Mitsubishi Montero

We purchased a Mitsubishi Montero SUV in 2002. It's a very good car. Our complaint is with the lack of ethics and backhanded behavior of Mitsubishi towards its clients. We found out in 2003, when we were forced to file for bankruptcy, that Mitsubishi had financed our car through a balloon loan which is now illegal in Texas. It is a long-term loan that has one large payment (the balloon payment) due upon maturity. Since most of the repayment is deferred until the end of the payment period and we were already in bankruptcy at the time, the large single payment ($20,000) at the end was considered by the bankruptcy court an unsecured debt, therefore, we are not obligated to pay it after paying the secured portion ($38,000).

We ended up paying far more than the car was worth and Mitsubishi still wants more. I say wants because Mitsubishi is still trying to get money from us. My husband had a car accident and the Montero was totalled. Mitsubishi is now fighting us to keep the insurance money. Are they so desperate? Is the company hurting that much? They are paying their attorney more than what the insurance company is paying for the accident.

In summary, the accident happened in September of 2009 and today, April 14th 2010, we still do not have a second car because the insurance company will not release the payment to us since Mitsubishi hold the lien.

We have been restricted with our transportation and my son was not able to attend college this past semester due to lack of adequate transportation. We had to spend $3,000 repairing the one car we have, and the aggravation and stress we have endured have been something I cannot describe. Please, do not buy anything from Mitsubishi.

On August 22, 2008 I rear-ended a SUV with my 2003 Mitsubishi Montero Sport going approx.30-35mph. My airbags failed to deploy and my seatbelt failed to catch throwing me into the steering wheel. There is major front end damage to my vehicle and the police on the scene said they could not believe my airbags failed to deploy.

I am waiting to see if my vehicle is totaled. I have back and neck pain already and I feel I could have been killed in this accident with the failure of safety equipment in my vehicle.

The ins said there would be no way to determine if something from the car caused the accident. I kept it serviced regularly (inspections, etc). I took it and had the tires rotated and a trip inspection before the vacation. I would think even with a trip inspection you can't always forsee that something might break.

the driver and myself were up front. she suffered a cut in her head that required 32 stitches. She also had a lot of chest and back pain and has missed 3 weeks of work so far. I suffered chest, back and stomach injuries and was in a lot of pain for 2 weeks and couldn't do daily activities. We're still sore and I'm taking meds for it. I also still have a large hematoma on my stomach. The young man in the back seat broke his back. Now I know the air bags would not have helped him, but if something happened w/ the car to cause the accident in the first place, everyone's injuries could have been prevented.

There was one more teen in the car but he only had a little bit of seat belt burn and a little bit of a stiff neck the next day. Economic damages...well this car was paid off, now I've had to buy another car and have a car payment. We had to stay in town an extra night, other pepole had to drive far to get us so we would fill their tanks with gas or try to buy them food. Mentally, my fried is having a very hard time coping with this since she was driving and they are saying it's her fault. I would like to know why there couldn't be some type of inspection of the car to see if something underneath could have broken to cause all this. We also lost several items in the wreck itself.

Just 3 years and 2 months ago I bought a new Montero io.

1.- The past March 26th I brought this car to the official Mitsubishi workshop: MMCE Madrid in 28230 Las Rozas-Madrid, for the routinely 60000 Km. revision.

2.- During this revision, A problem about a part of the heater system was detected and a substitutive car part was ordered by the workshop. Almost one month after, this car part does not arrived yet.

3.- My car is still in the workshop because it has overheating risk.

4.- I mailed and telephone called the Mitsubishi-Motors Spain Customer Office asking for an immediate solution because I dramatically need a car, either my car already repaired or a company substitution car.

5.- My first contact with this Customer service was on April 19th and they keep saying they are studding my case. How much time more I would need to wait?. I know my car is out of guaranty only for two months, this is already disgusting, but being without my car almost one month only waiting for a car part is unacceptable and questions seriously the reputation of Mitsubishi- Motors Company.

2005: Bought a used 2003 Mitsubishi Montero with approximately 30,000 miles. The car comes standard with a 5 year, 60,000 mile warranty.

12-26-06/mileage 49,923: The car begins to have transmission problems shifting itself out of gear. The car is taken to Jeff Wyler Mitsubishi (1117 State Route 32, Batavia, OH 45103 (513) 752-3447) for repairs. Service technicians study the car and suggest that the problem is old transmission fluid that needs to be replaced. This is done and the service record reads Auto Transmission Flush?.

07-17-07/mileage 59,250: Car continues to have sporadic transmission problems after the 49,923 service call and is taken to Performance Mitsubishi (4521 Kings Water Dr, Loveland - (513) 707-5626) on 17-July-07 for repairs since Jeff Wyler no longer represents Mitsubishi.

The car is examined by service technicians who recommend that the transmission fluid be flushed as it looks very dirty. The cars service history is discussed, citing a previous similar diagnosis by Jeff Wyler and that the situation needs to move beyond transmission fluid flushes.

Performance Mitsubishi technicians explain that they cannot comment on what happened to the car prior that visit since this is the first time at Performance and they insist that the course of repairs is to service the transmission fluid.

Given the close proximity to the warranty period end, I stress my concern about an appropriate fix for the root cause and not the symptom which I feel is the dirty transmission fluid. The technician (Tim) states that the problem is recorded in the vehicle history and is now considered a pre-existing condition and will be fixed under warranty should then transmission fluid change not fix the problem.

10-23-07/mileage 66,143: Cars transmission continues to fall out of gear and once again the car is brought back to Performance Mitsubishi for repairs. A service ticket is opened with Mitsubishi USA and the cars computer is to be changed but given that the computer is not in stock, an order for the computer is placed.

11-02-07/mileage 66,892: The computer is installed. We are told that the car may continue to have problems shifting as the computer learns? is the term they use, how we drive and adjusts accordingly. After a few weeks, the problem is not fixed although again, remember that this is still not a regularly occurring problem.

2-15-08/ not sure of the mileage but Im guessing around 72K: The car breaks down completely and now no longer drives. The transmission finally goes. The car is towed to Performance and after a few days we are told that it required a complete transmission rebuild. I remind them of their pre-existing condition statement but the service technician (Tim) tells me that they are having the Mitsubishi field representative.

The field representative (name not provided by Performance Mitsubishi) denies the claim stating that the car is off warranty for mileage over 60,000.

2-28-08 car still in shop: A case is opened with Mitsubishi Motors North America customer service. Case # 1-232-337-979, telephone # 888-648-7820, case manager: Dan (no last name or contact information given). To date, no final decision on the case has been made.

The car requires approximately 6,000 in transimission repairs which will have to be paid out of pocket since Mitsubishi will not cover under warranty.

I bought my Mitsubishi Montero Sport in 2001 at a dealership in Long Beach, CA. It was running great until sometime in 2006 the horn just go off in the middle of the night. There is nothing we can do to stop it but to take the fuse out permanently but then I will have no horn. I brought it to the dealership to have it fixed but to my surprise they are charging me $1,000 for that.

I asked them why that much and they told me that because the switch is somehow connected to the air bag, that's why they have take out the air bag before and reconnect the switches back again. And that will cost me $1,000+. This is not right because this is a manufacturers defect. Why do I have to deal with the air bag when my only concern is the horn. Why do I have to pay for something that was not even broken just because it was connected to the horn that's not working.