Its very tempting!

I find it very tempting. I like the simplicity, the lack of gadgets etc. combined with what I think is quite a classy interior. It would, I think, suit my relaxed style of driving (with the occasional visit to the red line to clear things out).

It would also suit a return to petrol. And I have a good indy to take care of it.

My 2004 x-type 2.0d (185k miles) is going in for service and MOT in the next few weeks. No problems apparent except perhaps for a wheel bearing. (I have applied the temporary fix of turning the radio up). It performed well on my xmas trip to Andorra, 2000+ miles on mixed roads at something like 55 mpg. If it passes OK and nothing is found, I'll keep it for another year. I've just renewed my UK and European breakdown insurance (I've told the story here of recovery from France and Pierre the pirate mechanic) and it was £75, same as last year, which I think is exxcellent value for a 15 year old car.

However, I'm not convinced that exceptionally low mileage is necessarily a good thing.. Others here will know more than me. In the 80s I bought a one owner Triumph Acclaim with very low miles. I liked the car very much (cherry red with a tan vinyl roof). It was immaculate. Unfortunately, the excellent Honda 1342 12 valve engine seemed to have been strangled by lack of use and the occasional bit of wellie.

I also wonder whether an exceptionally low mileage and possibly gentle miles at that could result in high oil consumption due to rings not having worn in?

AFAIK, Mitsubishi have a good reputation for reliability, and I assume good availability for parts.

Yes, it's tempting ...

Edited by joegrundy on 20/01/2019 at 18:31

I think my point is SLO is that the Lancer I found was clearly so clean an unused, it is worth paying extra compared to the 50,000 mile example you found. The estate example looked quite grimy as well. I am tempted by clean cars....

They are very easy to steal, that's the biggest problem with this plan.

Usually the conventional wisdom on here is to be less frightened of high-milers (which have probably spent much of their time on motorways) than cars which are likely to have been used for short trips to the shops or the station, with their engine seldom getting properly warmed up.. Age tends to wear out a car more than mileage.

I think this so-called 'conventional wisdom' is actually nonsense. It's the cod science of desperate car salesmen trying to shift the high mileage cast-offs of company car drivers who cared not one iota for their car's well-being. A car is a machine, not an animal, so 'age' does not 'wear it out'. Think of the physics - the more use a machine gets, the more its parts will wear. My TR7 is 39 years old but has done only 70,000 miles. Most of its parts are original, none are particularly worn, even the rubbery bits.

Its an old 4 speed superb cars. my wife and myself have had three she now has a Suzuki I cannot tell the difference.

This must be the first time that a Lancer has led to comments like 'you are thicker than me' .........

Taken out of context it reads like a personal insult, which it wasn't. It was a response to a derogatory post of a personal nature.

and 'you are a rude and arrogant man'.

This is clearly nothing more or less than a personal insult (you missed out the 'very', Avant) and should have been removed. I reported it as offensive yesterday. (And it's nothing to do with a Lancer! )

For all the doubters and people with little knowledge, I have had three Mitsubishi Lancers non of which were evos all with the uprated dashboard all between 2005 and 2007 when the new model was introduced.What you have been looking at is old stock.

I'm guessing that "people with little knowledge" is aimed at me?. I don't actually need an in depth knowledge of any particular car to be able to go on Autotrader and/or Ebay and look at pictures of them. You keep on saying the same thing, but without anything to back up what you are saying.

On Ebay right now there are sixteen 2005-2007 Lancers. Of those, ten are EVO's, of the remaining five, four are 1.6 petrols (as per what the post is about), either saloon or estate, the remaining car being a 2.0 sport estate. Other than the EVO's, only the 2.0 sport has the dash layout you refer to.

On Autotrader, having more options for narrowing down the search (i.e, ruling out the 2.0 cars), there are fifteen (1.6 litre) 2005-2007 Lancers. Of these, one does not have a picture of the dashboard, two don't have any pictures, but the remaining twelve all have the same dashboard layout of the low mileage example this post is about.

BTW, if we widen the search to include 2008 Lancers of the older shape, in both Ebay and Autotrader the results are exactly the same.

So, (as someone "with little knowledge") what this tells me (unless you can prove otherwise) is that ALL 1.6 Lancers have the same dashboard with the single DIN slot and the higher set heater controls. The only ones which have the dual DIN slot with lower heater controls are the EVO's, and (as far as i can tell, given that there is only the one listed on Autotrader and Ebay, the same one that is) apparently, the 2.0 sport.

Perhaps it is not me who is lacking in subject knowledge?.

Edited by badbusdriver on 26/01/2019 at 11:58

If I may poke my nose in unannounced, my suggestion to badbusdriver is that it's pointless pursuing the matter with the gentleman in question. When he was here previously (with his current username, or any number of other nomenclatures, he followed much the same type of approach to topics. He went away for quite a while .... but must have missed the place, and seems to be back. For the sake of a quiet life just agree that he's right and leave it at that.

You are probably right KB!, but I'm OK with it. It amuses me and gives me something to do (on this horrible day, certainly up here in Aberdeenshire!)