New Lancer

Cookie_Monster

Well its a few months old by now but i was parked beside one yesterday and they are a damn nice looking car, so much better than the last one.

Can't help noticing however that it looks like Mitsubishi have been stealing design ideas from others, the front looks a lot like the old (95-9X- the one with the square lights) impreza albiet slightly more square and aggressive and the back is a Alfa 155/156

alias no.9

Hints of modern volvos at the front with the bonnet shut line above the grille too.

Earth Worm Jim

While I agree it looks well - it get a very poor rating on motoring sites and mag's mainly performance and safety - the are going very cheap in the UK at the moment.

littlejukka

if you want to drive a mondeo, S40, impreza and lancer at the same time, the 2008 Lancer is the car for you. mitsubishi are so smrt.

can't wait to get a drive of the Evo X though.

jimmycrackcorm

I was parked behind one a couple of days ago and before I saw the badges, I thought that Seat had introduced a cordoba that was slightly bigger.

colm_mcm

I like it, reminds me of the Galant.

floss992

Earth Worm Jim wrote: »

While I agree it looks well - it get a very poor rating on motoring sites and mag's mainly performance and safety - the are going very cheap in the UK at the moment.

earth worm .....the lancer is not released in the uk yet

Green Hornet

Must agree. Looks a damn fine car. Huge improvement on the previous models. Problem will be depreciation though.

cozmik

I had a good look at the new lancer yesterday and I was not impressed at all.Good for those who like it though, not my cup of tea but thats just my opinion.

IrishRover

The funny thing about the new Lancer is that there is only one model and one specification. If you want one, you can only choose from what they have available in any showroom. They say they aren't getting any more in until April. To me that sounds like Mitsubishi are just testing the water with this.

For what it's worth, I've driven the new Lancer a few hundred miles now and it's ok, but doesn't set my world on fire

I think the 1.5 litre Mivec engine in it must be more like an i-Mivec engine (as in i-vtec) because I'm guessing it's more for economy than power. It's not underpowered for a 1.5 - it feels perfectly capable really - but it doesn't feel out of the ordinary and the red line is still at about 6.5k rpm. According to the OBC, I got a fuel economy of 6.3 L/100Km (about 45mpg) on longer trips but I was consciously going easy.

There is a suprisingly nice exhaust burble noise when it starts up and the engine sounds nice enough, but 120km/hr is approx 3.5k rpm in 5th gear and at this speed, the engine is quite audible. I never like when the engine noise is damped too much in a car, but I thought it was a bit intrusive for a modern car and I expect it would get quite tiring to do longer journeys in this car.

Suspension is ok - seems like a lot of modern cars now - being a fairly good compromise of being quite stiff but supple enough too to soak up bumps. The car is quite high up too (another thing that seems to be a modern trend, even in saloon cars). It's not very communicative though, and the steering is too light. The car seems to become a little unstable on sweeping bends, especially when lifting off the throttle. I didn't really like the handling.

The inside is very similar to the MKV Golf. Whoever designed it must have looked at the Golf interior because it uses the same colours and the same layout for the centre cupholders and dash theme with the silver strip. The plastics do look that bit cheaper though.

I agree the exterior styling looks like an S40 alright. The Carisma was a sister car of the S40 though, so maybe that's no coincidence.

What is it with Mitsubishi cars in Ireland these days though? The Galant and Lancer used to be as common on Irish roads as the Mondeo and Focus. Now there doesn't seem to be any Galant at all, and the Lancer seems to be as easy to get a hold of as a new Lancia in Ireland!

floss992

what happened mitsubishi was that they wanted 2 move more cars in the US...their biggest market...so they brought out some kind of a deal where u can drive away a new car 4a dollar.... it must hav gone quite well as they were so many defaults on repayment that the company went bust ....they were bailed out twice by all their sister companies...and this yr is the first in 5 yrs that they will post a profit...they now hav a european design office.. and u can see the results ....

....L200 ...outlander ...lancer...colt... jap cars r very reliable but tend 2bvery dull designs... but honda mazda mitsu suzuki and bringing more of a funkier looking design 4 the european market

Lobster

Front looks like a skyline from some angles.

Green Hornet

colm_mcm wrote: »

I like it, reminds me of the Galant.

It does actually, the last model.......not sure if theres a new one coming out soon? They were a really nice looking car but aged a little over the years. Seem to have a bad name though but not sure why. I would have thought Mitsubishi were pretty reliable.

bazz26

Green Hornet wrote: »

It does actually, the last model.......not sure if theres a new one coming out soon? They were a really nice looking car but aged a little over the years. Seem to have a bad name though but not sure why. I would have thought Mitsubishi were pretty reliable.

Last model Galant introducted in 2003 grew in size and was not offered in Europe as it was similar in size to the Maxima, Camry, etc which were all front wheel drive barges with the wrong image which nobody in Europe really wants. Galant still sells well State side though.

Lobster

Definetly a hint of SEAT in the rear. Looks cool with the kit on

floss992

cozmik wrote: »

I had a good look at the new lancer yesterday and I was not impressed at all.Good for those who like it though, not my cup of tea but thats just my opinion.

what would u class as a nice car?........

Green Hornet

I think the fact that we are even discussing the new Lancer must say something about it. I dont think the last model would have even featured on the boards. It might not be everybodys cup of tea but its a huge improvement on the last model.

cantdecide

floss992 wrote: »

what would u class as a nice car?........

Most new proper cars are good these days so lots of cars that are not bottom of the range are a good place to start.

jhealy74

I like it. Especially this one:
http://www.carsireland.ie/detail.php?ad_id=179247&r=s.php%3Fm%3D58%26amp%3Bo%3D488%26amp%3Bh%3D1%26amp%3Bg%3D0%26z%3D5

colm_mcm

jhealy74 wrote: »

I like it. Especially this one:
http://www.carsireland.ie/detail.php?ad_id=179247&r=s.php%3Fm%3D58%26amp%3Bo%3D488%26amp%3Bh%3D1%26amp%3Bg%3D0%26z%3D5

Definately worth a spin!

bazz26

colm_mcm wrote: »

Definately worth a spin!

Yeah, might even test drive the Lancer afterwards too...