Topic: 2007 Mitsubishi Outlander - paint and debris

[20vcq]

  To say I am disappointed in this one side of the vehicle is a huge understatement. While I know it is not an Audi Quattro it does for the most part live up to expectations. I describe it as "your grandmothers awd".
My beef is with MMCA who disavow any blame for the vehicles inability to travel on winter roads without accepting severe paint damage. "What they learnt at Dakar.." a phrase from their TV ads certainly gives the impression this would be a  vehicle that would withstand normal winter road debris especially in the areas of the rear wheel well leading edge and the doors above the rocker panel. Well they don't. After only 1200 km of snowy winter roads the vehicle has more paint chips on those areas of than all the cars I have driven those roads over the past 30 years combined.  Ridiculous when one sees how this vehicle is sold in Japan with plastic protection rapping the wheel wells and the lower 50% of the doors. And we get none at all and the little strips they offer, at a cost, would be ineffectual. I would like to hear from other Outlander owners from the east coast especially. And yes I have mud flaps installed since one week after purchase.

[airbalancer]

I guess you should have got mud flaps. O well

[si]

I describe it as "your grandmothers awd".

I just want to get this straight - you're frustrated with how the vehicle had picked up rock chips from the wheel wells?

Are you also frustrated with how the vehicle drives?  I know it has a FWD bias (unless in that 4WD lock mode), so giving 'er on gravel will result in some stoning.  Have you just been driving the Malihat or onto logging roads as well?

[20vcq]

Mud flaps in place - No off road use - just highway driving one trip from Victoria to Revelstoke on Hwy 1. The level of damage is excessive - I have been checking, almost obsessively other SUV's in parking lots from Kamloops to Victoria - CRV's, Escapes, RAV4's etc and all have some protection built in to the design - either plastic covers, flared racker panels or even steps. But it would appear the Outlander has had all that removed for sale in NA and will be at our expense it would appear. One Outlander owner I met in Kamloops was beyond furious as he lived in that area and was subject to these roads every day. To say he had damage is an wild understatement. There was more undercoat and metal visible in those areas than there was grey paint.
As to the handling - it is a crossover not a vehicle I would rally or take into the bush. The front rear torque split is very lacking when compared to Audis and Subarus but is fine for every day driving in snowy roads and the like. I don't think I should get into a broad comparison of these three vehicles on this thread but would be happy to at another time. 

[Zombie]

Wouldn't this be covered under the warranty?

[20vcq]

There in starts the battle - it is at the dealer as I write this. They think something could / should be done but Mitsu Canada sent a rather bland disclaimer saying no deal to me last week. So I will give them a couple more chances to at least show an interest and then who knows maybe "Olsen" will get asked for help or some other method of coercion. I am not by the way even asking for some consideration of the 100 plus chips on the front of the vehicle or high up on the doors. ( ;)even though my 17 winter year veteran of those same roads has only 4 hood chips and absolutely no side chips albeit 5 windshield replacements)

[si]

Mud flaps in place - No off road use - just highway driving one trip from Victoria to Revelstoke on Hwy 1. 

I know damage to your nice car can be very frustrating.

It must be said though that the standard mud flaps don't really do much if anything.  What you really need are dedicated sized ones



I'd throw those on and grab a bottle or two of touch up paint and fix 'er up.

[dr_spock]

Clear plastic film like 3M can be your friend. 

[carcrazy]

Going by your story and your alias, I’m familiar with your issue from the other forums you posted.
If you are truly looking for other Outlander owners experience on this forum, beyond another forum to vent your frustration with the car and Mitsubishi, well, there aren't too many here; just myself and one other member as far as I know.

While I have few PIN HEAD sized chips on each side, just above the clear film and one or two on the lower part of the doors, from BEFORE I installed the mudguards, obviously the extent of the damage is far from what's shown in your pictures.
I drove my Outlander on the highways and the city roads in Toronto area every day for the whole winter and this is all I've got, not to mention that due to the winter conditions this year, the salt was almost a daily presence on our roads.
I have a very hard time to believe that you got all this damage from driving on the highways, unless you were going through a lot of construction areas.

I guess there is no need to repeat here that there is a solution to prevent this problem and many suggested this solution to you already.

Yes, I too blame Mitsubishi cost-cutting decision not to include the side door garnish standard on all Outlanders in North America and not protect more area around the rear wheel wells with clear film, but that's another story.
To put it in perspective I can use $267 (which is exactly what I did), out of the thousands I saved compared to other compact SUVs on the market, toward fixing this potential issue. I say "potential" because I didn't reach the point to consider this a big issue. This is the reason I didn’t even rush to install them.
In your case though, due to extensive paint damage shown in the pictures, I would paint the doors first before doing anything else.

The body cladding you saw on the Japanese models does not come standard or as a factory option; they are an accessory catalogue item.

[carcrazy]

I am not by the way even asking for some consideration of the 100 plus chips on the front of the vehicle or high up on the doors. ( ;)even though my 17 winter year veteran of those same roads has only 4 hood chips and absolutely no side chips albeit 5 windshield replacements)

100+ chips on the front of the vehicle and doors? 
5 windshield replacements (albeit in 17 years)? 

Man, roads must be really bad where you leave or you tailgate a lot.

On the paint front, from what I read the paint on cars today is not as strong as it used to be years ago due to environmental regulations (lead content or lack thereof).

[20vcq]

To follow up on a few comments: windshields - yeah over 17 years- no - never tail gait  but -40 at highway speeds can apparently make glass a little tender.
Outlander paint thin? Don't know.
Plastic film - yeah that would have been a good thing for Mitsu to install before selling wouldn't it? After I get it repainted I will use that  but would look pretty ugly on top of the chips.
Yes, I have posted on Edmunds.com in search of others and will keep searching. Glad to read that TO streets are not treated with the same "sand" as highways in the BC interior.
There were three other vehicles that made the same trip with me, BMW, Audi A4, CRV and RAV4 - not one had a chip in the same areas or the same cause -passing vehicle chip on the high side of doors - a couple.

For background so I don't get flamed as some sort of maniac driver. I am a pretty annal driver and I take very good care of my cars. I have extensive experience with awd's over the past 30 years and this is my 48th vehicle. I have always driven on BC highways and never had this sort of damage even on an old 78 Jeep. So I am a little sad - as overall I like it. Especially the Fosgate.

[20vcq]

Mud flaps that big? And on the front?Should they really be necessary on a newly designed vehicle? Another poster on edmunds did what you suggest with the front flaps and they made the problem worse, according to his follow up posts. And the touch up - paint would need to be a pretty large can and someone with a whole lot of time on their hands - not to mention patience .

[carcrazy]

Are you saying that you got all those chips or the vast majority of them in one trip?

[20vcq]

The first trip I took was the 2 days after getting the car - that was last week in Sept and after driving from Victoria to Ft St John and back to Prince Rupert (sun all the way) and then to Victoria I noticed paint chips - on the rocker panel. No dirt roads at all! That's when I installed the flaps as the sales manager suggested that all his other customers but two had the LS smaller rims and that that might be the problem .
This latest trip was from Victoria to Revelstoke and back two weeks ago - about 1200 km. No dirt roads - packed snow on many roads and wet highways. Sanding (that's a euphemism for small gravel) was apparent on 70% of the trip either on roadsides or under tire on snow.
By the way the "normal" chipping one gets from passing trucks on either front or doors etc is also pretty evident and plentiful, what with the near white undercoat.

[carcrazy]

I think big mudguards are not the solution for this problem, unless you constantly drive on unpaved roads, use the car as a work car and don’t care about how it looks.

In my opinion the solution is :OEM mudguards (protect the upper side of the doors)+door side garnish (protect the lower part of the doors; this was part of the initial design, but Mitsu choose not to implement it in North America)+extended protective clear film (extra protection of the rear flare; may not be necessary once the door garnish are in place, but just for peace of mind).
I'm pretty confident that this solution would work based on the snow and dirt pattern on the side of the car.

I may write an informative letter to Mitsubishi, at least they can fix it for the future model years, but at this time, because there is no real damage on my car, I cannot make any reasonable claim. Making a claim on potential damage and other owners experience wouldn’t get me anything and I believe this stands true with any manufacturer. In the meantime, I spent few bucks and made sure my car is protected instead of waiting at the manufacturer’s mercy while my car gets damaged.

[citydude]

Do you think they could have used different (types) of paint for the different colours?  Mine's a gray one which I got just over 10K since last April, on city roads both highway and local.  I don't notice any paint chipping in the area you described, I don't have any mud flap installed neither. *shrug*

Citydude

[carcrazy]

I don't think the color is a factor because I recall owners of the grey Outlanders reporting the same problem. The potential is there and you were lucky not to get any chips. Don't push your luck though and do something about it.

The main difference from my experience and most of the other owners reporting paint chips is the extent of the damage: in most cases is very very low and they put the mudguards on before getting worst. I think people having extensive damage drove on bad roads (with gravel or debris on them), roads covered with sand, maybe winter tires and high speeds, which could be factors. It’s unfortunate, but driving in those conditions with a vulnerable car could render results like this.

Now that I have the mudguards on and I don’t have plans for any trips on unknown roads, I'm not worried about getting much worst so I can wait few more months until the weather warms up to implement the other preventative measures I was talking about in the previous posts.

[wing]

spock has it right.  I have seen a lot of vehicles come from the factory with a small piece of 3M clear protectent in these areas odd Mitsu hasn't done this.  Kind of late for you but you could get it fixed and do this as well.

[carcrazy]

spock has it right.  I have seen a lot of vehicles come from the factory with a small piece of 3M clear protectent in these areas odd Mitsu hasn't done this.  Kind of late for you but you could get it fixed and do this as well.

They've done that too, but the piece is too small especially if you don't use mudguards. The biggest flaw is they haven't protected the bottom of the doors on the North American models. I mention that because they've done it for other markets (Japan, Europe, Australia). If you look at the official pictures, there is a silver door garnish on the bottom of the doors (XLS model shown usually). Cost cutting I guess.

Most SUVs have a plastic trim (black or body color) on the bottom of the doors or some sort of running boards. I now realize that it's not for the looks only but for protection too.

Mitsu has the door garnish available as an accessory in other markets, along with a sh*t load of other accessories, but just not in North America. I ordered mine from a distributor in UK, but they came from Mitsu Japan (made by one of their affiliate Japanese accessories manufacturer).

I bet that with all this noise around this issue, next year will see them on the cars. They were pretty good so far to rectify few things that people complained about for the first model year (e.g. interior door panels, FAST key size and few other trim pieces).
In the US they have a 2008 Special Edition Outlander (2.4L I4) that even comes with a side, chromed, garnish along the rocker panel. This would also help to alleviate the problem, but as an accessory in Europe it costs about 600 Euro ($900 CAD).
I paid $267 CAD for the door garnish in body color, including shipping. Not too bad and it solves the problem.

[lampskin]

ummm....winter beater for the winter and nice cars in the summer.