Mitsubishi Carisma Equippe 1600cc

My favourite car ever - and, certainly, the least expensive to run. (I have had other Japanese autos, Cortinas and Hondas).

I am so sad it has been discontinued.

The Mitsubishi Carisma Equippe 1600cc is the perfect all round family car, not too big for the wife, cheap to run, nice and robust. We have had ours for five years with no problems at all. Our garage doesnt like us having our mot done, as there has only ever been one thing needed doing and that was the front disk pads. I would thoroughly recommend as a most reliable and safe car.

The Mitsubishi Carisma Equippe 1600cc IS great.

I have the Carisma Equippe 1600cc. I have read several reviews on this site about the Carisma 1600 and many of them get to the point about the Carisma. It is not an exciting car but it is mostly reliable and certainly has a safe/robust feel to it.

Recently another car failed to stop in time and went into the back of my car at a low speed. The damage was minimal and easy enough to repair at a cost of around £70.00. So I have confidence in the safety of the car.

It seats 5 people comfortably and has plenty of boot space.

I would have to disagree with the economy of the car proclaimed in the other reviews. Motorway driving can get 40 to 45 mpg, but otherwise the best it gets around town is about 37 mpg. This of course could be down to the model that I have.

The ride is not smooth. The gear changing is poor because of the clutch - it would seem to need replacing and yet hasn't done nearly enough mileage to merit the cost. I have driven enough other cars to be confident that my bad experience of this car is not due to my driving ability.

The power steering had a problem where it would fail intermittently, which is not what you want on a heavy car. However, it did not fail consistently enough to isolate the problem although it eventually went away.

The engine has developed a noise which might be a lazy tappet but it just wreaks of a poor build mechanically. Especially as this particular sound can't be fixed easily without spending a fair amount of money.

Need I say more? Go for another reliable car.

One time when my car was in at the dealer for some work I had a courtesy car from them, I think it was called a Space Star, and that was just as bad a drive. It makes me wonder how I didn't realise how bad the car was when I took it for a test drive.