Faults:

Water pump and radiator replaced as well as the timimg belts. Parts are fairly priced, but labour is very, very expensive.

Quick, but expected car to be faster.

General Comments:

This car was definitely built for the windy roads. The handling is beyond excellent.

The manual transmission works beautiful with good ratios.

The front seats are very comfy and roomy, even with (drivers) lumbar support, however, rear seats are virtually non-existant.

Very, very low trunk space.

Faults:

Soon after I got the car, I had to replace the rear brakes.

The clutch needed to be replaced (due to me having a need to challenge every punk who thinks his Honda is fast).

Other than tires, that's all I've had to replace, the car runs great.

General Comments:

My first car was a 92 Talon ES, I thought it was a fast car until I traded it for a Camaro, then some guy offered me his 92 Talon TSi. This car will blow the doors off almost anything on my main drag in town. I pulled up to a stop light and dumped the clutch from 6 grand and smoked a Honda with more money in the heads and exhaust than I paid for my car.

With a performance chip and an exhaust upgrade, this car will outperform any car its size. To anyone thinking of a turbo upgrade, I highly advise you to go through with it. It's worth the cost.

Only car I have driven that can out handle this car is a 3000gt vr4 twin turbo allwheel drive six speed with ported and polished heads, and a ported and polished turbo, and a four hundred dollar exhaust, a true DSM.

Faults:

I didn't own the car for a long yet, but it seems like beside my belts and a certain noise from the back of my tires and the paint, I believe nothing is wrong with my car. Well one thing is for sure I had an oil change not long ago and am already adding oil.

Well for the record am using 20/50 for oil " trying to save gas and millage.

General Comments:

The car is great I like it. It has a very good traction/ torqu, specially with the third and second gear. I just can go over them. Am thinking of going street with that car, but I don't know if I do so, it will affect my car mechanically or shall I just transform the body and keep the system basic.

Faults:

* Three transmissions (on my 4th now)

* Replaced shocks/struts when purchased, and will probably replace them again soon.

* Hole in the intake tube causing idle surge (89000 miles)

* Mass Airflow Sensor (89000 miles)

* Tie Rod ends (85000 miles)

* Alternator (85000 miles)

* Replaced the capacitors in the ECU (85,000 miles)

*Replaced tires (Firestone Firehawks hydroplaned at the slightest hint of water; replacement Pirelli HP's *ROCK*!)

* Timing belt worn (50,000 miles?)

* Multiple repairs to rear window defroster (broken currently--wire won't stay attached to heating element)

* Broke the valve cover while replacing the PCV valve (suspect corrosion rather than a defect in the part)

General Comments:

Owning an Eagle Talon has been a love/hate kind of thing. It's absolutely a kick in the pants to drive, but has needed a lot of maintenance.

I strongly suspect my Talon was abused before I bought it; it spent the first six months in the shop more than on the road. It needed *LOTS* of suspension work, two new trannies (the first replacement was a poor quality rebuild and never worked right), etc.

Once I worked the bugs out, though, fell in love with the car. The handling is by far the best of anything I've ever driven. While I *really* would like the TSi AWD, my non-turbo is still pretty quick and there are plenty of after-market mods available. I replaced the stock air filter with a K&N FIPK (highly recommended!), added an aluminum intake tube when the stock snorkel developed a hole in one of the accordion pleats, added a front upper strut tower brace (greatly reduced wheel hop on acceleration in snow and ice).

While the Talon (and it's sister DSM's, the Plymouth Laser and Mitsubishi Eclipse) does require more maintenance than anything else I've ever driven, it's also very easy to work on. The engine compartment is large and open, most of what you need to access is visible through the hood, and there is lots of information available about DSM maintenance on the Internet.

Summary:

Good--performance, handling, ease of maintenance, available modifications, looks.

Bad--somewhat maintenance intensive, parts can be a little expensive ($3000 for my last transmission--ouch!), drive train doesn't seem to be strong enough for a care of this nature, later models (esp. 2nd generation turbos) are susceptible to crankwalk, prepare to spend money on speeding tickets :)