1990 Mitsubishi Magna Elite 2.6 ECI from Australia and New Zealand

Summary:

Nice car, if you can afford to keep it going

Faults:

Alternator overcharged and blew, taking every single bulb, the stereo, the distributor and ECU with it. Alternator went a second time, this time undercharging.

Timing chain rattles terribly upon startup.

Head gasket started to seep, resulting in coolant loss. Fortunateley I noticed this quickly and sealed it with chemiweld. 2 months and 2000 km later car is still running fine.

Right side drive shaft snapped when alternator blew. Both drive shafts now rattling.

Fuel injection system running way too rich, resulting in clouds of black smoke under heavy acceleration.

Automatic is temperamental, at times hunting badly between gears and others working perfectly.

General Comments:

Very comfortable, well appointed car. Build quality is of very high standard, and the interior has many nice touches and has a good quality feel about it.

Handling is not a strong point, but cruises beautifully.

Amazingly, despite all the trouble this car has given it burns no oil, and has done 20,000 km in 6 months.

This was a owner low km car with service history. Either this is a Monday car built by a bunch of badly hungover workers, or Magnas are generally unreliable.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know

Review Date: 8th April, 2007

1990 Mitsubishi Magna TP from Australia and New Zealand

Summary:

An utterly frustrating waste of time and space

Faults:

Oil pump blown twice in first year of ownership.

Replaced the carburettor because faulty.

Fuel pump gone at around 160000 k's.

General Comments:

This car has been an absolute nightmare. Do not purchase the carburettor model of the magna for it is the biggest mistake you will make.

It features the most sluggish performance, won't get over 60km/h on a slight hill. The slowest acceleration imaginable with 8 cylinder economy with 3 cylinder performance it is an absolute joke.

Really, a full 60 litre tank gets me just over 150 k's. Mitsubishi made a mistake either with the flywheel or engine mount for the idle on the car is so noisy and so bad it shutters extremely, even my friend's model is the same.

The car has a mind of its own, some days it runs better than others, but it hates the heat, and loves to just eat your oil and fuel with no output. The only good thing going for the car is the comfortable seating which is lovely especially on long trips. Mechanically they really are a joke and I will never purchase a car from mitsubishi again. If you must have this car get the electronic fuel injected model.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 15th May, 2005

24th Oct 2006, 10:57

It seriously sounds like your car needs some work! How much did you pay for it? you only get what you pay for!

Have you checked the timing on the distributor? its probably retarded too much, just be careful not to over advance it.

The Magna's actually take hills quite well. Read other comments that people have on here about the Suzuki Swift GTI from the early 90's and they rave about their performance. Trust me, on hills the Magna fairs MUCH better. Granted, the carb model isn't great, but it is a carb model! it should have been expected.

I have an EFI model and its great. Well maintained they're strong in both performance and reliability. The engines aren't known for their fuel economy, but only going 150km on a tank is really bad and weird, you can't even get that with a fully laden car heavily loaded, driving through hills - I know that from experience. They still get over 450km out of a tank. And the four of us are all heavy people, being that we compete with what we can lift at the gym.

Get it checked out if you're getting worse than 10L/100km on the highway!

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1990 Mitsubishi Magna SE 2.6 Litre EFI from Australia and New Zealand

Summary:

Look after it, and it will go and go and go

Faults:

Very litte. The thermostat has been replaced due to old age, I thought the car was overheating, but infact it was just the faulty thermostat.

Power steering belt broke off, fixed with a stocking and drove it to my mechanic.

The timing belts had to be replaced because if they weren't, they would have broken off.

The brake discs have warped, so when you apply pressure to the brake peddal, it sort of goes up and down and the steering wheel slightly goes left and right, so new discs are needed.

General Comments:

The car is fantastically reliable. The air conditioning takes a lot of power out of the car if using in town, and also uses a lot of petrol, but while using it on the free way, it is quite efficient and doesn't take power away from the engine. The power steering is great. I have never driven a car before with steering as light as mine. The engine does not have much power on takeoff, but is very responsive in second gear and in freeways.

The handling is of a high standard. I really appreciate the interior and handling of the car. Never let me down.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 23rd November, 2003