FTO Reliability?
Discussion
I'm thinking of buying an FTO, they seem very good value these days but i am concerned that because they are getting abit old i may have trouble with it.
I was looking at Civic Type-r's are Golf's, I do 18,000 per year so they low cost FTO will somewhat cover my petrol bill.
Would an FTO be unto the job as a daily driver for 3 years or so, any big expensive things that can go wrong?
Now i assume parts are hard to get as its a Jap car, would this mean my repairs could take a long time (using my work holidays as my cars broken for long periods)
For fuel economy which is the best car to go for, is it the GR manual or its it best to just get the GPX Mivec?
Thanks
I was looking at Civic Type-r's are Golf's, I do 18,000 per year so they low cost FTO will somewhat cover my petrol bill.
Would an FTO be unto the job as a daily driver for 3 years or so, any big expensive things that can go wrong?
Now i assume parts are hard to get as its a Jap car, would this mean my repairs could take a long time (using my work holidays as my cars broken for long periods)
For fuel economy which is the best car to go for, is it the GR manual or its it best to just get the GPX Mivec?
Thanks
I ran an GPX FTO for 2 years covering 50k miles taking it, I think, to about 80k miles with no issues. A steady 30mpg using Optimax at the time on mainly long motorway runs.
Servicing at a Mitsubishi Ralliart dealer cost a fortune but nothing went wrong at all. Tiptronic gearbox stood up to lots of high rev changes flawlessly but I don't doubt parts would cost a fair chunk.
They are now are bargain to buy, use ftooc.org for a wealth of info.
Servicing at a Mitsubishi Ralliart dealer cost a fortune but nothing went wrong at all. Tiptronic gearbox stood up to lots of high rev changes flawlessly but I don't doubt parts would cost a fair chunk.
They are now are bargain to buy, use ftooc.org for a wealth of info.
Edited by LegacyLad on Sunday 16th December 20:59
My brother is running a V6 2.0 Litre manual FTO and he has had pretty much a years trouble free motoring. Its a great car which handles superbly. The only thing which has let it down for me is the brakes. It may just be his car though as he had a problem with a sticking caliper.
They are certainly a good car to drive and you won't get too bored too sone with it.
On the other hand, a civic type R will be a good car to drive day to day and when you want to go for a hoon, the power is there. The Golf GTI... All depends what MK your after. MK2 - Quite old now and basic. Still a good laugh. MK3 - Again quite old and underpowered for the size of the car. I can't really comment on the MK4 and MK5 golfs as i have never driven one. I have however come up against a MK5 GTI in my Civic VTI and it did seem slow.
They are certainly a good car to drive and you won't get too bored too sone with it.
On the other hand, a civic type R will be a good car to drive day to day and when you want to go for a hoon, the power is there. The Golf GTI... All depends what MK your after. MK2 - Quite old now and basic. Still a good laugh. MK3 - Again quite old and underpowered for the size of the car. I can't really comment on the MK4 and MK5 golfs as i have never driven one. I have however come up against a MK5 GTI in my Civic VTI and it did seem slow.
I've had a GPX through various states of tune.
For the first 50k of my miles mine was road trim, but with a stainless exhaust and an ITG air filter (it needed an exhaust from when I picked it up) ... sounded really good on cam.
Depends on where you are in the UK, but prices for bits are coming down now as there are so many of them about and labour isn't as bad as it once was. Finding somebody competent to work on it though isn't easy. I can reccommend Giles at Japco who did all the major service work on my car after I found him. He also has a good selection of sorted and cheap cars.
The cam belt change isn't cheap and the rear-bank spark plugs are an engine out job, but you just have to put in the right plugs and servicing intervals co-incide with the cam belt.
Looking after one yourself is easy, so long as you've done that sort of thing before.
Sold mine with 150k miles (IIRC) on the clock with a lot of money spent on the chassis, suspension and the drive chain I miss it, but it was running an engine that needed properly looking after - like rebilding every few thousand miles. I managed to make it very poorly on the crap petrol the French us and hammering up mountain passes for a few hours at a time not going below 8k rpm.
If you get one, and don't mess with it, they are good GT cars, but make sure you get a manual as the tiptronic boxes licenced from Porche aren't that good with a few thousand miles under their belt and the standard torque converters are a little weak.
As standard they are fast on motorways, but not around town.
If you want to tune one up, get a GR and not a GPX like me - the GRs are easier to balance and have less to go wrong.
ETA - depends on how you drive to MPG. On the trip to Monaco I was getting 7 mpg on some runs. Before all the work I'd get about 18-25mpg.
For the first 50k of my miles mine was road trim, but with a stainless exhaust and an ITG air filter (it needed an exhaust from when I picked it up) ... sounded really good on cam.
Depends on where you are in the UK, but prices for bits are coming down now as there are so many of them about and labour isn't as bad as it once was. Finding somebody competent to work on it though isn't easy. I can reccommend Giles at Japco who did all the major service work on my car after I found him. He also has a good selection of sorted and cheap cars.
The cam belt change isn't cheap and the rear-bank spark plugs are an engine out job, but you just have to put in the right plugs and servicing intervals co-incide with the cam belt.
Looking after one yourself is easy, so long as you've done that sort of thing before.
Sold mine with 150k miles (IIRC) on the clock with a lot of money spent on the chassis, suspension and the drive chain I miss it, but it was running an engine that needed properly looking after - like rebilding every few thousand miles. I managed to make it very poorly on the crap petrol the French us and hammering up mountain passes for a few hours at a time not going below 8k rpm.
If you get one, and don't mess with it, they are good GT cars, but make sure you get a manual as the tiptronic boxes licenced from Porche aren't that good with a few thousand miles under their belt and the standard torque converters are a little weak.
As standard they are fast on motorways, but not around town.
If you want to tune one up, get a GR and not a GPX like me - the GRs are easier to balance and have less to go wrong.
ETA - depends on how you drive to MPG. On the trip to Monaco I was getting 7 mpg on some runs. Before all the work I'd get about 18-25mpg.
Edited by Foolish Dave on Monday 17th December 14:21
danrc said:
They are certainly a good car to drive and you won't get too bored too sone with it.
I had one for 10 mins and got bored of it 
_Al_ said:
Someone I know has blown a gearbox, had the radiator die, thrown £1,200 at air-con refurbishment, lost both CV joints and had a rear subframe corrode away underneath him.
All this in a little over 3,000 motorway miles...
That one actually All this in a little over 3,000 motorway miles...
_Al_ said:
Someone I know has blown a gearbox, had the radiator die, thrown £1,200 at air-con refurbishment, lost both CV joints and had a rear subframe corrode away underneath him.
All this in a little over 3,000 motorway miles...
gearbox was a linkage issue through lack of maintanence, rad was not bad for 120K's, air con had been broke for years, cv joints are wear and tear.All this in a little over 3,000 motorway miles...
was surprised about the subframe as she had little rust on her IIRC.
in other words, FTO's are great little cars, and has good reliability for a 13 year old car.
however for the insurance you'll pay, you can get sooooo much quicker machinerey
_Batty_ said:
_Al_ said:
Someone I know has blown a gearbox, had the radiator die, thrown £1,200 at air-con refurbishment, lost both CV joints and had a rear subframe corrode away underneath him.
All this in a little over 3,000 motorway miles...
gearbox was a linkage issue through lack of maintanence, rad was not bad for 120K's, air con had been broke for years, cv joints are wear and tear.All this in a little over 3,000 motorway miles...
was surprised about the subframe as she had little rust on her IIRC.
in other words, FTO's are great little cars, and has good reliability for a 13 year old car.
however for the insurance you'll pay, you can get sooooo much quicker machinerey
I'd still have it if he sold it. Just for the noise.
Had the misfortune of driving one to a car show a few years back. Gearbox had a feint release-bearing-esque noise to it and was ever so slightly notchy when we left, 500 miles later it was absolutely shagged, gearbox sounded like an air raid siren, another 300 miles or so and it was dead, only had 3 gears but thankfully most of it was motorway miles so limping it was ok.
Alternator and battery died while we were there, new battery to the tune of 80 quid from hellfrauds got us going again.
18 inch wheels made it feel very detached from the road, swapping back to originals made it all the better.
Have to say though, for all I would have torched it had it been mine at the time, it was a bloody good fun car to drive, with quite a nice soundtrack too. I think it's fair to say this wasn't the best looked after example, t'was a nice one but there was a lot to be done to it, bit tatty around the edges, so I'd say if you picked a decent one up without intergalactic milage it should be fairly robust.
Alternator and battery died while we were there, new battery to the tune of 80 quid from hellfrauds got us going again.
18 inch wheels made it feel very detached from the road, swapping back to originals made it all the better.
Have to say though, for all I would have torched it had it been mine at the time, it was a bloody good fun car to drive, with quite a nice soundtrack too. I think it's fair to say this wasn't the best looked after example, t'was a nice one but there was a lot to be done to it, bit tatty around the edges, so I'd say if you picked a decent one up without intergalactic milage it should be fairly robust.
Oh, and undersealing, as mentioned above, is a must. don't get one that's already in the UK without it, keep an eye on it and keep it topped up!
The cars a JDC and, so I am told, they don't use the same stuff to keep the roads ice free. This means the underside of their cars don't rust so quick, so they don't underseal from new
The cars a JDC and, so I am told, they don't use the same stuff to keep the roads ice free. This means the underside of their cars don't rust so quick, so they don't underseal from new
My mum has owned a 1995 FTO Mivec for about 3 years and it's never skipped a beat. She can't look after cars for shit either, think she didn't have a service for almost 10,000 miles (1 year!) and it didn't seem to do much damage. They seem solid. The only things I think have gone wrong with it are that the suspension bushes seem to be done for but I doubt they've ever been changed and it's an old car.
They're quite fun, try and find a manual though.
They're quite fun, try and find a manual though.
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