PHEV (reliability or liability?)

Hi.
I have ordered a new GX4h PHEV, with delivery estimated end January 2016. I have been interested in the various articles and discussions posted on the forum, but I am getting worried with the amount of entries describing the non-starting issues and car breakdowns due to the complicated and sophisticated nature of a hybrid vehicle. I'm starting to regret placing this order and wonder if maybe I should wait until the technology gets a little more reliable. After all, the purpose of a vehicle is to get from A to B with no hassle. Maybe I've been spoilt by the remarkable reliability of my Honda Accord which I've owned for 12 years with never any breakdown or major problem. Can any of you put my mind at rest with your experiences of this car during your time of ownership?

3 months ownership - never one problem, ever.

17 months and 14,000 miles so far. No problems at all. But I only use rapids fairly rarely and that's where I have heard of occasional problems.

You have to realise that forums like these is where people go when they have issues with their car. It's the same regardless of make/model. The majority of people that don't have any issues never posts here. I'm on my second outlander and haven't had any issues so far.

9 months, faultless.
I wouldn't have mentioned it though if you hadn't asked.

Most of the non starting problems seem to be related to rapid charging, which we now know needs to never be stopped prematurely.

I think if you look at forums for other brands you will see as many or more issues reported.
As Fragge has said, it would be a boring forum if we were all posting that our car is not broken! :mrgreen:

It's very early days for me (about a month & about 500 miles) Zero problems apart from that below
I would never use fast chargers unless I was on a Motorway (free). because the cost of fast chargers, as far as I can see is MORE expensive than petrol and at only 80% is basically worthless at motorway speeds.The frequency of my motorway travel going far enough to get to a service area is minimal, perhaps once a year!
With my usage I charge every 2 or 3 days at home on a 13 amp plug.

I have only had one non start (this morning, which was my fault!)
My girlfriend said "Where's this clever split screen?". I was on the eco screen a
Zero problems except that below the time. I turned off, and tried to turn on almost immediately. It didn't want to know. Waited tried again et voila all tickety-boo.
This is my SEVENTH Mitsubishi. I have never had ANY problem with ANY of them!

Currently > 2 years, > 40k miles. No problems, other than the ones I have caused myself (run down battery and such). Of course there are exceptions left and right. But this is with any make and model. I would not worry if I were you.

9 months and never missed a beat.

mgdave - I could have written your post myself!! Same model on order and same concerns. Oh, and we have a Honda Accord too - although it isn't faultlessly reliable. That award goes to the Toyota Yaris

I am trying to learn from what I am reading, and telling myself that the Mitsubishi tech team must be writing fixes into each version of the software.... :?

50.000 Km an never missed a beat - I once filled with the wrong fuel and the Wegenwacht (Dutch AA) bloke who pumped it out told me that these are amongst the most reliable cars on the road in his experience.

Wobblydeb said:

mgdave - I could have written your post myself!! Same model on order and same concerns. Oh, and we have a Honda Accord too - although it isn't faultlessly reliable. That award goes to the Toyota Yaris

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Can't comment on the Yaris. but my otherwise long-lived Avensis sun-roof motor was too weak for the job and became so unreliable after a couple of years (once stuck open in a downpour :lol: ) that we gave up using it.

BTW no problems with the PHEV after 15 months other than the bodywork damage caused by me and the dealers :twisted:

8 months never had a problem- used a fast charger over 20 times on the Ecotricity network. Always completed the full charging cycle. I think we all worry about our decision to buy the car at first as the technology seems so new. But think about it this way - it's only 2 motors, a generator, some wiring and a battery (and some electronics) that make the car any different. All common components, all reliable and understood in thier own right. Then we have the luxury of not having a gearbox, clutch, driveshaft etc, so have less conventional moving parts.

So hang on in there, your wait will be worth it, just look at how many people on the forum say they love the car, even those who have had problems with it.

had my first significant problem yesterday after 14 months and 14,000 miles. Stopped at traffic lights, I had a moment of brain fade and hit the power button instead of Park (the PHEV power button is in the same place as Park on the Prius). I immediately hit power again to get it booted up again before the lights changed - and it all locked up! The engine check light came on and any attempt to put it into Drive or Reverse were met with a double beep. I tried powering down and back up a couple of times - no change - and I had a queue of annoyed drivers behind me. The third time I powered down, I left it off for thirty seconds or so and it did then boot up successfully.

So the moral of this story seems to be that if you accidentally power down, give it a few tens of seconds before powering up again. I never charge it up away from home, so can't comment on the issues that some seem to have experienced relating to rapid chargers.

Thanks to all of you who took the time over Christmas to reply to my concerns and I hope you all had a pleasant Christmas. I understand that the problems mentioned seem to be associated with the Fast Chargers, but has anyone experienced one of these "lock downs" when charging on your home charger?

I don't recall any in this or the Dutch forum. We had one or two reports of people who managed to flatten the 12 V battery over longer periods of not using the car.

mgdave said:

Thanks to all of you who took the time over Christmas to reply to my concerns and I hope you all had a pleasant Christmas. I understand that the problems mentioned seem to be associated with the Fast Chargers, but has anyone experienced one of these "lock downs" when charging on your home charger?

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The reported problems have been associated with Rapid Chargers which are the very high current things that put 80% charge into the car in 20 minutes or so. Fast Chargers are the 16A or 32A dedicated power outlets for recharging EVs - including the home charging points that are not simple 13A sockets. Nobody seems to have experienced problems with them. I think the difference is that with fast chargers and simple 13A sockets, all the charging functionality is built into the car and under the control of the car's computers. With Rapid chargers, the car's systems are bypassed and an external high current charger is allowed to blast power into the battery. This is young technology and the rapid chargers are designed primarily with pure EVs in mind with a battery capacity that is ten times that of the Outlander, or more. Mitsubishi have built in safeguards to protect the expensive battery if they detect unexpected events on the charging circuits and it seems that they may have been over-cautious resulting in unnecessary lock-outs.

Hi
No problems here after 17k miles and 18 months with charging at home every day, sometimes 2 or more times. Still loving the car - so smooth and generally very quiet. Rarely visit the petrol station.
Cheers h

Another happy PHEVer here. Just a few weeks and 2K miles. Charged at ecotricity/motorway DC supply (is that fast or rapid) a few times and curtailed my charge to make way for desperate BMW/Renault/Nissan EV-only types in need. I've had no restart issues. In fact I am so surprised that I haven't found *anything* to disappoint me yet.

9 months, 17000 miles.

Not a single fault. I once got the "knackered electrical system" warning on a normal fast charging (not rapid) post but it cleared as soon as i tried to use the car. worrying but a non-event.

I have probably done 15-20 rapid charges an d have even ended them early with no problems. I wasn't thinking too hard, just followed the on screen instructions and it all seemed fine.

maby said:

had my first significant problem yesterday after 14 months and 14,000 miles. Stopped at traffic lights, I had a moment of brain fade and hit the power button instead of Park (the PHEV power button is in the same place as Park on the Prius). I immediately hit power again to get it booted up again before the lights changed - and it all locked up! The engine check light came on and any attempt to put it into Drive or Reverse were met with a double beep. I tried powering down and back up a couple of times - no change - and I had a queue of annoyed drivers behind me. The third time I powered down, I left it off for thirty seconds or so and it did then boot up successfully.

So the moral of this story seems to be that if you accidentally power down, give it a few tens of seconds before powering up again. I never charge it up away from home, so can't comment on the issues that some seem to have experienced relating to rapid chargers.

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If it happens again, hold the power button down for ten seconds. That will shut the car down.