The car always smoked! And badly too. I tried keeping the oil level low, and using 'splitfire' spark plugs to minimize the visibilty of the smoke, but to no avail... our car used a litre of oil every month or so.
We once had a mechanic do a service on our Colt and he put too much oil in the motor -and that spelt the end of the car next time we drove it.
The car had fairly bad rust on the bottom edges of the side doors.
Our air conditioning pump would squeal badly, this was certainly annoying as the air-con on this car was otherwise superb!
Mitsubishi would make excellent cars if they didn't all have the 'smoking' problem. I heard that they use 'softer rings' in their engines -this is why I probably won't buy another Mitsubishi (though I do hear the post-1994 Mitsi's have fixed this problem).
Good economy. Great automatic transmission.
I'm surprised it is still getting around with that sort of mileage on the motor! Blowing smoke sounds like the piston rings have certainly had better days, but rather than blame the manufacturer - think about why cars don't last that long!
Soft piston rings are actually better, because when it comes time for engine rebuild you can usually just get away with replacing the rings and not have to get the block honed/bored out.
I drive a turbocharged Mitsubishi RC Colt which develops 105hp at the front wheels and although it is a bit rough around the edges, the engine has never given me hassle!
Long live Mitsubishi!
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