Introduction
Mitsubishi once manufactured engines for their infamous Zero fighters, thoses that were used during WWII, especially during their unprecidented attack on Pearl Harbour. So you must be thinking, "Ah! they manufacture machines that can be nimble and fly fast" and so, similarly, you must be further thinking that their cars must be the equivent of zero fighters of the land.
But sadly, over the years, something must have gone wrong. Their cars were never the "zero fighters" of the land. In fact, they never came close into having a car that have as much status as the "zero fighter" Ok, i'm slightly lying. They did. The GT3000 in the 90s, the Evolution series and even their Lancer MRs were all very good and exciting cars but their main stream products, Mitusbishi Motor's bread and butter, were utterly lacking in character and about as exciting as riding a tricycle . The smaller and less muscular little brother of the Lancer Evolution is one such product.
Same Actor. New Clothes.
If life was a show, the cs03 lancer is just the same actor, with a change of clothes. Essentially, as you may or may not know, sometime during the late 90s, MM has a JV with Damier Chrysler and the cs03 lancer is a joint colloboration with them. But here's the thing, the redesign of the lancer is only limited to the exterior. The heart of the lancer, it's 4G16 16V SOHC inline-4 1586cc engine is essentially the same as the old CS2. Even the interior fascia remains unchanged. Of course, the redesign is easy on the eye, looks sportier (especially the sports version) and is quite an attractive looking car.
Sporty look doesn't mean Sports car.
Standing still, it oozes confidence and speed. But once the red light turns green, you soon realise that looking sporty doesn't mean it's a sports car. It doesn't even run, it crawls from stand still. And here's the reason why. The 4G16 unit is old. period. It was designed during the Jurassic era by cavemen holding stone clubs, constructed with materials such as stones, flints and dinosaurs' skin,as techonologically advanced as a stone axe and spins as fast as flintstone's legs.
It IS the only flaw of this car, but it is enough to disappoint. Yes yes, you may say the air con is powerful, it's problem free, it's decently quiet(at times) but so? The heart of a car is the crux. If the heart is bad, the car is bad. Can you marry a handsome/beautiful partner if they are bad in character?
On paper, it's 0-100 timing for the manual is 11.8 seconds which is decent enough but you can never feel the urge from the engine. Choose the CVT and the century sprint will take , well, a century. I'm pretty sure Mitsubishi's engineers knew that they have a weak engine, which is why they tune the engine for the torque to peak at a low 2750rpm, to compensate for the lack of power.
Personally, i rather they drop in the 1.5L Mivec engine from the colt.
Verdict
On the upside, it's selling pretty cheap now (45-50k) for a Jap-made sedan, looks good, handles corners well, is resonably quiet (you will change your mind once the Aspec DB wears out, but that is another story), has loads of rear leg room and a big boot. On the downside, the engine is asmatic,noisy above 3k rpm. The interior looks like it came from the era where art means doodles on the walls of caves by ancient cavemen clad in leopard skins.
There is a phrase, "good things are worth the wait" so, if you want a lancer, wait for the 2008 Lancer. It will sport a whole new design (will you just look at that!) with a new 1.8l engine joinly developed with..Peugeot or Damier-chrysler I think.
Now that is what I call a modern car even Darth vader would approve of.
