ROAD TEST MITSUBISHI LANCER 1.8 DI-D INTENSE:With their revamped saloon, Mitsubishi has produced a powerful engine, but bland looks and a flawed interior mean the result is a reminder of how good the marque used to be, writes PADDY COMYN
THERE WAS A time in Ireland when Mitsubishi enjoyed a much higher profile than they do right now. Back in the mid-to-late 1990s they were an immensely popular brand. Sure enough they weren’t selling numbers to make the boys over at Toyota or Ford worry too much but they had a range that buyers truly respected, even if the Irish tongue had issues pronouncing the brand name in the first place.
For a while, as Ireland started to build itself up into the now infamous Celtic Tiger years, vehicle like the Pajero and later the L200 pick-up were used to build and farm our way to future prosperity. But their mainstream models were also excellent. The Colt was an honest three-door that appealed to both young and old. The Galant was almost certainly the best car in its class, and was, in this writer’s opinion, one of the most under-rated cars to arrive in Ireland in the last 30 years. So what went wrong?
With less than one per cent market share (0.68 per cent to be exact) things have certainly gone very wrong. Overnight, the core of the Mitsubishi range became largely irrelevant. The Pajero would now be virtually extinct here in Ireland if it wasn’t for the Army. The L200 pick-up truck’s customers are now largely out of business. There is no Galant anymore to compete against the massive selling Avensis. So there is a lot of pressure on the evergreen Lancer. The Lancer now makes up almost 39 per cent of the brand’s sales here. Ford’s Focus only makes up 32 per cent of their sales and Ireland’s best-selling car, the Avensis accounts for 31 per cent of Toyota’s sales. So there is a lot of pressure on the Lancer to succeed, simply because its other models (ASX aside) aren’t performing.
So where are we with the Lancer of 2011? Well after a pretty shaky time in the middle part of the last decade, an all-new Lancer came out in 2008, just as the Irish economy was about to fall apart and just as we changed from a taxation system based on the cubic capacity of a car, to one that used CO2 emissions to tax our driving. So the news that a 1.5-litre petrol engine would make up the main core of the model must have been painfully frustrating. Yet that year 915 Lancers were sold. Not a bad result on the surface until you see that Nissan managed to sell three times as many of the appalling Tiida that year.
Fast forward to 2011 though and we now have a Lancer which, at last, fits our climate. It looks quite smart, with the new “jet fighter” front grille, which has become a signature feature of the brand and which isn’t dissimilar to Audi’s single-frame grille. This gives the car a very purposeful face. It is quite bland though from the front on. Side-on it is fairly nondescript aside from some smart 16-inch alloy wheels. But the rear is pretty enough. The inside is a bit of a mixed bag. There is a lot of standard equipment thrown in as standard for your €22,995. There are lots of other brands who would ask lots more for automatic air conditioning, Bluetooth (for both audio and phone), cruise control and a multi-function leather steering wheel. But there is a real need for Mitsubishi to drag themselves out of the 1990s when it comes to interiors. The Lancer has the interior of a luxury car from 1995 but that really isn’t enough in 2011. The new Focus interior looks decades newer. It feels pretty plush nonetheless and your hands are on a leather wheel and the seats are comfortable.
Under the bonnet of the Lancer, there is now a 1.8-litre diesel engine, putting out 150bhp and 300Nm of torque. This is a new, all-aluminium 16v 4-cylinder common rail direct injection “low impact” Euro 5 diesel (to give it the full exhaustive press release title) and it is Mitsubishi’s own creation. It is mated to a six-speed manual gearbox and thanks to low emissions (139g/km), which aren’t achieved using Stop/Start or any other new trickery, it will only cost you €156 per year to tax.
Let’s rewind a little though and put this engine in context. In the quest for low emissions, which is so vital to our modern motoring climate, we have overwhelmingly transferred to diesel engines and most of them are pretty darn weedy. Exhibit A is the new Ford Focus. The engine that most people will buy is the 1.6-litre diesel and that comes with power outputs of 95 or 115bhp. Exhibit B is the Volkswagen Golf. It comes with a 1.6-litre diesel to kick off the range and that has 105bhp. The Renault Mégane has 110bhp, the Opel Astra 100bhp and the Mazda3 115bhp. The Toyota Corolla makes do with 90bhp. Meanwhile, the Lancer is putting out 150bhp and twice that figure in torque so you can consider this car to be the performance diesel of the class in some ways. Even though the Focus we tested last week is quicker to 100km/h off the line, the engine in this Lancer feels super-urgent, with big lumps of power available.
What people are likely to forget too (and count me in on this) is that Mitsubishi do know a thing or two about making a good chassis and the Lancer is no exception. People naturally default to talking about cars like the Focus when it comes to being a benchmark for handling prowess, but this Lancer is more than talented in this regard. Twinned with this very impressive engine, it becomes quite an entertaining car to drive on a twist road. Under more normal conditions, the fuel economy for us was exactly as promised by the brochure as we averaged 5.3 l/100km readily enough, and most of this was motorway driving. It is a very easy car to live with. We just wish it felt a little more modern.
Some conclusions, then. This is better than the Corolla and Fluence, but their brands won’t care about this because they will sell multiples more. It isn’t as good as the new Focus saloon, but is probably on a par with the new Jetta and Mazda3. Should you try it out? Yes. It is worth a look because it is almost certainly better than you expect it to be and it will be reliable, cheap to run and easy to own. Given the great engine, talented chassis and massive potential around these core elements, we just wish Mitsubishi would live up to their full potential, rather than simply giving us reminders of how good they once were.
The rivals
Renault Fluence Irish Edition
Bhp 110
Torque 240Nm
0-100km/h 11.0 secs
L/100km (mpg) 4.6 (61)
Emissions (motor tax) 120g/km (€104)
Bootspace 530 litres
Price €24,900
FACTFILE
Skoda Octavia 1.6 TDI Ambiente
Bhp 105
Torque 250Nm
0-100km/h 11.9 secs
L/100km (mpg) 4.5 (63)
Emissions (motor tax) 119g/km (€104)
Bootspace 580 litres
Price €22,525
Ford Focus 1.6 TDCi 115 Edge
Bhp 114
Torque 270Nm
0-100km/h 8.7secs
L/100km (mpg) 5.1 (55.4)
Emissions (motor tax) 109g/km (€104)
Bootspace 450 litres
Price €23,425
Toyota Corolla 1.4 D-4D Aura
Bhp 90
Torque 205Nm
0-100km/h 11.9secs
L/100km (mpg) 4.7 (60)
Emissions (motor tax) 125g/km (€156)
Bootspace 450 litres
Price €22,375
Factfile
Engine 1,798cc four-cylinder turbo diesel putting out 150bhp at 4,000rpm, with 300Nm of torque at 2,000rpm with a six-speed manual transmission
0-100km/h 9.9 secs
L/100km (mpg) Urban - 6.6 (42.8); Extra-urban - 4.5 (62.7); Combined - 5.3 (53.3)
Emissions (motor tax) 139 g/km (€156)
Specification Electric front windows front and rear, electric heated door mirrors, remote central locking and keyless entry system, Bluetooth handsfree phone kit with voice recognition, automatic air conditioning, audio jack, remote audio controls, cruise control, height-adjustable drivers seat, active stability control, electronic traction control, front side airbag with de-selection switch, side airbags, curtain airbags, knee airbag (driver), multi-function leather steering wheel, leather gearshift knob and handbrake lever, 16-inch alloy wheels.
Price €22,995