Mitsubishi Galant review: a forgotten Camry alternative Bahrain moved on from
3.1/5motorssouq Editorial Team
Buy a Galant only if you find a well-documented, single-owner 2.4L example priced well below an equivalent Camry, and only if you are comfortable relying on Bahrain's independent workshops rather than a factory-backed dealer. The car itself was never the problem; a decade of orphaned parts support is what makes it a harder sell than it deserves.
Pros
- Smooth, unstressed 2.4L MIVEC four with genuinely spacious rear legroom
- Comfortable, quiet highway ride well suited to the causeway run
- Depreciation has already happened, so a good example is cheap to buy
- Engine shares parts with other Mitsubishi fours of the era, so independent workshops cope fine
Cons
- Dealer and parts support has thinned considerably since Mitsubishi's regional distribution changed hands
- Body trim, interior and electrical parts are increasingly hard to source locally
- Resale value is weak against Camry and Accord of the same age
- Window switch and central locking failures are a common, hard-to-replace issue
By the time this Galant generation arrived, Mitsubishi was fighting Toyota and Honda on their own turf with a car that was, mechanically, up to the job. The 2.4-litre MIVEC four is a smooth, unstressed engine that never needed to work hard in daily Bahrain traffic, and the cabin was genuinely more spacious than a same-era Accord in rear legroom. A V6 Ralliart variant existed for buyers who wanted real pace, though very few reached the Gulf and fewer survive here today.
On the road it drives like what it is: a comfortable, softly sprung family sedan with light steering and a ride tuned for long, flat highway stretches rather than back-road enthusiasm. It does the causeway run to the Saudi side without drama, and the cabin stays quiet at 120 km/h — the basics Mitsubishi got right are still there.
Ownership in Bahrain today
This is where the Galant story turns. Mitsubishi's Bahrain and wider Gulf distribution has been reorganised more than once since this car was current, and the dealer network that once stocked Galant parts is not the one operating today. Independent workshops can service the 2.4L engine without drama — it shares components with other Mitsubishi fours of the era — but body trim, interior parts and anything electronic gets harder to source every year.
Resale reflects all of this. A Galant depreciates faster than a comparable Camry or Accord because buyers correctly price in the support risk, which means a well-kept example is genuinely cheap to acquire — the flip side of the same problem.
What to check before you buy
Verify the service history rather than trust the odometer, inspect the automatic transmission for delayed or harsh shifts on a test drive, and confirm every electrical accessory works before you commit — window switches and central locking modules are the most commonly reported failure points on cars this age, and replacements are no longer stocked locally as a matter of course.