Thinking of a mitsubishi? DONT!!!
Just a warning in case you were tempted.
We are arboricultural contractors and run a fleet of vehicles of various makes, including a Land Rover, Toyota, Ford, Isuzu and Mitsubishi. I have also owned most other light commercials and 4x4s over the years.
One of our current vehicles is a 55 plate Mitsubishi L200 with a genuine Mitsubishi tipper conversion. This vehicle is still under manufacturers warranty with less than 30,000 miles on the clock. We use this truck to carry two or three people and to tow a chipper weighing approximately 1 ton.
It is now on its third clutch. The first was replaced at 23,000 miles by ourselves and the second at 27,000 only six weeks ago by the main dealer. On Monday 25th February, while carrying three people and towing a chipper, the clutch again failed only nine miles after leaving our yard.
I have been running light commercial and 4x4 vehicles for over twenty years and am very aware of the causes of clutch wear and failure. This recurring problem is not down to driver error, it is clearly an engineering problem.
This is a summary of Mitsubishi’s response to me:
§ The clutch is not covered by warranty regardless of having three fail in such a short period.
§ MAP will recover the vehicle to your premises or a dealer and arrange a hire vehicle. The vehicle will most probably be a small saloon car and will only be provided for two days, regardless of how long it takes to repair the vehicle.
§ As a saloon car is of no use to us as a replacement for the L200, we will have to hire a 4x4 with towbar at our own expense and MAP will refund £75 per day for the two day hire, but no delivery or collection costs.
§ As the clutch failure appears intermittent, they suggest we have the vehicle back until it goes again and repeat the above process until the vehicle is out of warranty. Then we will have to pay for our own recovery, car hire and potential clutch replacement.
Mitsubishi UK are without doubt the worst company I have ever encountered. Their customer service staff, including the manager, are rude, disinterested and seem trained only to regurgitate “policyâ€Â. I will never purchase another Mitsubishi and will sell this one once it is repaired. In this day and age, where competition for vehicle sales should be about more than looking pretty, Mitsubishi have lost the plot.
If mercedes did a pickup then I would have bought a fleet but they dont,so I had to buy this crap.
I had a Warrior( for 2 years and 38.000miles). which I believe is the same technically as the L200 except for different shaped tin.....it seems that Mitsubishi instruct their dealers to adhere to the letter regarding warranty...I was allowed only 500 miles over the scheduled service period before the warranty automatically became invalid...if I added oil they wanted the empty container....if I changed a light bulb using one not from the emergency pack.. on the next service they charged me for a replacement....you say that you changed the first clutch assembly....MMmm!!! that would have put my warranty into "self distruct" mode.... maybe the quality of servicing outside the warranty is inferior to the servicing they can be held responsible for by the manufacturer....
Try either the Toyota Hilux (decent service but since they never ever break you'll never experience it) or Nissan (powerful pickups but not quite as sturdy as the toyotas, great service though). Thinking of a Mitsubishi? Get a Toyota!
Sorry to hear about the pain you went through. Being fairly new to the G sceen, I photgraphed this at an exhibition I attended. I got chatting to (what turnedout to be the sales director) and he said they would be able to put ANYTHING on the back. It was the MB stand at the DESi (mainly military) expo in Docklands last year.
Apologies of this would be taking a 'sledge hammer to a peanut' syndrome.
Spider1V
have three mitsi canters, clucths last 30,000 miles, have four iveco , clutchs last , 32,000 miles , have four transit, cltches last 36,000 miles, but timing tebsionsrs last around the same, and fuck heads up, have 1 sprinter, clutch lasts around 35,000 miles, all in all the mitsi for me have been the most reliable , would never buy another transit !!! . All these vans work in London, overloaded and driven by Manu different drivers . I have now bought 2 renaults with auto gearbox and so far after 1 year no problems , and if there is these are covered under warranty for the next two years.
spider u would have recieved good marks on stephn frys Q I quite intresting pannel game for the reply and picture given . :shock: and i think it could pull the 20 ton chipper
:wink: :lol: :lol: Thanks. So long as I did not get the 'whooping' sound that suits me!
Spider1V
:) :o :lol: :lol:
dont by a vw what ever you do, brother has had its 4th turbo this week (05 van) and countless steering racks, gear boxes, i know hes not a slow driver but its rarely heavy loaded and sits in london or drives his ski to the coast, they are nice in the dealership though, but i put that down to looking after good business.
friend of ours had a mazda and said it never missed a beat?!
Well.... my father's first G was a second hand LHD ex Belgium 240DS.. so finally gets nagged into buying a real one in 87 = 300GDL.
First clutch lasted about 17k miles, next one 3k miles, next one about same. All were done by various Merc dealers in Scotland. Final one realised that the pressure plate was more than a little moist... Getrag had fitted the gearbox input shaft seal back to front .. and this was killing clutches .. next one last until sold at 125k miles (turned up down South as 35k mile from new according to trading standards!!). MB did pay for hotels and some pain .. but as we were 2 hours from a dealer i.e. half a day gone .. it did not cover the pain.
.. so MB/Graz do fail but at least they stand up to the plate.. Mitsu seem lax here.. :cry:
And I only got 179,000 on the origional clutch on the old galaxy, lots of stop start driving too, and a towbar and ehem "wee" trailers, oh and she be "chipped".
And I would hope to get another 100,000 out of it too. :)
Say after me
"a clutch is not a torque converter"
just a thought
Better polish my halo now
Ps
origional turbo too, running on tractor oil
quite frequently turbo failure is either neglecting oil checks and changes
OR
fleece her down the motorway, or otherwise get her well heated, then pull in quick and stop the engine ASAP that "cooks" the turbo nicely.
Steering racks
Well full lock and hold it there, pump squealing, seals straining, something gotta give.
Gearboxs, hmmm, I never had any give trouble. :roll:
And I only got 179,000 on the origional clutch on the old galaxy
Say after me
"a clutch is not a torque converter"
just a thought
Better polish my halo now
And I've NEVER had to replace a clutch on anything. Apart from my wifes Saab 99 Turbo. All of 30 minutes, probably less than 15 if you've done 1 before :D Does that make mine shinier than yours? :roll:
That includes company cars driven to within an inch of their lives for up to 100k miles. Mind you one GM pile of sh*t* was that loose when it went back that if you parked it on a kerb the doors wouldn't shut :shock:
Does that make mine shinier than yours?
Right: 'Goes into Monthy Pythons The Yorkshiremen mode'
I had a 'cough' Citroen Xantia with 300.000 miles on the clock, never changed the clutch on that either, come to think about it: never changed anything except brake components and fluids :lol:
Never even had to top op oil between servicing either, twas a good car.
However it rattled like hell the last year and I got rid of it.
So, do I win.........? :wink:
Right: 'Goes into Monthy Pythons The Yorkshiremen mode'
Thats nothing......................................
I had a 1992 (in 1992) Discovery. I did 180 miles in it, had it for 2 days and it never broke down once, no new clutches, no new turbo's absolutely zilch wrong with it :shock: :shock:
My dad's Mercedes S320 CDI - 305,000 miles. Apart from the consumables (fluids, brakes etc) We had to change the interior light once.
Do I win a Fiver?
Spider1V
gosh, like WOW, I AM impressed :shock:
Are you sure ?????
like I mean it was a LONG time
what a shocking story. ive just managed to persuade a good mate of mine not to lease a mitsu outlander off the back of this story, hes ordered a CRV
gosh, like WOW, I AM impressed :shock:
Are you sure ?????
like I mean it was a LONG time
It was the model after the 'slab' s class. He kept it for three years (on lease). He had a number of deelopment sites he had to visit up and down the country (I some times had to drive him at weekends - one time clocked up just under 1000 miles in a weekend!)
We just loved driving that S class, shame the two he has had since did not make the mark!
I was tempted to buy it, as I knew thw history - full MB service, but when I chatted to the garage they STRONGLY suggested I let it go!
Spider1V
russ 280 wrote
Thats nothing......................................
I had a 1992 (in 1992) Discovery. I did 180 miles in it, had it for 2 days and it never broke down once, no new clutches, no new turbo's absolutely zilch wrong with it
Funniest quote definitely :lol: :lol: :lol:
Spider
I was referring to Russ 280's post
You were posting while I was still typing
But actually actually
the s320 automatic yes, lasted 305,000 miles.
How come my local auto box "specialist" ( for details ask Foneman )
says "och they just fail, no reason, 30,000 miles onwards"
However the Benzworld forum would have had various bitches about "zero maintenance" auto box life.
Enough already
:oops:
Spider1V
russ 280 wroteQuote:Thats nothing......................................
I had a 1992 (in 1992) Discovery. I did 180 miles in it, had it for 2 days and it never broke down once, no new clutches, no new turbo's absolutely zilch wrong with it
Funniest quote definitely :lol: :lol: :lol:
Funny? I thought he was serious.... Yeah on second thoughts I find it hard to believe that a LR product doesn't break down in two days :lol:
This has reduced my serious posting to trivia!!Dont say I didnt warn you all.Mitsubishi UK are C**P :evil: :evil:
This has reduced my serious posting to trivia!!Dont say I didnt warn you all.Mitsubishi UK are C**P Evil or Very Mad Evil or Very Mad
OK quite right no joviality.
I deal with someone in the same business as you Bruce. They leased a Mitsu. L200 for what ever / month £199 maybe? from the local stealer. I guess they were quite pleased with themselves running around in a nice shiny new truck. Had the dealer fit a load bay insert, one of the drop in plastic ones rather than the spray on type stuff. All OK until they returned it. Cost them £6k in damage charges a big portion being damage due to the plastic insert rubbing the paint off and causing corrosion :cry:
Personally I wouldn't expect anything better from MB or any other Main Dealer/Manufacturer though
Bruce, sorry for your troubles mate, wouldn't like to be in your shoes right now. You are right though, shift it fast ASAP.
Currently run transits,350LWB 125s have tried Renault, Toyota and Citroen previously but with too big repair bills as they age. Although mine tend to fall apart before they stop altogether.
One question is your dealer an independant franchisee or part of the manuf. group? Over here better service/warrenty support generally comes from the independant fraternity as they look towards the repeat business aspect more.
Have fun and if all else fails send them some poison ivy or something with your wishes.
Regards,
Mike
They are a main dealer but admit that they are tied by Mitsy UK and cannot even fit a heavy duty clutch as its against policy.So I get the truck back tomorrow ten days later with the same clutch a £1000 hire invoice and grossly high blood pressure.They say wait till it fails again,pay to have it replaced again and send us the clutch to examine.I already know it will be heat damaged but what is causing it.They point blank refuse to accept there is an underlying problem and as such will not pay for any of my costs.So far approx £3250!!!!!!!
They are a main dealer but admit that they are tied by Mitsy UK and cannot even fit a heavy duty clutch as its against policy.So I get the truck back tomorrow ten days later with the same clutch a £1000 hire invoice and grossly high blood pressure.They say wait till it fails again,pay to have it replaced again and send us the clutch to examine.I already know it will be heat damaged but what is causing it.They point blank refuse to accept there is an underlying problem and as such will not pay for any of my costs.So far approx £3250!!!!!!!
Sounds as if Mitsu UK are getting their customers to pay for the R&D of their products?? - You pay for a new one, and if it breaks you pay for another, and they will send it away? I would be billing them for my R&D time and effort! :evil: :x
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We have got toyotas and yes they are far superior and the waaranty makes mitsubishi look like the worst possible choice.Hindsight!!!!!!