Hi Everyone, recent lurker and now ready to post.

I am looking at the Endeavor as a daily driver for my Sig Other.
We live in an area that gets a mix of snow 20 days a year, rain 40 days a year and heat over 100 degrees occasionally in the summer with 80-90 average. We also have a boat, so we are looking closely at an Endeavor that will be towing as well.

In Canada, a base Endeavor with AWD is $39K. Out of our price range limit of $30K. So we were set to pick up a 2007 Santa Fe for $30K.

We then saw in our local paper, several 2006 Endeavors for under $30k with AWD.

One was $23K at a local Mercedes dealership. We went to check out all the examples and each one was imported from the U.S.

There were a couple at the local Mitsu dealership that were 28K, 29K etc. and had the speedo and odo changed to "Canadian" and also the daytime running lights and other stuff that makes it road legal up here. We test drove one and really liked it. It is a bit bigger than we are used to. I drive an MX5, my GF has an old Jetta. The Endeavor sure does take off well, and it rides nicely. The engine is a bit gruff, but it is a big engine. (what octane is needed? I read a lot of differing opinions on this)

The Mercedes one for $23K had just the saftey things replaced, but not the odo or speedo, but the price is VERY attractive to us.

The salesperson said that it would still have the warranty etc, it had a carfax report that said it was leased to a corporation and then sold. It has 20,000 miles. It looked basically mint, like the passenger side was never used.

Is there anything that I can look for specifically with these cars? I am not familiar with Mitsubishis in general and they are not terribly common up here. There is a Mitsu dealership in my city though, so getting warranty work would be easy I assume.

Are Mitsu dealerships happy to inspect Mitsu cars pre purchase even if they are not from their lot?

Sorry for the long first post everyone.

I hope that you can shed some light on this for me (us).

Thanks a bunch everyone! :right:

Hi there,
The Mitsu dealer will inspect any vehicle carrying thier badge. My 06 requires 91 octane or better as far as the manual says, but I have been known to occasionally put 89 octane. She will tow with no problem and there is an available block heater if you should need. Hope this helps.

Sure does help.

Although it does lead to further confusion. I was just at the Mitsu dealer and he said 87 octane is fine. Perhaps towing or the dead of summer use 89.

One more piece of advice. There is a 2004 on the lot that caught my eye. Were there any significant changes/enhancements that happened from the 2004 to the 2006 model?

the gas cap says use premium.
the owners manual says use premium.


i would say that probably means USE PREMIUM. there are a hundred threads on this subject already: do a search.
and there are also many updates from the 04 to 06 model year, as there would be with any model/make of car.

Well, that was nice.

If that is the case, what does "Premium" mean?

My car says premium, it runs like a top on 89 Octane in Canada all day long like a top.

The Mistubishi sales person says they put 87 octane in with no problems whatsoever. Octanes and their respective names differ greatly amongst countries, provinces and states, do they no?

I did search and found a vast array of thoughts and theories on this but decided to ask again in a new thread.

I did ask if there were any SIGNIFICANT changes/enhancements from 2004-2006. And no, not "any make/model of car" would go through significant changes.

I could name dozens of cars that essentially remained unchanged throughout any two year period.

Anyways, any USEFUL insight would be nice.

did you actually read your owners manual? I suspect it would tell you exactly what mitusbishi means by "premium".

can you use 87 octane? Of course. is it what is recommended? i think you already know the answer to that.
Like ALL cars that require premium, the car will probably ping, lose power and milage, and not perform like it was designed to if you do not use the recommended premium.

so you found answers, but wanted them again? Im not sure how getting the same answers again would actually help you determine an answer to your question.

every car does in fact go through hundreds of changes in a two year period, whether or not they are obvious or even noticeable. most would be simple to increase production numbers, or decrease the cost of said production. some will be incredibly minute, such as the deletion or addition of options, wiring, etc.
for example, there were about a half dozen software updates to the PCM for many potential issues (one being excessive pinging due to the use of lower octane fuel). this would not be a visible update to anyone. 99 percent of all owners would never be able to even feel the differences in software. but its still a fairly large difference, and most of those updates could be applied to your 04 as a software update. Is it a "major" update? depends on your definition.

if you're looking for differences such as engine size, transmission, etc... no, there havent been any "major" differences.


id love to offer useful insight, but upon re-reading your original post, I cant really find a question but for asking if there is something to specifically look for in an endeavor.

the 04s had more issues than all later endeavors due to typical early production glitches. the primary issues the 04s had that the later ones did not is 1)a noisey propshaft bearing (talked about many times in different threads), and 2)software glitches (which ive spoken of already).