1998 Mitsubishi Diamante ES from North America - Comments

Had to have the Heater Core replaced at 45,000 miles.

Had to replace the Rack and Pinion Steering unit at 45,000 miles.

Replaced the electric antenna at 55,000 miles.

Dealership was not able to remove the squeaks/rattle from the Moon Roof after two separate attempts.

The car has a terrible lack of interior lighting.

Seatbelt connector is very low in the seat and difficult to operate.

At 90,000 miles, I need to replace the Heater Core again.

Almost impossible to get parts for this car except from the Mitsubishi dealer.

Although the car has been very good as far as maintenance issues go, having to replace replace a heater core BEFORE 100,000 is almost unheard of. I will have done this twice. Also, the Rack and Pinion should not be replaced unless the car has a front end accident. My car developed leaks around the seals and this was the solution.

This concerns me about the quality.

The car is a rocket ship! The 3.5L engine is solid, it drives silky smooth, and the response will throw you back in the seat. It is a fast cruising car, and great for the highway.

The leather interior has held up extremely well.

When they built this car, they apparently forgot to put and lights in it for the interior. All you have is the two (dim) map lights, and the make-up mirror light! Really annoying. We thought the interior bulb had blown out when we got the car home.

You had some excellent points about the Mitsubishi but, I'm going to have to disagree with you on the lighting. The car is known for how bright it is. There are more lights than you chose to say in your review. There are two vanity mirrors, two front reading/map lights, lights on all the doors, and two reading/map lights in the rear.

There maybe lights in the doors, but not many people sit in the car with doors open!

I have just bought a used 2001 Mitsubishi Diamante. I received a great deal on the purchase of the car. I bought it for 11,000 dollars out the door with 36,000 miles on it. I have found that everything is working well, there is a slight noise in the instrument cluster by the radio. This I can live with. Everything else is very comfortable and extremely likable. I am a HAPPY CAMPER!

Thanks Mitsubishi Motors.

I have a 2000 mitsubishi diamante and the only things I have had to do is a full tune up, fix the power antenna (my fault), and replace the brakes. The car has 111000 miles on it so some work is expected. I needs to replace the heater core now because it is leaking to where I cannot see out of the windows after returning to the car after driving and I am going to put drilled and slotted rotors on it. Other than that there are no major complaints.

I think he means a dome light. That is the only thing the car is lacking. I'm always reaching for one.

Great car for the price! Drives better than the BMW 5 Series. I did the test driving and was really surprised. Bought a used Diamante MY 1999 LS for 10 grands 4 years ago on ebay. Had to change the heater core only since. I was told that this is typical for the diamante, but other than that, I did not experienced any other problems. The engine is very responsive, smooth and strong. Good for the highway. BMW could learn from them....

Would pick a Mitsubishi over BMW again.

I'm from Australia. If you live in the USA your Diamante was built and designed in Australia - which explains the common heater core problem. America's harsh winter conditions were not taken into consideration in the design process of this car.

The temperature in Australia barely drops below 32'F.

Heater core failures are non existant here.

Mitsubishi should pay to have every single Diamante EVER exported to the USA to have an adequate heater core fitted which can cope with the conditions. Instead of letting owners paying for a new one every few thousand miles!

I had 2 Mitsubishi Cars. The first one was a 1998 Galant. I had nothing but very major problems with this Car and the Dealership then exchanged it for me for an upgrade to the Diamante. The Diamante was a beautiful Car and I thought it was well made... Boy was I mistaken. After a year or so I started having major problems. First there was something wrong with the steering. This caused the tires to wear and then all tires needed replacing. Car had less than 8000 miles on it. After that the car started smelling like smoke. Contacted the Mitsubishi USA people and they had one of their technicians come down and look at the car. Well I found out that a lot of the problem was because the Dealership didn't do the proper maitenance. So they wanted me to have some major repair work done that would have cost several thousands of dollars. Needless to say I broke the Lease and purchased a used Mercedez Benz... The Benz had over 167,000 miles on it when I bought it. That car drove like it was brand new. I kept it for 2 years then upgraded to a larger model Mercedez. That car also had over 100 thousand miles on it and it also drove like a new car... In fact the person I sold it to drives it every weekend from the Monterey Peninsula in California to Lake Tahoe. That is about a 4 hour drive each way... Needless to say I myself would never ever buy another Mitsubishi car or truck... If you want Quality... Buy an Acura or Honda... They also hold their value... If you have a Mitsubishi it will not be worth much after just a few years...