Severe rust on 2007/8 'I'

[phb10186]

I was looking on the main UK used car site that isn't ebay, and I saw this I:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201605254316136?postcode=ha88xd&page=1&model=i&sort=default&quicksearch=true&radius=1500&search-target=usedcars&make=mitsubishi&onesearchad=new%2Cnearlynew%2Cused&logcode=p

Significant rust to rear arches and the bonnet looks like toast. Got me thinking about the I-MIEV, as one of my first impressions was the general lack of rust proofing.

Yes this car is 8-9 years old, probably not that well cared for and done 127K of UK roads. The climate here isnt extreme, though they do use salt in the winter as the weather approaches freezing/ passes freezing.

My car is 4 years old, and spent that time by the sea on the south coast of England. There are a couple of little places where there are the beginnings of some extremely minor surface rust, which I will sort, but rear arches that bad on a 9 year old car is bad.

Think I am going to rustproof this car after seeing this.

Any thoughts about rust from others?

 

[PV1]

That car was beat. There are a lot of dents and scratches on the right-hand side and was likely never washed through the winter.

I am noticing some rust forming on my doors where the black trim pieces at the base of the windows screw on. I also have some surface rust on the suspension underneath (they've been putting some bad stuff on the roads lately that even ate through the paint on the wheels and rusted them).

 

[wmcbrine]

Huh, I thought the ICE version was only sold in Japan.

Interesting that it still has the same two ports... or circles, anyway... as an i-MiEV with CHAdeMO.

 

[phb10186]

Huh, I thought the ICE version was only sold in Japan.

Interesting that it still has the same two ports... or circles, anyway... as an i-MiEV with CHAdeMO.

They sold the 'I' in the UK, and through the Mitsubishi dealer network. My guess because it's a right hand drive market, thus minimal modifications from JDM needed. Saying that it didn't sell in large numbers, and by that I mean less than the I-MIEV. Very rare sight, it was expensive in comparison to the more mainstream small cars. Often, many JDM cars come to the UK as a test market (again because of right hand drive), and you can see the rear fog light added to the rear bumper, rather than being a proper integrated unit - that is often a tell tale sign that a car is JDM spec, s the UK market requires a fog light by law, and I dont think the Japanese market does. All they grey imports that come to the UK (and that's a lot of cars from Japan) need the rear fog fitted, and most are not rust-proofed in the way that I would see on a planned widespread introduction.

It was a similar story to US imports years back, where the turn signal flashers were integrated in to the rear brake lights/ tail lights (not sure how it was), but these required orange lenses to be used on UK roads. Not even sure if cars still use this configuration in the US. The number of US imports has always been small in the UK due to left hand drive, sheer size, and fuel consumption, and these days the numbers are even smaller - if you were going to import a car from the US to the UK, you would want to import a V8, pickup, or V8 pickup - or so as it seemed to be the case traditionally, but fuel costs have significantly curbed that nowadays.

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/mitsubishi/i-2007/?section=history

Doubt they sold more than a few 100 in the UK.

Yeah, noticed the two ports also.

 

[PV1]

The door where our CHAdeMO ports are or would be was the gas cap on the gas i, and the J plug location is the air intake for the gas engine. Minimal modification to the car for the different power plants.

 

[siai47]

The car picture is a gasoline KEI class Mitsubishi, not an electric. Along with it's age, the best giveaway is the tailpipe visible in the picture of the rear of the car. That being said, if you don't care for your car at all (as evidenced by the additional non corrosion damage) it's going to rust over time even if it had been a Rolls-Royce.

 

[phb10186]

Another 2007 UK I, also with pretty bad rust.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2007-MITSUBISHI-i-car-auto-petrol-5-door-SPARES-or-REPAIR-/282067893009?hash=item41ac8e7b11:g:Mt8AAOSwzJ5XX863

 

[jray3]

The upside of these cars hitting end-of-life is a new source for spare parts (shame they curbed an alloy wheel on that one, probably rolling it off the flatbed on it's last trip).
I'd still like to get the front axle from an AWD gasser i. Could make a potent electric sleeper by adding a front axle with DC motor drive to an i-MiEV.

Off to oil my arches....