Mitsubishi FTO - Any On Here ?
Discussion
These Must surely be absolutely THE Performance Car bargain at the moment ?? And surely they Won't get any £ cheaper ??
They used to be so common, but I hadn't seen one for ages until this steel grey GR example turned up.
Stunning looks, a nice interior, good seats and driving position, 4 seats, good size boot, a slick gear box.....and very characterful......it turns lots of heads.
The only downsides I've discovered are ( like a Fiat Coupe ) that they are front wheel drive, the steering is vague and lacks feed back ( premium tires may ? Improve this a tad ) the engine although low mileage, is by design, rather noisy / course / harsh and the gearing seems a tad low. But with circa 178 Bhp in a fairly light car, it doesn't hang around.
I'm very taken with it....
Any one else own / owned one ?
They used to be so common, but I hadn't seen one for ages until this steel grey GR example turned up.
Stunning looks, a nice interior, good seats and driving position, 4 seats, good size boot, a slick gear box.....and very characterful......it turns lots of heads.
The only downsides I've discovered are ( like a Fiat Coupe ) that they are front wheel drive, the steering is vague and lacks feed back ( premium tires may ? Improve this a tad ) the engine although low mileage, is by design, rather noisy / course / harsh and the gearing seems a tad low. But with circa 178 Bhp in a fairly light car, it doesn't hang around.
I'm very taken with it....
Any one else own / owned one ?
Edited by neutral 3 on Friday 27th March 01:46
Having owned an FTO GPX followed by a 16vt Coupe, I would take the Fiat every time. Reasons?
...the Tip box was a hateful thing. Manual would likely be much better (I've not driven one to compare, mind).
...the FTO tramlined like you wouldn't believe.
...power, despite being very similar, felt much more progressive and usable in the Fiat.
...the interior of the FTO was dull and felt very low-rent. The Fiat was just a nicer place to be.
...if it's your thing (it wasn't mine) then the Fiat is very easy to tune to 250bhp. I'm not aware of any realistic improvements that you can make to the FTO.
...may not be important to you, but the FTO's image has been sullied by the vast number of then which have been Barried to within an inch of their lives. Other people just tend to like the Fiat more
That may come across as overly critical of the FTO which is perhaps unfair. I certainly enjoyed owning mine, but at the end of the day the Fiat I think is just the better car.
...the Tip box was a hateful thing. Manual would likely be much better (I've not driven one to compare, mind).
...the FTO tramlined like you wouldn't believe.
...power, despite being very similar, felt much more progressive and usable in the Fiat.
...the interior of the FTO was dull and felt very low-rent. The Fiat was just a nicer place to be.
...if it's your thing (it wasn't mine) then the Fiat is very easy to tune to 250bhp. I'm not aware of any realistic improvements that you can make to the FTO.
...may not be important to you, but the FTO's image has been sullied by the vast number of then which have been Barried to within an inch of their lives. Other people just tend to like the Fiat more
That may come across as overly critical of the FTO which is perhaps unfair. I certainly enjoyed owning mine, but at the end of the day the Fiat I think is just the better car.
I had a manual steel grey FTO identical to yours for a few years (though I eventually changed the alloys) and then upgraded it to an immaculate and hugely missed Symphonic Silver manual GPX.
I liked both cars a lot although the GPX was noticably quicker and sounded better due to a decent quality stainless exhaust. I also much preferred the facelifted looks once I owned a facelift, though before that I'd always thought the pre-facelift looked better!
Personally always felt it drove very well, cornered fairly neatly and had enough straight line gruint to be fun (though compared to most modern hatches it wasn't that quick). It really did turn peoples heads though, in a way that few £1000 cars can do, and the V6 sound with the right (non chavvy) exhaust is just lovely.
My GPX when I sold it last year (just got a bit pricey getting it through MTOs and the insurance/fuel costs weren't great for a budget car):
Only pic I can find when I had both for a few months:
Did a few PH meets (Cheddar, Wilton house, tunnel runs) in it and although usually the cheapest thing there it never looked too out of place to me:
And it was surprisingly awesome on dodgy tracks and carrying all sorts of gear (take the rear seats out then the boot divider and you can get a very usable space). This is after driving it all the way to the end of Brean down (usually a 4x4 track only) for work:
Taken out here:
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Brean+Down,+Bu...
Great cars, mine is missed a lot but me but also by my old mum who loved driving it around when it was parked at theirs and I was trying to sell it. She said that people really did stare at it when it pulled up in Tesco and a 65 year old lady struggled out.
Anyway, enjoy yours, nice to see any on the road nowadays and especially cars that haven't been ruined with nasty kits and terrible cheap paint jobs
I liked both cars a lot although the GPX was noticably quicker and sounded better due to a decent quality stainless exhaust. I also much preferred the facelifted looks once I owned a facelift, though before that I'd always thought the pre-facelift looked better!
Personally always felt it drove very well, cornered fairly neatly and had enough straight line gruint to be fun (though compared to most modern hatches it wasn't that quick). It really did turn peoples heads though, in a way that few £1000 cars can do, and the V6 sound with the right (non chavvy) exhaust is just lovely.
My GPX when I sold it last year (just got a bit pricey getting it through MTOs and the insurance/fuel costs weren't great for a budget car):
Only pic I can find when I had both for a few months:
Did a few PH meets (Cheddar, Wilton house, tunnel runs) in it and although usually the cheapest thing there it never looked too out of place to me:
And it was surprisingly awesome on dodgy tracks and carrying all sorts of gear (take the rear seats out then the boot divider and you can get a very usable space). This is after driving it all the way to the end of Brean down (usually a 4x4 track only) for work:
Taken out here:
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Brean+Down,+Bu...
Great cars, mine is missed a lot but me but also by my old mum who loved driving it around when it was parked at theirs and I was trying to sell it. She said that people really did stare at it when it pulled up in Tesco and a 65 year old lady struggled out.
Anyway, enjoy yours, nice to see any on the road nowadays and especially cars that haven't been ruined with nasty kits and terrible cheap paint jobs
Japveesix said:
S10GTA said:
They rot, badly.
I had a GS when I was about 20 (12 years ago). It was known as the FTSLOW.
What the hell made you buy a GS? Guessing it was an automatic too....I had a GS when I was about 20 (12 years ago). It was known as the FTSLOW.
neutral 3 said:
Hi veesix, interesting that you had 2 of them, both with sunroofs as well, my pals one is a non sunroof car and apears to be standard and un modified, which must be quite unusual now.
It's for sale, if any one is interested please PM me !
How did you go from "I'm really taken with it" to it being for sale so quickly?It's for sale, if any one is interested please PM me !
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