Despite regular maintenance and being a great car for a number of years, this thing doesn't feel like it was built to last. The external exhaust system rusted prematurely and abnormally (no other rust on the car at all, only the exhaust from the catalytic converter to the tail pipe). Unfortunately it wasn't caught early on (wouldn't have made a difference in what needed to be done to fix it, but it would have prevented me from breaking down 45 minutes from any towns on a rural route after work probably). My car suddenly started shaking and roaring/making slapping noises while commuting home, and I had to pull over. I got it towed, it sounded like it was going to blast off and shook really bad.

My first thought was that it was a belt or something, but when I listened to the noise outside of the vehicle it was obvious. I needed exhaust. I was assuming it was a muffler issues, or something minor. Nope. I would learn later that it split completely in half at the catalytic converter rendering it un-driveable . When I towed it to my mechanic and he showed me what he found, it was surprising to say the least. The exhaust was so uniformly rusted, and the break was someplace so "odd", I couldn't have skipped the $1280 bill and gotten it patched at a muffler shop if I wanted to. There was nothing to weld to! He'd never seen anything like it. There was zero rust on the rest of the vehicle, that part was just improperly galvanized or something.

Of course the only place to get the part was from Mitsubishi, I appreciate my mechanic because he does a good job sourcing parts and having multiple options, but we haven't had much luck with this car for that. And the part was $1200. Drained our savings, it was fantastic let me tell you. I expected $300 here, $200 there maybe as we approached the 90k mile mark and beyond, especially since we keep up with the manufacturer's maintenance schedule. Apparently not though. This was just the beginning in a series of mishaps with this vehicle in the same 6 month period.