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The Lancer, despite being equipped with a new petrol 4G—whatever they call it engine, is not remarkably fast, refined or even frugal. Show it a highway or a drag strip, and it will probably piss in fright next to an Altis, Civic or Lynx. Point it towards Monaco, and the tides will turn. How Mitsubishi engineers did it is a mystery, but this can run circles around the Honda Civic. Whereas ‘the respected one’ will end up bottoming out during hard cornering, the Lancer will eat them without even blinking. There’s some flex, sure, but body roll is superbly controlled and shifting lateral loads are well balanced. If all of this sounds Greek, let me illustrate: Civic equals London bus; Lancer equals go-kart. You get the picture. What’s better is that you can share the fun with three of your friends. Why three? Well, the Lancer’s so akin to being European that it has inherited the rather claustrophobic interior space. Then, there’s the case of lacking cubby holes except for the standard issue cup holders. Still, I don’t really mind. That’s a good excuse to use your girlfriend to hold up your favorite drink while you put on the mileage. Except for this fact, your friends will give nothing but thumbs up, as there’s nothing to fault with the interior bits: everything’s screwed the right way up (finally). The light tan plastics are a pain to clean, but what the hell, they uplift the cabin (and your spirits) quite well, making the Astra’s look even more like an undertaker’s office. This along with the huge greenhouse makes the Lancer feel airy and fresh—dainty, if you will. The switchgear’s all proper now, feeling as if they came from Mitsubishi rather than Mattel. However, not everything’s all Japanese logic in here. The only gripe is the overly complicated in-car entertainment system. At first glance it looks easy: push the ‘Source” button to start the music or the movie, or whatever. Suddenly, after a few seconds of motorized whirl, an LCD screen is revealed. Eyebrows are raised. Changing CD tracks require careful manipulation of the ‘Control’ button. Push. It changes CD. Push. It changes CD again. Grrr…this requires more precision than a brain surgery. What’s worse is that you have a choice of two equally irritating screen savers: static dolphins or art deco cubes. Hide the screen, and you forfeit the ability to change radio stations when Justin Timberlake decides to pop-up. Oh dear. Still, you have to credit the folks at Mitsubishi for two things: giving the Lancer the best GPS navigation system imitation this side of Merc’s equally complicated COMAND system, and including a 40K stereo as standard. |
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