mitsibushis are tough i can prove it

i bought a 2000 mirage de auto with 10000 miles back in 2000.i hated the car for no reason other than i need and drive trucks normaly.i have neglected this car horribly and it just  keeps going just like the day i bought it.some will call me bad names but thats o.k i just didnt care  but now i do,im sold im mitsibushi all the way now and looking for a new one .lancer probably.it has never let me down except it lost its ground and was down for 1 month fixed free somehow i never knew what corrected it.ive got 225000 miles on it .iknow i have not changed the oil more than 8 times .the last oil had over 30000 miles on it.i changed the tranny fluid at 90000 miles.it runs great still and gets 29mpg in the summer  (a.c)the last time i checked it it got 33mpg (winter no a.c)i had to put a coil pak on it at 195000 miles because i never changed the plugs till then the electrodes were burnt so bad they were gapped at 99 thousanths.the gap must have put to much load on the coil pak.the car still ran o.k a little rough but driveable.the timing belt is the original belt.i want to change it soon but need some advice i hope someone here can tell me what i need and what to expect im sold on these cars and alot of other people that know me are too.ive been lucky and will take care of the next one i promise.i did put a tie rod on it at about 120000 miles.   timing belt advice would be great thanks.the mirage runs as good as the day i bought it. the a.c is so cold it will almost hurt you.also how long can i expect the auto tranny to last. kinda a factor in changing the timing belt. did i mention it was a rental car and also was wrecked.

wow thats pretty impressive. Mitsubishi mostly gets its bad name from the DSM's which have a steriotype of breaking all the time. But alot of the new mitsu's really are pretty reliable.

im embarrsed to treat my daily driver like that but  i do. its a great car i cant imagine a honda or yota being this depedable and im a toyota freak (trucks)

Funny how the only unreliable Mitsus were built here lol

that's a pretty tough car dude. i'm not gunna lie i hate honda's but have one as a dd. never changed anything and get 39mpg, it's a 97. and i'm not gunna lie, like almost all dsm's around, when it doesn't work which seems to happen a lot i'm glad to have a beater that'll run forever. but i've never heard of a dsm that didn't break like yours,lol congrats

but the thing is, his mirage isnt a dsm, thats why it runs so good. i know alot of people who have very reliable mitsubishi cars, dsm are just... bleh lmao

i would be happy with a civic i think and there are more to choose from.ill probably end up with a mid 2000 lancer 5 speed all ive found so far have been auto,s.some body help me with this timing belt.can backyard mechanic do it?.ive did v-8 chains ,head gaskets, and other somewhat normal repairs.but this timeing belt makes me nervous.what do i need to do or know.?i thought about buying one just like it and maybe using the old one for parts but i know what will happen .the new one will be p.o.s and old little whitey(its white) will be sitting there with nothing wrong and a missing vital parts.

im sorry im out of the loop but what is a DSM?

it is a diamond star motor, the ones actually built by mitsubishi, not umong the most reliable.. the are found in the 1990-99 eclipse and some other cars...

a well taken care of 1g will last a pretty long time.

thank you that explains it. ive heard or seen dsm mentioned and had no clue what they meant. ive edited this post after some research  im thinking now the dsm engines were made in illanoise(i cant spell that state)at first i stated that was kinda backwards i thought .being the less desirable motors being built by mitsibushi i assumed built in japan.

The timeing belt is relitivley easy to do but, you may have to pull the motor out to get to it.

thanks renee  all i need is a little confidence to start ripping it apart.ive got a truck too drive and a cherry picker.is pulling the engine streightforward or are they some tricks? i believe i would try do it in car first ,its a 1.8 by the way.