Really? Why? I'm genuinely curious because a prior owner installed a Mishimoto system on my car and I kinda like the way it sounds. Clearly there's no love for it here on the forum (it's not even a voting option on the big exhaust thread) and I've always wondered why.
Okay, not necessarily "junk." However, Mishimoto just imports cheap stuff from China and slaps their name on it before marking it up 500% or more.
Because the name
sounds Japanese (they are
not a Japanese company) and the products aren't
terrible they've gotten an okay reputation from people who don't know better and think that they're another premium Japanese tuning house (this is by design, of course, and is deliberately misleading).
Now, to be clear, there's nothing wrong with Chinese parts or rebranding them for a profit - heck, Ron @ Whoosh doesn't make the Whoosh-branded stuff in house and he's very upfront about that (though he does do R&D on some stuff, which is also clearly noted). But I hold Mishimoto in particularly low esteem because they
also do a bunch of phony-ass "R&D" blog posts on their website about all the parts they "fabricate in house" using their "dedicated team of engineers" when as far as I am aware none of that is true.
For example, a while back, someone on the Mustang forums who had acess to some pretty advanced measuring equipment wanted to prove a point and got both a $750 Mishimoto intercooler and a $100 intercooler from eBay. After careful analysis with a micrometer, analysis of the alloys used, etc, he concluded that the two were identical in every way, likely made in the same factory. Similar experiments were done 10-20 years ago on the WRX forums when Mishimoto first started releasing products.
So, they're misleading at best and dishonest at worst and I don't respect that.
Again, to be clear, cheap Chinese stuff is fine. I've got both a no-name Chinese eBay/AliBaba intercooler ($160) and radiator ($140) and they have been totally fine for me on a daily-driven car, but I wouldn't have paid 500% markup for the Mishimoto name. You don't get what you pay for with those margins.
Edited for clarity and a typo at 10:25am PST on 8/27/2024.