Do my eyes deceive me?

[baileybrad]

We recently rented from National on-airport (6Dec02-15Dec02). We picked out a Mitsibuishi Galant ES with only 800 miles on it. The trunk acutally held more of our stuff than some of the other vehicles available. Our double stroller still had to go in the back seat with the 2 kids on the drive over to the resort.

My only problem, and this is where there ole peepers are in question, I could not locate a way to unlock the trunk without doing it from the inside. I was unable to locate a place to use the key in the rear. It was a bit of a pain. I sure wouldn't want to own a vehicle that lacked this feature. Another odd thing was that there is not way to unlock this model on the passenger side.

The car was very nice otherwise and the fact that we were probably only the 3rd or 4th renters is always really cool. A very clean vehicle. My all time best is still safe, however, we got a Buick Regal in '99 with only 3 miles on it.

 

[denisenh]

Well, that would be odd....I had to find out, so I asked a mechanic.
DH says that there is a key hole on the bottom right side of the trunk lid.

 

[shoes99]

LOL, that happened to me on our Dec 6-11 trip. The car was beautiful, but I couldn't find where to open the trunk either. We used the inside latch all the time.

 

[hercamore]

Oh yeah,

this happened to dd and I on our Pensacola trip last April.

Rented from National, got this really nice Gallant and then couln't find the trunk keyhole. Very odd to have to unlock from inside of car.

I did like the car otherwise, tho.

Herc.

 

[brubaby1]

Greetings,
Thanks for sharing your story. The same thing happened to us when we arrived about midnight in October. There was no one around and the only cars available in the midsize isle seemed to be the Gallants. We must have spent at least a half hour looking for a way to open the trunk. I nearly settled for a compact GM vehicle because the trunk releases are generally located on the dash or on the driver's side door. We always pack generously for our two week stays and after pushing it all out to the lot and searching several vehicles for what seemed like an eternity I was frustrated and my shirt was soaked from the humidity. Much to my relief my wife happened to move the seat back on one of the cars and discovered the trunk release. By this time the lone worker in the lot came over to see what was going on. I was so tired that I can't remember whether or not I got my paperwork back from the lone employee manning the booth. This of course led to another fun trip to the counter when I returned the car. At least I had a copy of the original reservation paperwork which had my original quoted rate so it all worked out ok.

I'm So Glad I Wasn't The Only One!

Kevin

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

The place for the key in the trunk is after the "T" on Gallant, It is very tiny and looks like a period after the word. Very easy to miss.

 

[cigar95]

I just went to the Los Angeles Auto Show yesterday and made a point to check out the Galant.

Nope, I couldn't find a keyhole either.

I asked one of the hosts, who confirmed that there is no key open for the trunk. And, in what seems like a poor design, she didn't believe that the keyless entry would open the trunk either. Hence the *only* way to open the trunk is via the inside latch.

Gail, I'm not saying you're wrong, but it may correct for an earlier model year.

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Cigar,
Hi, I just checked the Mitsubishi site and took a good look at the Galant's rear end. It shows the same opening after the "t" in Galant that I was speaking of.
http://www.mitsucars.com/galant/photos.html#
enlarge the photo and you will see what I am talking about.
But, you are correct, only the driver's door has a key hole. All models but the DE open with the remote entry.
I am not too impressed with this either. What could they have been thinking?

 

[cigar95]

Gail, I'm not sure which style I was looking at, but that little keyhole definitely wasn't there - I had read your earlier post, and I looked.

Hmm - what's the dilemma? Perhaps the photos are actually of the 2002 car, since there's been little changes to the 2003 model.

Am I going to have to go back to the Auto Show again? Boy, that'd be so unfortunate. What a terrible way to spend another afternoon - looking at beautiful, well-presented, brand new cars surrounded by auto-show models.