All generations and engines together · 3,271 MOT tests in the 2025 data · typical mileage at age 7: 81k
Split by first-registration year. Cars registered in a changeover year can belong to either generation.
Computed from DVSA MOT results, all of Great Britain, 2025. Nothing here is opinion.
Share of tests where each item was recorded. The dark tick is the class average across all tracked models; bars are scaled within each group.
The rows that judge the model rather than its keeper. 3,060 tests in this band.
Tyres, pads and stone chips say more about how the car was driven and maintained than about how it was built.
Owner folklore from forums and the motoring press. Most of it never shows up in an MOT, which is why this section exists at all.
Owners of the naturally aspirated 1.5 petrol have reported heavy oil consumption, in one documented case around a pint every 45 motorway miles, with no visible leak and healthy compression. The usual cause traced by mechanics is a faulty positive crankcase ventilation (PCV) valve rather than worn rings or a head gasket. It tends to show up well into ownership, from around 80,000 miles, and the fix itself is cheap, but if it's ignored it can lead to sludge build-up and bigger bills later.
The 2.0-litre DI-D diesel (mainly seen in the Sportback) has had reports of multiple fuel injectors failing together with turbocharger wear on higher-mileage cars, in one case at around 107,000 miles. This lines up with what tends to happen to common-rail diesels once injectors start to go out of tolerance and put extra strain on the turbo and EGR side. A full injector set plus a turbo is a four-figure repair, so it's worth budgeting for on any diesel much past 90-100k miles with patchy history.
Cars fitted with the INVECS-III CVT (mainly the naturally aspirated automatics from the 2007-on generation) have a reputation among independent guides for belt/pulley wear, shuddering under load and, in the worst cases, full transmission failure. It's described as one of the bigger long-term gambles on this generation, with problems more often reported from around 60,000-100,000 miles onward. Replacement or reconditioning a CVT unit runs into four figures, well above a manual clutch job, and does not affect manual-gearbox Lancers.
On the performance Evolution variants, owner and specialist communities have long flagged issues with the automated twin-clutch (TC-SST) transmission on Evo X, and with bottom-end durability ("crank walk") on the earlier turbocharged 4G63 engines under hard use or after tuning. These are low-volume, enthusiast-driven cars where history and evidence of gentle use matter far more than on a standard Lancer, and a pre-purchase inspection by an Evo specialist is standard advice rather than optional. Repairs on either front run well into four figures.
Across independent year-by-year reliability roundups, electrical niggles (windows, central locking, dash warning lights) and cheap-feeling interior switchgear come up repeatedly for the Lancer, alongside Mitsubishi's below-average showing in owner satisfaction surveys. None of this is dramatic on its own and reviewers disagree on how much it should count against the car, but it's the kind of thing that chips away at resale value and generates a string of small annoying bills rather than one big failure.
Built from the two sections above.
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