanna use the rear defrost.

Some people might be turned off with having to use Premium fuel. If you don't use it, eventually the service engine light comes on.

Generally, I believe it is a good car. Overall, after initially "going over" the car, I haven't had any trouble with it. Put gas in it and go.

I figure I'm getting about 20mpg with it. I drive a mixture of city/highway and I don't have a heavy foot.

I think it is a classy looking car that rides well. The steering is just about perfect (not too light or heavy). The brakes are kind of touchy. You will see others complain about changing brakes often, but I think its all in how you drive. If you know the brakes are touchy, then use them lightly.

Also, the V6 has plenty of power to get up and go. Any more would probably be overkill.