1994 Mitsubishi 3000GT Consumer Reviews

Unbelievable car. I have owned my 1994 base model, non-turbo, Viper Red 3000GT and used it as a daily driver for ten years now. It is without a doubt the best car i have ever owned. I was a little skeptical at first thinking i would only keep it a couple years to avoid high import repair costs, but IT HARDLY EVER BREAKS DOWN!!! Just standard maintenance. Sure parts are a little pricey because the cars are kinda rare, but is a rare event when you have to purchase them. The styling of this car is absolutely timeless and sexy and it is a rare car so it earns that extra prestige, people still ask me if it is a new car even though it is 15 years old now!!! A couple people have asked me if it was a Ferrari!!! (it was actually designed to look like one in case you didn't know). But unlike Ferrari's it is very low maintenace and does phemnominal on gas mileage i have actually gotten a little over 600 miles out of a tank before!!! (across 3 states) 600/20 gallon tank=30mpg from a sports car that is great. The high speed and handling is awesome. Its not the best off the line and won't really squeal the tires much unless you have a VR4 since it is a little heavy with most of the weight (the engine) directly over the front tires and it has a japanese engine with lower torque, I am used to camaros so i noticed that, but from 30 mph and up and even 100mph and up this car performs very well and horsepower can always be added. It is also very comfortable, it feels like the cockpit of a jet because everything is in the right place and centered around the driver. If i had any complaints about this car it would be that the backseat is pretty small and uncomfortable, but i barely needed it anyway. Problems: I have heard people complain about having to replace expensive transmissions. Transmissions will go out in any car given enough miles, that is normal. Some things i learned about the transmission, first of all have someone who really knows what there doing on these cars rebuild it or buy a new or refurbished one since they are tough to rebuild and even tougher to reassemble and seal correctly. Second, be careful replacing your alternator or look closely after someone else does it because replacing the alternator requires moving the radiator. I had someone replace my alternator for me one day because i was pressed for time and when they moved the radiator, they bent my transmission cooling lines that connect to the radiator and my transmission went out a few weeks later, then i noticed the bent lines that caused it. I know have flexible hoses to prevent this from happening. Third, replacing the transmission filter every 30,000miles is a very good idea because the filter clogs and causes the fluid not to flow resulting in you transmission commiting suicide. I changed the filter at 70,000 miles and it made it to 105,000 miles i don't know if it was replaced before 70,000miles but over a 100k miles is very possible with this transmission. 30k miles after i rebuilt it i thought the transmission blew again because of the terrible mechanics i had rebuild it for cheap. So i parked it for a while, then one day i decided to change the filter and fluid and it worked like a charm. It runs fine now so changing the filter every 30k miles is a very very good idea i also put bigger magnets in the transmission pan to help keep the metal debris from clogging the filter prematurely. Anyways just wanted to share that helpful knowledge to fellow and prospective 3000gt owners. The transmission was the only serious problem i ever had with this car but i learned alot and pretty well have it figured out know, which is why i felt it important to share that knowledge. I also learned that Optima batteries work best especially if you have a stereo system or if you are having trouble with batteries not holding up. Also if you hear a little ticking froom the lifters don't freak out, that is normal for these cars unfortuanetly because the ports in the heads are to small and tend to clog. There are better cylinder heads out there that don't have this problem, but you don't have to replace the lifters and or heads!!! because that is costly. A Mitsubishi mechanic once told me to put a cap full or two of ATF transmission fluid (or factory Mitsubishi transmission Fluid) into the oil because it has a good cleaning agent and will clean the clogged ports. I have done this every 3-6months (when i notice the ticking) since it started at 45k miles and it works! simple and cheap! I never had to replace a thing. I'm at 140k miles now and my engine still runs very strong and i have never seviced the engine other than belts and a water pump. Oh yeah be sure to replace the belts (paticularly the timing belt and the water pump, but you should just change all the belts while your at it) at 70k miles!!! because this is a zero clearance engine which means if you don't change it and blow a water pump or timing belt your timing will go out of time and cause the pistons to crush your valves into the heads, and then you rebuild or replace the entire engine. It never happened to me because i did the maintenance but i have heard horror stories and this isn't the only car that is like that, many Japanese cars do it. I hope it doesn't sound like i had to work on this car alot because i didn't, keep in mind i have owned it ten years, and every car has it's little qwerks that are sure to need attention from time to time but i have spent less time repairing this than any other car i have owned and i just never could bring myself to sell it. It is a little harder and a little more time consuming to repair, and a little harder to find parts for and a little more expensive to repair than say an american car, but when you do it right it will also last along time and averages that score out to about the ame as far as maintence costs compared to maintence costs. Foreign cars usually are more expensive to but at least this one doesn't break down as much as most foreign cars so it works out pretty well. A few people claim that these cars had problems but not many, and the people who do are the people who don't really know anything about cars or take the time to learn from the problems. So if you don't know much about these cars you are better off taking it someone who does for repairs and you will have very few issues. I think the car was a very good deal overall, I rarely ever had to work on it and it was always ready to go. I definately got my money's worth out of it and i can't believe how low the blue book is right now, you can get them really cheap it is sure to be a collectors item. A very smooth driving comfortable and absolutely gorgeous car!!! I can't believe they quit making them :( People still compliment the car and stop me and ask me about the car all the time even after all this time. I entered it another car show a couple weeks ago and for a mostly stock car other than 18" custom wheels and a few minor modifications such as painted brake calipers it still draws alot of attention at the show even better than cars who had a lot more car show worthy modifications. So in conclusion this an extremely cool car and beautiful car with excellent reliabilty and gas mileage. I would recomend this car to anyone who wants a very reliable and stylish sports car.