How many miles on your car? You should be fine until at least 75K or so on suspension parts. No chance that your dealer is suggesting a change just because he knows he'll be making a mint on a hard to find part, is there?
There's nothing 'special' about our rear shocks (or the front struts for that matter) except that they fit an iMiEV. If it was a Toyota Corolla, the rear shocks would be $40 each and no doubt, ours don't cost any more than that to manufacture, so $200 each is just . . . . robbery
It might be worthwhile to try to cross reference shocks and struts to see if Mitsu used the same parts on another car
- Maybe a Lancer or something. If you found that to be the case, there are aftermarket suppliers for some of those models. You could also spec them by length, diameter of the studs they mount on and so forth and maybe find a 'suitable substitute' for probably $40 or $50 each, or you could try and find a used set from a lower mileage wreck . . . . at least until the yard discovers that ordinary parts of an iMiEV are actually 'Gold' (or so the dealers think) and then the used prices will probably skyrocket too
Don