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~Eoin
i got a 10 inch subwoofer for it. just enough to make it sound better but not have the neighborhood hate me... mtx 10 inch fiberglass/plexiglass box. 600 watt amp. it was very easy to install. hell i got the wirering kit at wal-mart! lol
One other thing I found out regarding the timing belt replacement: After about 10K a screeching sound appeared at starting the car, especially in cold weather. According to the dealer there a need to "tighten/adjust the new belt, because it stretches" :confuse: Well, apparently they were right, because $40.00 later it was gone and so far no worries. I think those older Galants turned out to be great cars for the money
I am new to this forum and am currently scouting for a used Galant prefeable not very old and less than 40k miles. My plan is to use the car for 3-4 years and sell it.
Currently the best deal i am getting on a 2002 LS Galant with 25k miles on it is 11,000$.
TMV as well as KBB show a higher values (around $12,000).
Could i get a better deal?..Any experience?
I am in New Jersey if this helps.
Unfortunately, despite being replaced at 60K, the belts (not timing) had definite wear and needed replacing. Not a problem to do, but at 120K when I replace the timing belt again, I'll have to decide if I want to replace the belts again since there'd be no labor charge. I'd hate to waste belts that should have a good 30-45K miles left, but the labor to replace them is more than the belts themselves.
I have yet to replace the water pump. Maybe at 120K.
Maybe I should do the maintenance myself. .. Nah; I'm a computer jockey, not a grease monkey.
With the 3L V6 I still manage 24-26MPG in mixed, but mostly city (Chicago burbs) driving. 26.5 with yesterday's fillup (@ $2.99 a gallon!). I consider this quite good since the car was rated 19/27 when I bought it. Also, my wife's Elantra only gets around 24 city, but I think that's partly her lead foot.
While I'd prefer the cheap gas, I find my mileage is a little better with Shell premium. Dunno if its truly worth it, but I made the decision when I bought the car back in '99 that I could stand the extra $2 per tank for premium. Add another buck for Shell vs. el cheapo. Not a big deal.
BTW, I did flirt with regular & midgrade gas some and had no real problems with using cheap gas, but the regular had a slight - but noticeable - drop in performance and mileage was a little lower.
So far so good.
Welcome back!
Thanks for sharing your first impressions.
I just got back from a day flaunt (220 miles) through the mountains of far northern California and I got 25 mpg at 70+ in my '04 LS.... We had a great drive in the cosmic cruiser, a name contrived in my early halucynegenic years. The car just impresses like you felt when you commit to a pass by the time you think it it's done... That engine is a major contributor to my overall satisfaction driving a sedan with an automatic from a guy who has only owned manuals for 35 years.....
How does your wife like the car? Mine just loves how comfortable and easy it is to arrive after a day hoping around to many destinations. The european feel of the suspension in the LS really enhances the handling without contributing to any harshness that writers talk about of the GTS...
This car is a sleeper. I just read that the Galant was one of the BEST cars for reliability.. My only problem was that I can't find that article to post it for you. And I have already had a few new car issues so I know this article is boasting BUT..
Gotta love it!
Happy Motoring!
My wife loves driving the car. She was driving when we were on the interstate and she was having a great time. The family really likes the car,plenty of room in the front and back seats.
I live on long island in New York and you really don't see many 04,05 Galants on the road here.
I knew I liked the car when I wished I had a longer commute to work.
Thanks, Alvin. :sick:
What gas do you guys use in your V6 Galants? I get a knocking noise at times and the dealer said that this is because of not using mid-grade or higher fuel. It's called spark knock. My LS only has 9000 miles on it.
Anyone else get it?
Thanks.
I have an '04 LS (V6). Mid-grade or regular alone showed a small loss of power (and miles per gallon) and dullness to the kickdowns when passing... No knocking.... I've had no perceptable loss in performance filling the tank with premium then when it reaches half I fill it with regular, so every "other" fill (always fill at half tank) is premium. I find the overall octane increases over what you'd get just filling with mid-grade. Try it and compare it to just running with premium....
For every 1000 miles you drive the cost of Premium only fuel is about $9 more than using only regular. In the end you're only saving $4.50 per 1,000 miles my way. So most folks will just ignore this idea and just get Premium but for me that $100 a year in savings is spent elsewhere benefiting my stomach and not the oil companies bottom line.....
Happy Motoring!
Premium here on the West coast now at $3.29 a gallon!!!!!
These lifters are auto adjustable, so need to replace them.
Let me know what you found out.
You are right about premium costing only $100 more than regular for about 12k of driving. I tried with mid grade this week, still get the knocking. I will jump to a full tank of Premium to check if that solves the knocking and then try your technique.
What makes me wonder is why Honda says Accord V6 will work off of regular unleaded and Galants need Premium.
In short, I just need to find the overdrive cable connection so that I can disable it again. I just need to keep the car for a little while longer while I save up for a new one.
Any suggestions?
Victor
I just felt like a European new car owner for the first time!
I took my '04 LS in for it's first service and NO CHARGE!
I think Mitsu should re-think this strategy and put it back on their '06 models. I think this program only ran for under 10 months BUT FREE maintanence for for 4 years or 45,000 miles is a very nice way to do biz. I also think their new stategy of $1,500 debit cards used for gasoline is another great idea instead of rebates.
MitSu is far from dead....
Oldsmobile and Plymouth sold far fewer cars before there demise...
Mercury is already dead in Canada...
MitSu is getting ready to launch up there... They're getting aggressive and fightin' mad!
About time!
http://www.mpt.org/motorweek/longterm/galant05.shtml
And have you seen some of the new product in the pipeline?
http://www.autoweek.com/news.cms?newsId=103252
Oldsmobile and Plymouth sold far fewer cars before there demise..."
Oldsmobile had General Motors to "float" then until they decided to pull the plug. And of course, Plymouth had Chrysler. There is NO ONE who will put up any more to help Mitsu. How many new Galants do you see on the road? Here in "import land" California there are very, very few.
Where is the "volume seller" to raise Mitsubishi from the dead? I am sorry, I don't see it!
Unless of course sales go to zero, than I'm totally off my rocker!
In my experience, the twist with Mitsubishi's maintenance is the brakes (they tend to have all kinds of issues on their cars, less on trucks) and the timing belt/water pump replacement that, if done at the the dealership, is going to 'kill' you at 60K.
I asked my dealer (Mitsubishi) what the going rate was for the timing belt / water pump change a couple of months ago. I have an '03 Outlander with 30K on it, and was just asking out of curiosity. He quoted $300 for this service. I know the Honda dealer wanted over $300 to do this on my wife's old Civic, and we ended up getting it done at a Honda specialty shop for a little over $200 (this was a few years ago). With her Elantra, the Hyundai dealer charged somewhere between $200 and $250 to do her timing belt. On the Elantra, the water pump is powered by a seperate drive belt, not the timing belt, so it isn't neccessary to do it at the same time as the timing belt. I didn't think the $300 quote from the Mitsubishi dealer was out of line with what I have seen at dealer service shops for other brands. I guess every brand has some bad apples that like to screw the customer though.
And they did change the oil, rotate the tires, adjust the handbrake, lube here and there, etc, etc.... And I had an '00 Eclipse before I bought the LS. It had 49,000 miles on it's 4 cylinder and I never did anything other than change the oil every 4-5,000 miles. Oh yea new tires once. At the MitSu dealer I had the radiator flushed, new spark plugs installed and brake fluid flushed. Never touched the brakes, timing belt, or water pump. I hope that I'll be onto another new vehicle in another 52 months when I get back to the 49,000 mile mark on this car. That's when they hit you with depreciation alittle harder once 50,000 miles is broken. And I admit my 2000 Ecipse which MSRP'd for $18,192 (paid $15,000) had the worst resale value, only $4,400 (Kelly Blue used here) at the dealer..... That's where I get a little frustated with MitSu. In the end the car cost me $189 a month to own plus gas. I'm satisfied with that. But if it were a Honda .... Yea but Honda's don't get $3,000+ off sticker or had 1.9% financing, pre 9/11 mind you!
Sooooo, I'll keep my fingers crossed that I don't have a lemon! So far so good...
You are correct, they are a hugh coporation. However, if you can find and read the last text of the previous "bailout" the CEO of Mitsu heavy said in no uncertain terms that they would not "lend" anymore money to Mitsubishi Motors.
Honda-Toyota=Boring
I had a terrible experience a few years back; I paid the stealer way over $400 for belt replacement, didn't know then that the water pump should have been changed too and they never mentioned it to me. 4K miles down the road the timing belt was soaked with the fluid from the leaking water pump and I had to do it all over again but not at the dealership this time. Live and learn... $300 for all this - I'd take it.
The thing I have noticed about Mitsubishi dealers is (and I have posted this before) that dealers can vary drasticly. What I mean is this - I have heard that a lot of them do obnoxious screamer ads on tv and radio, wheras here in my area, the only Mitsubishi ads we get are the Mitsu corporate ads on tv.
The only reason I bought my Outlander was because I had heard great things about this dealer. When you go in for service, they do exactly what you ask, and don't try to upsale you or push services on you that you don't need. Their waiting room sits adjacent to the service bays, and has a window where you can look out into the service area where your car is being worked on. If the car is going to need to stay over night, a rental car is ordered up from a rental car company, no questions asked. I go there for my oil changes (they do them for $12, which is cheaper than I can do it myself ), and have talked with other people waiting in the waiting room with me. I was suprised at how many people are on Mitsubishi # 3 and 4 from this same dealer.
If you sold the '04 Galant, please tell us what you received for the car... Was it a GTS or LS? What did you pay for it new? Surprised you didn't consider Mazda's MPV or Subaru's new Tribeca but I realize the Domestics were giving away their vans the last 3 months, especially Chrysler with employee discounts plus financing plus rebates....
Thanks for sharing...
Hi racefan,
My dealer is the same as yours... Understated, sells Volvo and Subaru as well, and sends me flyers in the mail with great service deals... The screamer ads are in the big city dealerships which are 300 miles away. I bought my '00 Eclipse in the big city and the dealer was excellent... Of course I never saw them again so this only pertains to the 2 hours I was there for the sale.
Happy Motoring!
Why did the brakes need to be replaced at 38k only? Plus, if there was a problem, shouldn't it have been covered by your 5 yr/60k warranty?
Here's another PIC of the new Lancer in wolf's clothing ( Evo X). I think the new Lancer will sell in much higher numbers than currently and may well become the best seller (not the EVO) for MitSu.The Galant is the current volume leader for MitSu. I haven't seen any numbers yet on the initial sales of the new pickup the Raider. Now we wait for the new look of the Galant...
http://www.autoweek.com/article.cms?articleId=103378
Happy Motoring!
it to the Free Gas For a Year campaign. That doesn't sound too promising....
Hard to believe the Galant must soldier on for a third year with its ugly front end. Having owned two Mirages over the years, I always found Mitsu to be reliable and well-built.
Apparently, a national recession will likely finish off this line in America. Too bad.