Now I'm really pissed with this car. I'm beginning to hate Mitsu. I don't even have 3500 miles on this car yet, and have had more problems then I have had with most cars that I have owned in my lifetime. Now I wash the car for the first time last night since it was the first nice day of the year here where I live, and to my amazement the paint is chipping on the front bumper, and hood. Not small barely noticable chips, but chips the size of a #2 pencil eraser. My car is a metallic so it is supposed to have a clearcoat. WTF? I am going to the Mitsu dealer tonight for my first oul change since I will have my 3500 miles on it and they told me to service it then, and let me tell you I am going to rip them a new *** like they never had ripped before. I DID NOT pay what I paid for this car to have so many problems, especially with the paint on a car that isn't even a month old. I'll let you know how it went when I get home tonight.

 

The paint is one of the major failings of Lancers... for some reason, other Mitsus don't have this problem, that I've seen anyway. Lancers and Evos though have truly crappy paint. There are long threads of hundreds of messages all about this and some people have successfully gotten their dealerships to fix their paint even. Realistically, get some 3M ClearGuard if you can. After roughly 50,000 miles, my frontend looks like there's sand permanently matted into the bumper/fascia/etc.
-N

 

Yah, although I've had almost no problems mechanically with my car, there are two things I am frustrated with.. the paint chips and gets damaged easily. and the tanning on the leather steering wheel peeled slightly (its not noticable, but I Can see it) on the thumbgroove on left side right where my "Sweaty palms" would rest, only this happened on the first few weeks I had the car. The only other issue I had that bothered me is the center armrest, its "matted" on the felt-ish material where my elbow typically rests.

Like I said, mechanically I've had very few issues with the car, I have modified my car and made good horsepower, and still have a stock clutch at 30k miles.. but fit and finish of the paint and some interior components leaves something to be desired. Definitely not something that would sour my opinion of this car though.

 

paint sucks, trannys suck, t/c suck, warrenty sucks, you think this a 12,000 dollar kia..wrong its our ever so loved evos.. 30 40k worth.. the only reason most of us have these cars is the novelty.. im no better, ill stick by my sometimes beater.. cause dammit i love this car.. i do wonder if this is has been mitsus trait for all the versions of the evo, or is it just poor quailty for us americans... quailty control my ***, there predjuice (spelled wrong) with us, like we deserve a low quailty version of the car.. the more i think about this the more pissed i get..when this car came here we gobbled it up..now almost 3 years later, its more of the same bull. 1 example, the evo 9 rear.. do we get it no.. aaaagggghhh.. do we get the option to buy it no... but everyone else does... what will happen when the center diffs wear out before warr. guess what youll be screwed, its a wear item..1 thing i can say is if nissan, (maybe an exec. will read this) gave us an r34, the last model, the real jap. supercar, same specs, between 35-45-k, we would buy every one of them, they would not be able to make them quick enough.. and what about the evo.. it would be a collectors item.. a thing of the past.. id bet a years salary on it..thats right mitsu, keep screwing us and in the end youll pay.. someone will catch on and gives us the car we deserve.. i stand buy what i have just said to the bitter end, against anyone...bring it one suckers... thanks slovak for the urge to make me write this.. im done.. sorry all.

 

mitsu paint sux period as everyone has said before

 

Lemon?

My car has had 0 problems in the almost 4 years we've owned it. The only thing I've had to replace was the o2 sensor, which was covered under warranty and the dealer fixed it in like 20 minutes. No paint problems.

The only real repairs we've had to do with this car is constant flat tires, but of course that's not the cars fault.

I guess you just got a bad egg?

 

I haven't had any real problems with my paint although a rock hit my front bumper and made a large chip the size of a half dollar coin. But whatever... good luck on getting it fixed.

 

i had one problem on my passenger side side skirt with paint peeling 3 days after i got it. mitsu fixed it under warranty and i haven't had a problem in 2.5 years.

 

O how I ever do agree with dafarmer69 about the crappie quality of certain parts of the car when compaired with other cars. Esp. the bumpers. I have had to get my front and rear bumper repainted 3 times and its an 03. The guy that i got it repainted at(it was still under warantee but my Mitsu dealer dosent do painting so they sent me here), which is an extremely good shop said that these were the worst bumpers ever. He told me that he tried to paint it about 4 times to just get it so that it wouldnt bubble or crease. But the last time that he painted it he said that he found the problem. When he stripped off all of the paint he counted about 4-5 different types of plasics that were used to make the bumper(you could even see the different colors in plastics when it was stripped down). So we found what Mitsu does, they take all of their rejected parts, melt them down and use them for the bumpers. By doing this, it makes it hard for paint to stick to plastic and increases the risk for paint problems. But O WELL!!! I still love my car to death and plan on doing it again, except an Evo is next on the list and I can't wait!!!

 

i have taken paint and plastic courses and im unsure about the validity of the melt down theory because different plastics will not stick together tats why you do the melt test before welding plastics because the wrong stick will not stick only the right plastic rod will stick. and i work in a shop and no matter what plastic we are painting we use the same adhesion promoter wrinklin g and stuff is contamination not plastics.. the problem we have with plastic sometimes is the color doesnt like to be the same.. damn plastic.. lol

 

bump

 

I had the paint flake off by the Drivers side door most of the other damage came from ingnorant a--holes in parking lots. Mitsu said that the yellow paint that i have is more susseptible to damage because of something in the paint. Now thats just what the dealer told me.

 

i haven't really had any problems that i think of it..i have a 03 Oz Rally and the only thing that has ever been replaced on it was the Recall Fan Controller. Mitsubishi has actually been fairly decent about getting my car checked out and has answered any questions i've had. I do admit tho, the paint is ****ty, looks like my hood has been hit with a 1000 itty bitty rocks.

 

Do any of you guys whining about paint wax your cars on a regular basis? Waxes have come a long ways in the last 10 years or so. They really help protect your car from the elements.

 

^huh??

edit...sorry. i read it real fast and didn't make sense

i haven't had any problems with the paint other than some scratches, and i dont wax mine all that often.