Faults:

There is a significant amount of rust in the roof (some drunk walked over the car one night and the roof collapsed). Granted, I live quite close to the beach and I have maintained this car on a student's budget. Rust has also appeared behind the driver's wing mirror.

The spoiler has suffered extensive sun damage (again, I DO live in sunny Sydney).

Oil leaks have plagued this car. A large patch has grown on my driveway and the leaks slowly killed many other components of the car such as the air conditioning and the starter motor.

Something called the "input speed sensor" broke and the car was stuck "limping" in 3rd gear until fixed.

General Comments:

An absolute joy to own and drive.

I bought this car shortly after turning nineteen to commute to and from university, and I never turned up to class glum. When you get this car on a small windy road through one of Australia's fabulous national parks, no police issue Holden Commodore will ever catch you ;-)

This car handles superbly and with minimal under-steer for a front wheel drive car.

The plucky little V6 sounds fantastic at high revs (and boy does this car like to rev, 110km/h in 2nd gear)!

Comfort-wise, this car is atrocious. You can feel every little bump in the road while travelling at low speeds. Thankfully, the faster you go the more comfortable it gets. The only reason I gave it a four for comfort was because mine had climate control.

Parts were relatively inexpensive for an imported car, but mechanics charged large labour fees because most of the parts took three or four hours to access and remove.

Faults:

Really not a lot..

Air conditioning did this funny pulse thing, but it's very temporary, and fixes itself after 10 minutes.

Starter motor stopped working (what can you expect from a starter that's done 200km+). And that's it..

General Comments:

Awesome car to own!

Despite mine having really high kms, it was still in really good condition. The interior was great (apart from a few Mitsubishi electrical gremlins with the A/C, everything worked as it should and nothing broke).

Mechanically car is still in awesome condition. The dreaded Mitsubishi tick is slowly getting worse, but a dose of MBL8 fixes that problem. Previous owner spent the big money doing the cam-belt and water-pump, and in the 8k I've had it, the only thing that needed doing was the rear brakes..

Car is a dream to drive, the V6 is incredibly torquey at low RPM, but keeps the power going until 7000 RPM! (doesn't redline till 7500, but I find it better to change earlier to keep in the power curve); easily gets 120kph in 2nd gear!

The ride is awesome, firm, but takes the bumps well. Only bad bit is it has a tendency to roll in the corners, I don't think the heavy V6 helps this. But in the handling section it's amazing, the best handling FWD car I've driven. Mine does have wider 205 tires than the standard 195s, which makes a huge difference, both in handling and getting the power down.

Fuel economy is actually quite good; if you keep the rpm low and drive nicely, it'll treat you nicely. 500-600ks from a tank is achievable on a long trip.

Definitely an underrated car here in NZ, would own another one in a heartbeat. Am going to struggle to find another car that has the same smooth power delivery, with the same awesome handling and economy.

Faults:

Starter motor went at 153000km. $500 AUD.

Thrust bearing is noisy, which means the clutch needs to be replaced soon. But still drives fine.

Power steer pump is leaking and makes noises on full lock. Common fault.

Driver's side mirror won't retract. Really minor.

Sounds like a diesel at idle due to the tappets. Common problem and adjustable on the GPX.

Side windows rattle when down. Common problem and an easy fix.

General Comments:

Great car!

Very stylish, and still looks good 15 years later. Some people are shocked when I tell them it's 15 years old.

The 2.0 V6 Mivec engine is awesome! It is fuel efficient (gets 580 km to a tank, city and highway driving) yet still powerful. Above 5500rpm when the Mivec engages, it sounds like a racing car, especially with a aftermarket air filter, and the acceleration pushes you back in your seat. But below 4000rpm it's quiet, and just feels like an ordinary V6.

I strongly recommend getting the manual version of this car, as it is better suited to the V6. 0-100 takes 6.5 seconds, quarter mile in 14.8 in stock form. Just remember, this car used to compete with Celicas, Preludes, Integras, and it's FWD, but it handles very well for a FWD car with minimal understeer.

When it comes to maintenance, some spare parts can be a little expensive and hard to find, but remember these cars were based on the Lancer/Mirage platform, so some parts are interchangeable, and the Aus delivered HJ Galant uses a similar V6 engine, so parts are interchangeable with that as well. Still drives great after 164000kms, even with the problems mentioned above.