by fuel » Mon Jan 19, 2009 3:25 pm
Oh yeah for sure I'm definitely not saying Mitsubishis are the most reliable cars out there - it's pretty obvious I would be lieing if I said they were. At the end of the day you don't really buy a Mitsubishi for their reliability (not these days anyway). However the same could be said for Subarus, Fiats, Alfas etc and people are still buying them. Why? Because they all have something which appeals to them. For me it's their designs, the sheer fun you get from driving one, and the ability to make them go such much better with a little knowledge and the masses of aftermarket off the shelf go-fast bits for them.
I would say the only reason why Liberos are a bit of a nightmare is because they were produced from 1991 right up until 2005, so there was bound to be some revision of parts, and something superceeding something a few times during the long production. Most of the Libero mechanicals should be solely based on Lancer, but as the Lancer progressed through its many generations while the Libero stayed on the original generation, there would have been some use of the 'parts bin' of the next generation effectively been put into the earlier generation.
NZ-new models aren't one generation behind - there are many models which have been sold here more or less the same time they were available in Japan - before the rest of the world like Australia and America even had them available. NZ-new models tend to be clones of the European spec models in terms of engine choices and trim levels. There are also alot of run-on production going on, for instance L300 vans which were first released in 1986 still being sold new in 2009, 88 shape Lancer/Mirages still being sold up until 1996 along side Lancer/Mirages 2 generations ahead.
LOUD NOISES!!!