General Comments:

I bought this car in 2013 for $1300. It had 257000 on the clock, but I had it checked out & for its age it had nothing wrong with it. Also the price was good for me as I was sick of spending money on the Maxima.

I have almost done another 100000 in it & it has given me no trouble at all. It gets serviced every 6 months & the only thing I have ever had to get done besides tyres & brake pads was a rocker cover gasket.

Now it has a ticking noise in the engine, I guess because it's old & worn.

It's the best car I have ever owned; have owned a Commodore VL before the Maxima & they did not compare to the smoothness & the get up & go of my Magna. I will be upgrading to a newer model; maybe a VR-X :)

Faults:

Heater core went at 200,000 km. Replacement will cost $1000.

Air conditioner pulley fell off after a service (bad service agent). The only time the car has let us down in 160,000 km.

Battery went at 90,000 km.

No other faults.

General Comments:

I bought the car at 2 years old with 40,000km on the clock.

The car is comfortable, fast, fuel efficient (9.5 l/100km av) and a good work horse.

It has been extremely reliable, but had a tendency to eat the left rear tyre (although nothing had been found to explain this).

The car was serviced according to the book and was rather expensive at each service. I will check my paperwork to tell you how much this came to.

We bought an extended warranty at 100,000km for $1400 (AUS) but never made a claim on it.

I would consider not buying another later Magna, only because the new nose is ugly.

I would not buy the Mitsubishi 380, because that is even uglier. God knows what they were thinking with that one.

The best car I have owned so far.

Faults:

As it was a company car they only gave it to us for a few months before it was replaced, in that time it only had a recall issue fixed up.

General Comments:

The most underrated car on the market.

Makes the perfect family wagon/work car.

Drove it through a massive storm with water all over the road and stuff falling at of trees, even at highway speeds it never failed.

People have said that the interior of Magnas are dark and gloomy, but it is a very comfortable place to be.

Faults:

Idling a bit rough when transmission is in D. Put some Wynn's Spitfire in the tank when filling up next and the problem largely disappeared.

Coating on the rubber seals on the rear window is flaking off. I have never seen any other car do this, so I'm thinking it's not a common problem.

Stereo is not of the same standard as that of other makes in the same (and lower) class. For instance, my wife's 2002 Corolla Conquest is equipped with a unit that runs rings around the Magna in terms of sound quality!

Need to get new brake pads and have the discs machined at the same time (brake shudder seems to be a very common complaint with the Magnas).

General Comments:

This car is lovely to drive. It is smooth and refined, and still puts a big grin on my face when I plant my foot at the lights.

It's a big step down in luxury however from my previous 1990 Magna SE (see review on this site). The seats aren't nearly as comfortable to sit in for long periods (but still better in my opinion than the aforementioned Corolla). This one has dual airbags, power windows, remote central locking, cruise control, a 10-stacker (boot mounted), a spoiler and alloys. I miss things like map lights and an electric antenna...

The biggest gripe I have about this car is the lack of sound control from the stereo system. It came with a 10-CD changer installed in the boot, but the standard head unit only allows you to change CDs and tracks - no seeking within tracks!! Very annoying if you have a CD where the tracks crossfade or something...

It does have a RDM (random) function, but as with most car CD changers it takes between 10 and 20 seconds to start playing the next track after the first one has finished!

This car handles much better in the hills than my previous car due to the firmer suspension, but obviously you feel a few more bumps in the road!

I hear from the local Mitsubishi dealer that the TH 3.5L has engine mounts that cause it to idle rough when in Drive. He suggested replacing the engine mounts for somewhere around $600 - I said I'd put up with it. I'd be interested to see whether other TH 3.5L owners have this problem, or whether the dealer is just fobbing me off...