Outlander Reliability

As a first time Mitsu owner, I am receiving a lot of crap from my friends about purchasing a "rice burner".  They tell me that Mitsu's reliability is crap and it'll cost me lots of money to fix it because it's a foreign auto. 
 
I have a 2007 Outlander XLS (sun/sound/luxury/navi).  The vehicle seems solid to me, but I was wondering what others felt.
 
Thanks.

Sounds like the statement of somebody who knows nothing about the company. And it sounds like FUD more than anything else. Reliability is one of the reasons why I bought a Mitsubishi, having owned a 1992 Lancer which never had any engine problem until now, and that car has survived several floods and and extreme heat in the tropical climate of the Philippines.  I've read from other forums that the crappy built Mitsubishi's are not the imported ones, but the ones built in the US, especially those during the days under the Daimler Chrysler partnership.

same sentiments here...
i just recently moved to the states and also came from  the Philippines
i left my 93 lancer behind with 450,000 kms on it last December 06...and from what my bro tells me, its still rolling away
Mitsubishi is a truly global company...though i still feel it has to do something to get the "tickle" of the the NA market
the reviews that are circulating around dont really exactly give due credit to their cars and their design
threre's a lot of personal opinion into them and double standards being used IMHO
 
BUT reliability wise, you should be good, esp on the outlanders
Mitsu is slowly re-establishi their presence in NA....so that would mean better cars in the coming years

Ok, I had a 2005 outie, reason to jump to 07 was 4WD, Anti lock and all the extras.. I had a FWD and standard brakes etc.. Nothing fancy.  I had 0 problems with the 05.

I looked at Suzuki XL-7, Hyundai, Pacifica. 

XL-7 was a bigger truck and had that GM feel (Made in Canada same base as Equinox).  3rd row bigger, but man the rear view was long away.
Hyandai dealer was a jerk..
No 4wd on the Pacifica anywhere.

But having good results and all the nice toys (might be last new car for me) I had to go with the 07 XLS.. It out everything.

And so far, love it, Switch to 4WD and away I went..

The Nav unit is a mitsu, from the electric division.. They designed the CAN system to great extent.  Its a car on a network..Sun roof and all control..

I think the original Datsun where junk..

Its your choice, Japan, Korean, American, or Chinese

You know, its funny. If Jap cars are such pieces of ****, then why do sooo many car companies rate them above everything else?
 
Not to mention, the only time a Jap car company ends up with a crappy car, is when they are built right here in the US. Take the 1990-1999 Eclipses for example... possibly one of the least reliable cars ever built by Mitsubishi. Guess where they were built, thats right, HERE. Chicago IL.
 
I heard a story, my brothers friend deals with the manufacture of electric motors for cars, like the windows, wipers etc... So they have to send their product off to be tested by the manufacturer. They sent them to Honda and Mitsubishi, they both failed. They then proceeded to send them to GM, who accepted them.

 I would buy a Mitsubishi because they built one of the best car Engine the
Saturn Engine and built planes during WW2. The Mitsubishi Zero or meat balls.
 
Crappy car whatever brand, if built in Detroit will come out piece of cr__p.
 
I had 2 Mitsu cars and all built in Japan. I even drove on of them without any brake pads left at the front just the rotors and plate grinding together and car still stop with no accident. It was the day that my heart was pounding hard. but my Mitsu Mirage never let me down, I was able to reach my Tech with no brake pads.
 
That's Mitsubishi. I rather have 3 Diamond Logo than having an Olympic Logo like the Audi
 
 

Your insane for saying you rather have a Mitsu than an Audi.
 
Best Mitsu bluck has to be the 4G63. Maybe the new 4b11 (i think) EVO engine will be better.

ah the Saturn engines...theyre really not that bad (at all)
these old school engines made Mitsu famous during the late 70s to 80s (if i remember correctly)
if im not mistaken, these were the engines that powered the popular Mitsu Lancer "box-types", in my region of the globe (southeast asia)

I never understood the term 'Rice Burners'..I think all cars are Camel Dung Burners
 
Frankly, if it wasn't for people buying Japanese Cars, we'd be driving Pintos and Pacers.  Competition is good
 
If it's worth anything...Consumer Reports gave the Outtie the highest marks for reliability..their general ratings are arguable since it's subjective, but the reliability numbers are more scientific.
 
The only issue I've had is a minor adjustment of the 3rd seat lockdown latch..and the few TSBs issues that aren't major enough for a dealer visit..not bad for a brand new engine and vehicle
 
As far as differences between American and Japanese..you can't say blanket statements any longer that Japanese are more reliable than American.  Buicks have been near the top for years, and Hondas and Toyotas are having their share of recalls. 
 
I wouldn't worry about costs either..you've gove a killer warranty.

All cars are only as good as their owners.  They all must be taken care of.

Thanks everyone.  I think some of my friends are just in the "always buy American" mode of thinking.  They really don't understand that most of their "American" autos were manufactured in other countries.  I like my Outtie.  And like someone posted, with a 5 year 60,000 bumper-to-bumper, and a 10 year 100,000 powertrain...it seems like Mitsu is standing behind its product.
 
Thanks again for the info.

It's a global market now..
 
This reminds me of the Saturn campaign 'Rethink American'  Which they've rightfuly backed off the 'American' part
 
All the models are shared with Opel (minus the Outlook) Specifically withthe new VUE...It was largely engineeered in Korea, styled in Germany, and is built in Mexico.  The new Astra is a Euro carryover (some changes to make them legal) and is even built in Belgium
 
 

My families experience with Mitsubishi has been awesome.

2001 Mitsubishi Diamente - just about to roll over to the big 200k! 199,998 miles and still riding strong. This car has been well taken care of by my father and has taken us VERY far. Granted its not in a racing condition, but its got all the pep it had when we bought it. The only thing he didn't do is change the Timing belt at the 70-100k mark (and still hasn't done it). So over all... Mitsubishi quality is solid!

We had 91 Eclipse that was sporting 170,000 miles, manual LS model. Awesome car, we traded it in for the Diamante. No problem at all, ran strong and also never had the timing belt changed. My dad thinks its worthless to change the belt and its just bull sh!t that the deal says it needs to be changed. Judging by his experience it may be partially true. I'd personally get it changed as needed though.

For both he never got the extended warranty and never had to replace anything. We put Slick50 oil additive at all changes at 3k. We did all brake, and shock changes ourselves other than that... no engine or trans issues. But, unlike my dad, again, I did buy the extended warranty since it was only $500 for me. Not bad for a feel good insurance policy.

For these reasons I bought myself the Outtie 07 XLS :-)

My first Mitsubishi was a 1991 Eclipse.  That thing was a totally beat down car.  It burned & leaked more oil than all of Iraq.  But she never let me down.  Even when I traded her in, she had 192k miles.  She wasn't pretty, she didn't smell good, but she got me every where I needed to go. 

Even Ferrari, BMW, Porsche, Mercedes, Audi, etc build lemons occasionally.  It's not necessarily their fault, but just happens as part of the manufacturing process.  Of course some manufacturers should have lemonade stands on every corner instead of dealerships, but we won't mention names.
 
I've owned a few first model year vehicles, 1 domestic vs 4 japanese.  The domestic was "Found On Road Dead" after 6,000 miles.  The japanese models were all flawless performers with no down time before trade-in.  This isn't to say they were all assembled in Japan, but most of the parts were built there.
 
Besides who came up with the new catch phrase in the Ford commercials - "And yes, Ford is now equal with Toyota in quality".  Who verified this?  A class of 3rd graders?  You can easily skew the numbers to say what you want.  Makes me think of the DirectTV commercial where a room full of cable executives are talking about ways to lie about the numbers to make them look better than DirectTV.
 
Some car magazines and so-called independent testing labs get some of their funding from big auto manufacturers, so of course they embelish those manufacturers products.