1990 Mitsubishi Colt GLX 1.6 petrol Carb.

Summary:

Loads of power for a hatchback

Faults:

The outer CV joints were basically destroyed when I got the car: Replaced with second hand drive shafts soon after.

That is the only major problem I had when I bought it, but it has developed a rough idle. I replaced plugs, points, leads etc. but diagnosed it as a lean car bi mixture, and the high idle speed compensates to keep the engine going. Soon after I had the car bi tuned by a mechanic, which fixed the problem and gave it loads more power.

Soon after I found that fifth gear was identical to fourth. After reading the Colt Operators Manual, I found that the problem is caused by an electric operated vacuum circuit that engages an overdrive when moved from fourth to fifth, and this is not working for some reason. I have not yet fixed this problem.

General Comments:

Apart from my couple of problems with this car, it handles extremely well for a small car.

It is surprising how comfortable the seats are, and how good the interior is for a Colt, which generally have a bad name for being a 'lemon'.

In my opinion, it is way better than the Laser and 323 (which are the same) in terms of power, stability and comfort. The only issue with this car is it's reliability. Although it starts basically every time, there always seems to be something going wrong like electrical problems or car by problems.

But it's got loads of power for a 1.6 liter engine, which makes it ride a lot better than it looks. Because of my 5'th gear problem I an unable to maintain a high-speed for a long distance. I can get the car to 100km/h at 4,500rpm in fourth. It red lines at 6,500rpm. This is a rare model made in year 1990 just before the mirage was manufactured. The engine in this car is rated 61kW at 5,750 RPM.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 11th December, 2003

11th Dec 2003, 11:22

4,500 RPM at 60 MPH in 4th my Renault Scenic can do that in 3rd gear and it's a 1.6L too.

11th Dec 2003, 21:46

My advice is to sell the car before you blow up the engine and/or transmission with the gearbox problems you are having. Colt's are terrible for their gearboxes. I owned two colts, one being 5 speed manual and one being 4 speed manual with power/economy selector. It turned out that both gearboxes were exactly the same! In the 5 speed gearbox, gears 1 through to 4 were the gears in power mode, and fifth gear was simply fourth in economy.

14th Dec 2003, 00:13

Renaults and most European and British vehicles are disastrous out here in Australia where the temperature can reach 45 degrees celsius quite often. If your Renault is so good, try driving it at 100km/h in 3rd gear where I live, and you will find yourself walking in no gears at less than 5km/h with a huge hole in either your wallet or credit card.