Ask that Mitsu dealer technition guy what happens when the belt breaks.  A buddy of mine had a honda prelude that said the timing belt shoudl be changed at 80K. Well it broke at 75K and trashed his engine.  All the honda folks had to say was "your warrenty is 3 years or 60K miles which ever comes first"  

Realistically how much are you saving by changine it at 80K instead of 60K.  Here it cost $400 to change a belt. If oyu keep your car for 200K miles, youve changed the belt 3 times instad of two.  An extra 400 dollars distributed the 10 or so years it takes to put that on the car is worth the piece of mind.  Not only do they trash the engine but also leave you RING at the spot they pop.  Be it on a long trip, a bad neighborhood, or late for a big appointment.

Just not worth the worry to me.



 What's the best real-world interval for timing belt replacement?  I'm just here to announce that I bought a 99 Mirage LS with 101,000 miles on its original belt!  I changed it, of course, but the Mitsu dealer technician guy who checked it out says "yeah, little 1.8L engines can go 100K on their originals easily."  True?

 For the record, the manual says that for California/Massachusetts/Connecticut, 60,000 miles is "recommended but not required" while every other state gets 100,000.  What the hell?

Apparently in your case, yes.

I got myself a 97 Diamonte with over 100K on the clock.  One Fine
Morning the check engine light came on, so I took it in to see
WTF.  The valve cover gaskets had failed and allowed oil to pool
into the spark plug well, destroying the plug wire insulation and
causing a misfire.

The mechanic also said that they were the original wires, and the
original plugs.  I knew that changing the plugs was supposed to
happen *way* before that, and figured that if that maintenance
hadn't been done, the more expensive jobs had been left out as
well.

I had them change the belt and the water pump, and bring the rest
of the maintenance up to date.  The number one thing I need from
my car is that it work when I want it to, and now I motor about
in a much more relaxed frame of mind.

Swap that baby out every 60K?  Hell yes.