They've made plenty of good dependable cars, but a lot of what this industry is based on depends on popularity, sales numbers, perception, advertising dollars and so on. Actual facts like amount of repairs, cost of repairs, warranty pay outs tend to be secondary.

It takes a lot of digging, time and research and even then all the data may or may not be available to make some of the conclusions that these sites claim are gospel - but does that stop them from making such claims? No. They cobble together the results by asking the first happy Honda owner they come up to what they think about Mitsubishi. Yeah, right - that's honest, solid reporting.

In my experience from selling them and moving on to sell other types of vehicles including luxury cars I can still say there are few other cars I would actually want to own other then Mitsubishi, particularly in their price range.

 

I counted it as 8th from the bottom. I disregard Consumers Reports...they nevr let Honda or Toyaota out of their top 10 and they give a car negative points if the gas cap is on the driver side of the vehicle. Consider the source. Go see what JD Powers has as the rankings or Edmunds. Groups that are car friendly vs anti-car.

My 2 cents.

 

well they are right, mitsubishi isn't known for its amazing interior quality or awesome reliability.. if they could get the percieved quality up in their road cars, they would def sell more vehicles in the U.S.

 

Actually the JD Power ratings don't work like that at all.

The Vehicle Dependability Study provides information gathered from over 46,000 original owners. Performance is measured using a “problems per 100 vehicles (PP100)” metric. A lower PP100 score indicates better performance and a higher PP100 score indicates worse performance. The study covers a total of 202 total problems, broken out into eight major problem categories as follows:

* Exterior
* The Driving Experience
* Features/Controls/Displays
* Audio/Entertainment/Navigation
* Seats
* HVAC
* Interior
* Engine/Transmission

The study finds that the frequency and severity of component replacement has a particularly strong impact on customer loyalty intentions. Component areas for which the impact is greatest include the Engine/Transmission category. When engine components are replaced or rebuilt, just 11 percent of customers state that they definitely intend to purchase or lease another vehicle of the same make, compared with nearly 40 percent among owners who report replacing no components.

 

Actually I was being facetious and thinking more along the lines of Consumer Reports.

When I was selling Mitsubishis the company started a campaign that was designed to raise the Outlander JD Power's quotient. This was around 2004. They told us to concentrate on three or four things:

1. Make sure people know how to adjust the steering column.
2. Make sure people know where and what is suppose to be included with the manuals and books.
3. Show them how to properly fold down and recline the back seats.

That's about it, or one or two other things, my memory is fuzzy - but the important thing to take away from this was that we were getting killed in the IQ surveys amongst new Outlander owners against other small crossovers. NOTHING about the car was changed, just our delivery process. So basically if a new Toyota Rav4 owner has his engine blow up because of some poor design, it was rated the same as when a new Outlander owner couldn't find figure out how to adjust his steering column properly.

We were able to bring the Outlander up from the cellar into a one of the best in segment for small crossovers by making a few simple changes.

 

Thats how u rate CARS...

 

try working @ enterprise rent a car...& see how people put them on... forget the 5000 km oils changes, Most 10,000km... when the oil turn black like tar....

 

^^^
damn, lol, that's terrible

 

A good point. I was just trying to show how they can be manipulated with a focused, concentrated effort which doesn't actually involve any engineering, supplier, or assembly changes to the actual vehicle. I have no faith at all in whatever mumbo jumbo voodoo method they use to determine a whole brand. I really do believ it comes down to who is spending the most in advertising dollars, who does the most lobbying, who employs the right people, and who has the most favor with the automotive press.

 

Looks like the Outlander/Sport is being shifted to the U.S., read an article about them planning to make it at the Normal, IL plant

 

Some people may not understand the perception is far more powerful than reality for car quality. Sure, the people who OWN Mitsu's might swear by the quality (oh and believe me, that's not 100% of the crowd) but if the majority think the other way, it doesn't matter.

It takes a WHILE for a car company to build/rebuild its brand. Honda and Toyota have owned the JDM market for decades and plenty of anecdotal evidence seems to support the perception that those cars usually last longer (150,000 on my Honda Civic on original clutch with zero slipping).

 

mitsubishi gets such a bad rap from so many people. I wanted my 03 GSR inspected before i bought it, and the first guy i wanted to bring it to in the area said "I have never, and will never, look at a Mitsubishi. I haven't found a good car made by them yet, and they just have lots of problems." Also, my car mechanic uncle said that Mitsubishi's tend to leak oil.

All in all, more horses (300+ in many cases) in 4 cylinders (as opposed to a v6+) WILL affect the longevity. Add in the fact that some people don't know what they are doing when they start modding their evo and that is a recipe for disaster.

 

eh i guess someone had to be on the bottom

 

So if a car is made in Japan its great, and if its made in the US it sucks?? STFU you clearly know nothing about cars if you say this. Back on subject, Mitsubishi's quality ratings are nothing much of a shocker to me. they've been they've been on the bottom of the barrell for a while, however they've always sold cars for their driving excitement not reliability. when you think mitsubishi you think rally, the evo and dsms for a reason. when you think toyota you think camry, for a reason.

 

I don't think GNR's statement is that crazy. Cars built in the US do have lower quality than their Japanese counterparts. Hell... even if you want to compare within North America... Canadian plants produce better quality cars than the USA.