If you are considering buying a used Mitsubishi L200, these are the common problems worth knowing about first. Our garage database tracks 2 known faults for this model, 2 of them rated high severity. Every one below is a repair bill a seller has good reason not to mention.
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Check a Mitsubishi L200 advert (free) →The Mitsubishi L200 has 2 known faults in our database across 2 generations, 2 of them rated high severity. The most serious are engine (engine overheating leading to cylinder head cracking and head gasket failure) and bodywork (the ladder chassis corrodes badly in UK conditions, concentrated at the front). None of them makes the car a bad buy on its own; the risk is a seller who knows and says nothing.
That is a count of the faults we hold, not a reliability score. Popular cars get written about more, and a newer generation has had less time to show its faults.
No year is a write-off on its own. What matters is which serious faults a given year and engine can have, and whether the car in front of you has had them fixed.
Each one is set out in full below, with the symptoms, the typical mileage and a rough repair cost.
Sellers rarely admit these faults outright
We track 7 specific phrases sellers use in adverts to soft-pedal these exact issues. Paste any Mitsubishi L200 advert and we check it in seconds.
Check an advert now (free) →Recall work is done by the manufacturer, and GOV.UK says you will not usually have to pay for it. These are the 9 DVSA recalls for the L200, newest first. They do not tell you whether this particular car has had the work: for that, put the registration into the free GOV.UK MOT history check, which shows a recall status where the manufacturer shares it, or ask a franchised dealer to check the VIN.
Corrosion of fixing rivets can lead to the side step shade becoming insecure
Put right by: Change the 12 aluminium rivets to M8 bolts and nuts
The locking mechanism in the door latch assembly may not operate properly in high temperatures. As a result the door may not latch correctly and may unintentionally open whilst driving. This may affect one or more doors depending on vehicle identification number.
Put right by: Modified assemblies are available and the remedy is to replace door latch mechanisms as identified by the manufacturer.
Certain driver side airbags the inflator might release shrapnel from the inflator container during deployment which could injure the driver.
Put right by: On affected vehicles replace air bag inflator.
Due to poor connectivity the indicators and/or vehicle lights may turn off or blink
Put right by: On affected vehicles apply lubricant to switch connections
Due to an incorrect shape of the power seat reclining lever the switch may get stuck. This causes current to flow through the reclining motor which heats up. In the worst case the cushion from the power seat and surrounding parts may be damaged due to heat generated from the reclining motor.
Put right by: Recall the vehicles that are likely to be affected to replace the powered seat recliner levers and where necessary the adjuster assemblies.
Poor welding may have occurred on the front prop shaft due to a manufacturing equipment failure on the supplier's production line. In the worst case the weld may break and the prop shaft may interfere with and damage the fuel line sufficiently for fuel to leak.
Put right by: Recall the vehicles that are likely to be affected to check and where necessary replace the propeller shaft.
Either side front lower suspension arm can be damaged or broken due to improper welding by the supplier. This could cause the vehicle to pull to either side or can be unstable during driving.
Put right by: Recall the vehicles that are likely to be affected to check and where necessary replace any defective lower suspension arms.
It is possible that a poorly soldered joint could cause a high resistance on the Door Entry Guard circuit board. This can cause a risk of fire.
Put right by: Recall all affected vehicles to check unit and replace if required.
As a result of incorrect mapping of the ECU and/or inappropriate design of the air flow sensor connector low engine performance poor idling or in the worst case engine stalling might be experienced.
Put right by: Recall the vehicles that are likely to be affected to re programme the ECU and where necessary replace the air flow sensor.
Recall data published by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency under the Open Government Licence v3.0. A recall listed here may not apply to every car of this model: the build dates and the registration check are what decide it.
An overdue cambelt is the most expensive thing a seller can fail to mention on a used L200. These are the figures UK specialists work to.
The 2.5 DI-D engine is an interference engine. The timing belt MUST be changed every 60,000 miles or 5 years. Do not delay this maintenance or catastrophic engine damage will result.
Always confirm against the vehicle handbook. Intervals vary by engine, and several manufacturers revised theirs after failures in service.
No Mitsubishi L200 year is a write-off, but the Series 4 (2006 to 2015) carries the most serious faults: engine and bodywork. The Series 5 (2015 to 2019) has none rated high severity. Year matters less than whether the specific car has had the known fixes, so check the history for them.
Ask the seller about the engine and bodywork faults on this page and whether they have been fixed, with invoices. On the test drive watch for overheating gauge reading high and heavy scale and flaking on the chassis rails and cross members. Read the MOT history for repeat advisories, then paste the advert into the free check, which reads it against its known faults before you travel. Check a Mitsubishi L200 advert →
The DVSA lists 9 safety recalls for the Mitsubishi L200 issued between 2013 and 2019. The most recent, from July 2019, is "Side step shade rivets may corrode and fracture". Recall work is done by the manufacturer, and GOV.UK says you will not usually have to pay for it. This list is by model, so it cannot tell you whether one particular car has had the work: the free GOV.UK MOT history check shows a recall status from the registration where the manufacturer shares it, and a franchised dealer can check the VIN.
Owners report 29.4 mpg on average across the Mitsubishi L200 engines with data, about 74% of the official combined figure. The gap between official and real-world economy varies a lot by engine, so the Real MPG page lists every engine and generation separately, from 92 owner submissions. Mitsubishi L200 Real MPG by engine →
Looking at a Mitsubishi L200 right now? Check the advert before you go and see it.
If you used to check the Honest John “Good & Bad” section before the site closed in 2026, this page is where that information now lives. We rebuilt the Mitsubishi L200 owner-report history from the archived Honest John dataset, added our own research, specialist and owner-club sources and DVSA recall data, and we keep it free. Each fault above is badged with its source. The same data feeds our free advert check, which reads a listing against every known fault for the exact engine and year.
CarAdCheck is not affiliated with Honest John or Volkswagen Financial Services. What happened to Honest John, and where each feature lives now.
Knowing what a Mitsubishi L200 goes wrong with is half of it. The rest is reading the advert and checking the car's history before you hand any money over.