Mitsubishi FTO Review

Overall Rating

looks, engine sound (WOW!), back seats!

fuel economy, horrible tiny standard alloys, front wheel drive, oh and it's not an MR2!!

Hi, i always liked the look of Mitsi's FTO but never had the bottle to go out and buy one. Several years ago i bought the WRX on the forecourt of the importers rather than the FTO cos the girlfriend didn't like the look of it! Then i became a MR2 convert and have driven toyota's mid engine maestro for several years now but due to the requirement for a back seat it was back to searching for something sporty, japanese, fun, affordable but with a back seat - the MR2 had to go lol - oh and it had to look good also.
Looked at several cars but found myself drawn to the FTO and finally after searching around i sourced a sweet 1996 GPX mivec with the tiptronic box. The car is well equiped with aircon, full leather, electrics and has some nice aftermarket bits fitted - nothing too harsh just a nice exhaust and filter which accentuate the sweet sounding V6 and some crystal side repeaters to get rid of the rather unsightly orange "boiled sweets" on the wings!
Driving the car is a pleasure - very comfortable seating position, adjustable steering column and seat allows for almost any human shape to be accomodated! The feel on entry and half way through a corner instill confidence allowing the driver to concentrate fully on the job in hand. All instruments are easily read and well positioned with very little clutter.
Only drawbacks i have found are the fuel economy - it can be quite a thirsty beast! - and the front wheel drive layout does detract slightly from the more fun aspects of driving. The GPX with the mivec is plenty powerful but really needs to be held high up the revs to stay in the mivec zone and keep going - the noise from this will scare most drivers making them back off and not seeing the cars full potential. A turbo charged version would have given this car the extra power to suit the looks but may have required a change to rear wheel drive as it may simply have been too much power to put through the front wheels!
All in all a very capable 2+2 giving the sporty drive but with the practicality of passenger space and a boot which can hold a family's shopping or plenty of luggage.