02-07 Mitsubishi Lancers - Any Thoughts?

Just curious if anyone here owns or had owned one of these, NON-Evo variants mind you (ES, LS, OZ maybe Ralliart)?

I picked up an '04 ES for my parents as a 2nd car w/ 117k miles that had 1 prev owner and is very clean for under $3k. I did the timing belt/water pump and belts along with plugs and changed all the fluids(motor, coolant, ATF). Seems to ride and handle well for what it is (Jap econobox).

I will be in the market soon for something with 4 doors and have come across many of these as they are inexpensive and seem to be cheap to maintain. Just curious if anyone on the boards here has some experience with them. They seem to be built fairly well and are easy to work on and at least around here I don't see too many driving around like every other Honda,Toyota and Nissan of similar flair.

The wife had one brand new back in 04 I think. I liked it, but it was totaled in an accident with only 20K on the clock so I can't tell you about common problems or an other issues with them. Ours ran perfectly for the short time we had it. The only ones I see around now are trashed though.

they make sense at the right price point. i wouldn't go looking for one, but it sounds like yours was a good enough deal.

Thanks. They are interference motors, hence why I didn't want to chance the belt even though the one I removed from the car looked good. It was an easy job as it's a SOHC (16V) and Mitsu was nice enough to stamp some nice timing marks on everything. The water pump is driven off the belt similar to some other cars so that was done as well. The 4sp auto trans doesn't seem too bad but it does wind out a bit on the highway due to short gearing I noticed. Personally if I were to consider one it'd have to be the 5 sp. I've driven the '08+ models and they're a totally different car and superior in most ways (improved chassis/handling, timing chain, etc) but they fetch considerably more money.

A ton of them were rentals (buying a 5sp guarantees you don't get one of those) and/or sold to people with questionable credit, so neglected examples are the rule, not the exception. This drives the prices down, consequently KBB and NADA show low numbers.

belteshazzar wrote: A ton of them were rentals (buying a 5sp guarantees you don't get one of those) and/or sold to people with questionable credit, so neglected examples are the rule, not the exception. This drives the prices down, consequently KBB and NADA show low numbers.

Very good point. Mitsubishi has, and still does, cater to people with really poor credit who have to have a brand new car. They don't tend to care for the car well. Plus, IIRC, that may have been right around the time frame when Mitsu offered their well known "0/0/0" plan which was zero down and zero payments for 12 months. I was an insurance fraud investigator at the time, and you'd be shocked at the number of Mitsus that were mysteriously "stolen" and set on fire when they were 10-11 months old. Or were abandoned in completely trashed condition.

As cars, they're fine for basic transportation, from my experience with them.

My mother had an '02? '04? (I forget) Sportbak that she bought new. Other than being a wagon it was uninspiring. When mom died in '08, my sister and her family inherited it. My sister can kill any car, and has on many occasions, but the Lancer is still chugging. My nephew at least has some mechanical sympathy, so I assume that he gets the major stuff taken care of.

The Sportbak's were cool looking car. Shame they were automatics only.

I think the Lancers are good as transportation and nothing more.

Just updating my post about this Lancer. I recently helped my mother get a new car (Fiesta S, cheapest deal locally and she liked it, well it was new after all). She had a few misfortunes with this Lancer - The radiator blew out on her, followed shortly by the alternator seizing up which wiped out the belts. The car didn't leave her stranded though. Rad went out close to home, she managed to limp it back and alt. went inside the garage upon start up.

I recently sold my clean '00 Mustang V6/auto and took ownership of said Lancer and have been commuting with it to work 50 miles a day. After this recent batch of repairs the car has been doing fine for me. I've already put it through a series of tests(abuse) and it still returned 29mpg. My last tank, somewhat leisurely but still a few 80+mph highway jaunts netted me 31mpg. It's fairly comfortable and seems roomier inside than the wife's MKV Jetta SE also, the baby seat seems to take less real estate inside. The downsides to this car is that it's very softly sprung, or perhaps that's just the nature of the original struts with 122k miles on them? Seems to have a ton of body roll in the curves. For comparisons sake, my '96 Contour GL felt much more planted on it's original suspension at 160k miles. The brakes are pretty weak, which I do plan on changing this fall. Can't think of pushing myself to make this car more fun, but I guess a set of struts and maybe a rear sway bar (take off OZ?) could be in order if I keep it long enough to make it somewhat less boring.

My Mom had the updated RalliArt (06 if i remember right), from what I remember it was a good little car. Really needs a 6th gear or taller 5th ratio. She would turn like 3k at 70mph. As of recently, a spring in the back of the seatback had sprung loose and kinda poking her in the back. Headlights fog up, think my Dad put a set of rear wheel bearings on it. Other than that, solid little car

Just for what it is worth, look into the parts compatibility for the rear sway before laying down any cash. There was an ES for sale locally, and I was trying to negotiate it for next to nothing, with grand plans of swapping castoff Evo suspension bits for a fun budget rallycross car, but the ES is its own unique beast, with unique suspension, and 4 lug 4 x 100 hubs that aren't shared with the OZ rally or the Evo. There are a couple of good threads on the Evo forums regarding parts compatibility.

Also there is a grassroots style YouTube channel "Lancer Fix" where a amateur mechanic repairs a lot of the known issues on a Lancer of this era, I would recommend it.

Point taken, that would've been quite an undertaking though as the EVO really shares nothing with any other Lancer model of that era except maybe sections of the floor pan and roofskin? lol. It appears all Lancer ES models from 02-05 or so came with the very common 4x100 hub. The OZ/LS came with 4x114.4 pattern, but then sometime after 05 or 06 ES/LS/OZ shared the same 114.4 pattern. The ES got 15" wheels and also got the RSB std from what I've read after '05. A RSB off an OZ/LS or maybe even Ralliart should not be a problem pending I also get the OE mounting brackets and some bolts. It looks like only 2 companies offer an aftermarket one but they're pretty steep (200.00-250.00). Looks like only strut options are KYB/Monroe/Gab/Sensen. There are a few coil-over kits out there but again limited.

I may have come across that youtube channel, quite helpful. This car does have the common P0421 code that is for the pre-cat(manifold) so debating a solution for that(replacement manifold or ebay header). It runs fine for now though. The problem I have with tackling that is rusted exhaust components leading to snapped bolts, studs, lots of swearing and numerous trips to the hardware store.