CORDIA

Mitsubishi Cordia Problems

What actually breaks on the Mitsubishi Cordia — 4 owner complaints filed with NHTSA across 1987–1988, sorted by model year and by system, with what owners wrote in their own words.

NHTSA owner complaints · 4 reports · 4 builds · Updated Aug 5, 2026
Quick answer

Owners have filed 4 complaints on the Mitsubishi Cordia, covering 1987–1988. The system named most often is Seat Belts (2 reports). Worst years by volume: 1988, 1987; cleanest: 1987, 1988. On average the car was 8.0 years old when the problem happened.

What breaks on Mitsubishi Cordia

Grouped by the system owners named — percentages are shares of all 4 Cordia complaints. Open any row for the full reports in owners' own words.

Seat Belts 50% 2 Read
1988 Mitsubishi Cordia

Driver's seatbelt buckle has broken, due to pieces of plastic particles falling inside, rendering seatbelt inoperative. Tt

1988 Mitsubishi Cordia

Owner received recall notice and dealer said it would take six to eight weeks for the parts to come in. Recall #950522

Wheels 25% 1 Read
1988 Mitsubishi Cordia

The right rear wheel bearings failed, causing damage to the wheel hub and the spindle/trailing arm assembly

Engine And Engine Cooling 25% 1 Read
1987 Mitsubishi Cordia

While driving at highway speeds, the timing belt broke, causing the vehicle to stall

Cordia years to avoid — and the clean ones

Complaints per model year. More reports usually means more cars on the road as well as more trouble, so read the crash and fire columns alongside the count.

FIG.02·Mitsubishi Cordia complaints by model year
Model yearComplaintsTop systemCrashesFires
19883Seat Belts
19871Engine And Engine Cooling
ROWS 2·SOURCE NHTSA owner complaints

The same model year, different builds

Every complaint carries the first 11 characters of the VIN — plant, year, body and engine. That is a production series, and complaints are spread across them very unevenly.

FIG.03·Mitsubishi Cordia complaints by production series
MeasureValue
Distinct production series4
Average complaints per series1
Worst single series1 complaints
Average age at failure8.0 years
ROWS 4·SOURCE NHTSA owner complaints + ForCar

A model average of 1 hides a worst series at 1. Enter a VIN above to see the numbers for that exact build instead of the model as a whole.

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How we count

Every figure here comes from complaints owners filed with NHTSA — 1,100,006 of them, covering 1,982 models built between 1981 and 2026.

A complaint is an unverified report: someone wrote down what happened to their car. It is not a confirmed defect and not a recall. What makes the volume useful is the pattern — when thousands of owners of the same build describe the same failure, that is a signal no marketing brochure will give you.

Two things we do that the source does not. First, we compute the age of the car at the moment of failure from the incident date and the model year. Second, we group complaints by the first 11 characters of the VIN — the production series — so a bad plant run does not disappear into a model-wide average.

Frequently asked questions

What are the worst years for the Cordia?

By complaint volume, 1988, 1987 drew the most owner reports. Bear in mind that popular years put more cars on the road, so check the crash and fire columns too.

Which Cordia years are the cleanest?

1987, 1988 have the fewest complaints on file. For recent years that can simply mean the cars are young.

How many complaints does the Mitsubishi Cordia have?

4 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, covering 1987–1988. Of those, 0 describe a crash and 0 a fire.

Are these complaints verified?

No. They are unverified reports from owners. NHTSA publishes them as filed and investigates only a fraction. The value is in the pattern, not in any single report.

Can I check complaints for one specific car?

Yes — enter its VIN above. We match the first 11 characters, which identify the plant, year, body and engine, so you get complaints on that exact production series rather than the whole model.

Owner complaints from NHTSA, published as filed and unverified. Age at failure computed by ForCar from incident date and model year; production series grouped by the first 11 VIN characters. Last updated Aug 2026. — ForCar Reviewed by , founder of ForCar.