I have to say I have had the same result with Mitsubishi customer service...but I will say that SUBARU SERVICE SUCKS ALMOST AS MUCH! My friends dad has a 04 STi and he's getting locked out of gears, they will not warranty it! the car is less than 2 years old, not to mention he has bought 2 other subaru's from that dealer (Mastro Subaru in Tampa Florida). So I hear ya, Mitsu service does suck ( a piece of plastic broke on the back of my seat and I've been waiting 7 months for a fix, they keep saying something to the effect of "if it were our seat, but it's a recaro blah blah blah, they even tried to say I did it with a screwdriver!! WTF!!!??) the fact of the matter is that the 4g63 has always had problems with crankwalk, I'm sure the ej25 has some issue as well.

 

Even if they did a flawless drive swapping the short-block in my Evo, I still would go to Subaru. I only wanted my Evo to be a bit faster than it came, and mostly have an increase in responsiveness (throttle, etc.) I could have dealt with the shaky idle, but the service drove me to look elsewhere. When I got the car back with missing bolts, scratched paint, broken valves, missing vacuum lines, etc. I made up my mind to leave the Evo and never look back. The STi will eventually get the suspension mods I listed, and the K&N Filter Charger, but other than that I like it the way it is.

 

I think you only hear of the bad experiences. If a customer is happy with the service they got, they don't usually say it because that is what they expected. People complain about bad experiences because they are upset or frustrated.

My wife had an M3 and then a Z3. We had the worst service experiences at the BMW dealership. All we did was go to another one and we were taken care of.

 

I had a Toyota Tercel that I bought brand new. By 50,000 miles it started falling apart and I got rid of it. I know Toyota's are great cars, but I'll never buy another one. That's what can happen if a manufacturer leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

 

You mod a car, you take risks. The service people consider you guilty before proven innocent because no one wants to pay for your mistakes, that's the bottom line. Either you pay for it, or the service manager/service writer pays for it and it takes food off his/her table. Modding another brand of car isn't going to change anything.

 

Very valid point evodst. I try to make a point to express my good opinions as well as my bad ones, but not everyone does that, and I know I still complain more than I praise. It's human nature, I suppose.

 

GPTourer, I'm not planning on doing anything to the STi that I don't clear with the service manager first. So far he's had absolutely no issue with the parts I listed above. He told me to stay away from the intake, and I can only touch the exhaust from the cat back. I just seriously doubt two things. 1. If I'd taken an STi to the Subie dealer with the same parts as were on my Evo, I highly doubt I would have been treated the same, and 2. I'm very confident that the crankwalk had nothing to do with intake / exhaust mods.

 

Nonetheless, sorry about your horror story with Mitsu, and good luck with your STI!!!

 

I'm very confident it didn't either, but neither me or you are the ones who make the decision wether your car is covered under warranty or not. that's not the point. The warranty implies any modifcation can void your powertrain warranty. So if you choose to do it, no matter how slight, you take the risk. Period.
If you had a completely stock car it would remove all doubt.

 

I went to the phil long dealership right before the holidays to take a look at the new evo 9. I was gonna trade in my beemer for one. So im talking to a sales rep and ask to look at the one they had there. Wouldnt let me... So I asked him to go get the sales manager. So Mr. Ancel comes out and I finally convince him to give me a test drive by pointing at my $46,000 bmw out in the lot. So we get in the car he is the driver at the start. He proceeds to drive the car into the ground. It has 8 miles on it and hes over revving it, misses a shift and drives it like a maniac. Needless to say I didnt buy that car that day. I went and found a stock used one that was taken car of.

 

When I bought mine in November, I was introduced to the service manager by the owner. Since they were both together, I asked them about modding/warranty issues. They told me:
"Exhaust, turbo timer, gauges, intake, stuff like that, are OK. Anything that involves opening up the engine or messing with the ECU will probably not be covered."

So at least now I know what to expect from my dealer (when I DO start to mod). Now if only all dealerships were this straightforward...

 

He might say its fine now but what if you bring it to him down the road and he forgot about your agreement? Most dealers wouldnt have a problem with your listed mods on your evo. You just got unlucky with your dealership. Good luck with you STI

 

Phil Long Mitsu told me the exact same thing, only difference is that they said only the cat-back could be touched, and only with good name-brand parts (Greddy, HKS, Etc.) Look what happened there!! I'd say get it in writing!

 

They can say all they want, but unless you have it in writing, you have nothing. The dealers don't get to decide what is covered under warranty and what isn't. If you come in needing a shortblock or something else major on an Evo, the Mitsu service rep is going to come by and inspect your car. IF he or she says no, you are SOL.

 

I am sure the only reasons they changed out the short block in my car is because 1. I ambushed the district rep. He was able to meet me face to face and see I wasn't just some punk kid, and 2. As owner of CoRacing.com I could drum up some bad press for them.