I am looking to purchase a car for my 17 yr old son. He wants the lancer 2002. Is the car a reliable car
I don’t know a thing about Lancers. But with a car of this age, the way it’s been cared for over the last 10 years will mean a lot more than the make & model. Your most important ally will be an independent mechanic.
There may be someone here who knows the Lancers & can comment on them, in general. Outside of that, with a little search work you can find reviews from actual owners on various sites. E.g. I occasionally look up Kelly Blue Book values on cars, and they have them.
You might hear the suggestion of Consumers Reports or something like that. I wouldn’t bother. Rags like that worry mostly about fresh, young products. You don’t care about that kind of review. You want to know what the car is like after 10 years and lots of miles. You need to hear from long time owners. I also ask the mechanics at my shop about cars. They can tell me, not only how trouble prone a model tends to be, but also how much of a hassle they are to work on.
I agree with Cigroller…Consumer Reports is a Rag. I used to sell appliances and people would come in with that magazine and show me models that were highly recomended and most of the models that were so highly recomended had a lot of repair issues. My brother worked on Mitsubishis and they’re very reliable. But make sure you look into the vehicle’s service history. My brother says the only problems he’s ever encountered with them are oil leaks and some minor electrical problems. But he says that applies mainly to early to late 90’s model mitsubishis.
A 17 year old with a car should have a job and help pay for the car, gas, insurance, maintenance, etc. Capisce?
When I as 17 years old my stepdad gave me a Dodge Power Wagon pick up that was 21 years old, had rust all over it and there was something wrong with the crank shaft on it or the differential I don’t remember which. It ended up in the junkyard! And yet a few years later, my mom and stepdad help my spoiled self indulgent brother buy a 1993 Honda Prelude which ran great and my brother goes and wrecks it.
Are you sure he doesn’t want the EVO model? 
Call up your insurance company and ask how much it’s gonna cost to insure one
Any used 2002 model vehicle is a coin flip as to reliability. There is simply no way of knowing what condition the car is in, how it was driven and maintained, and so on. An inspection could help to determine if the car is halfway decent but even that is no guarantee.
That being said, at one time my daughter (has owned 3 Mitsubishis) was going to buy a new 2002 Lancer. She was allowed to take the car home overnight on a lengthy test drive. (She’s young and cute so maybe that had something to do with it.)
I rode in and drove the car and personally, I couldn’t stand the thing. The 2 things that jumped out to me right off the bat was the hard, uncomfortable seats and even worse, the overall flimsy tin can feel to the car. The '91 Eclipse she had at the time felt like a more solid car and it was definitely better on fuel mileage as it would tick off about 35 or more MPG on the road.
She passed on the purchase.
I had a 1992 Plymouth Laser which is identical to the early 90’s mitsubishi eclipses and that car was pretty solid as well. Got great gas mileage on that thing but it seem that every 30K miles or so on it, I would have to take it to the shop to get an oil leak fixed on it. But other than that, I had no issues with that car. I finally traded it in back in 2002 and it had 198k miles on it and it ran really good.
I have owned a 2002 Lancer ES for 9 years now and overall it’s a great car. I bought it with 20K on it, so it was almost new when I purchased it. As long as the regular maintenance is followed, the Lancer won’t let you down. Make sure the seller has service records for major repairs. Also, make sure the timing belt was replaced around 75K miles (and again at 150K if the mileage is that high). If the seller doesn’t have service records, DON’T BUY. It is a very reliable car (as most Mitsubishis are) and I wouldn’t trade mine.
My brother says the same thing…When a mistsubishi engine hits 70-75K on it, changed the belts, no ifs ands or buts!