The Mitsubishi FTO was Japan's 1995 Car of the Year, and since Andrea got her 1995 GPX, we found out why. This smallish sports coupe has 200 ps (197 hp) standard from its 2 litre (1998 cc) naturally aspirated engine; it handles so well you find yourself surprised it's a front wheel drive; and it looks damn fine to boot. The first place we saw this car was in Gran Turismo on the Playstation. At first we thought the back looked kind of funny, but the rest of the car was sweet. After a while, we came to like the rear view more and more, and now think it's also great. However, I think the front 3/4 view is still one of the best.
Since we bought the FTO in September of 2000, we've spent a fair bit on it, one way and another. The first thing was that the idle stepper motor died on us suddenly, causing the car to stall round corners...in the middle of intersections...at traffic lights....... Most embarrassing. That cost us $400 for a reconditioned one from Mitsi. Now a year later we find out about Kempy's Bitsa Mitsis, and were told we could have got one from there for about $170. D'oh! Anyway, then we decided we wanted more out of the engine, so we went to Al's Mufflers over the Shore, and they built us a 2 1/4" exhaust (no catalytic converter) for $360 - plus $60 for the shiny tip. To go along with this we put a Trust Airinx panel filter in the standard box, as Peter Hopkins at Advanced Imports told us we wouldn't gain particularly more with a pod over the panel filter; the FTO being a non-turbo car.
Most recently, we spent $1000 getting the camshaft seals replced, along with the decidedly dodgy-looking cam-belt. When the car went for its regular service at Mitsi Newmarket, they told us the rocker cover gaskets were leaking, and quoted us $100 parts... 3 hours labour.....grand total $400!!! (Nice labour charges there, Mitsubishi). So we got some more quotes, and put it into One Stop Mechanical in Penrose, for $150 - including parts and 1 hour labour. However, they rang up a couple of hours later, saying it wasn't the rocker cover gaskets at all. Being a skeptical sod, I went to have a look, and sure enough, the (very obvious) leak, was nowhere near the rocker covers, which were bone dry. So $1000 (and a full day's labour) later.....the cam seals were poked, and bathing the cam-belt in oil. Funnily enough, it was therefore also well stuffed....but strangely Mitsi never appeared to have picked this up.......