What the heck just happened? The Autopian’s video manager Griffin is always trying to find a good car for Trade-In-Tuesday, and this time around it sounded like it was slim pickings. The most interesting of the many vehicles traded into Galpin over Labor Day was apparently a 2009 Mitsubishi Lancer. With the same 152 horsepower, 2.0-liter World Engine found in the Dodge Caliber and amenities you’d expect to find in one of the cheapest cars of 2009, I was not expecting much. I was blown away.
In the video below, I blather on about what it takes to build a car brand. You build a halo vehicle, you advertising the bejesus out of it, and then you build a bunch of normal cars that draw inspiration from that halo car. This leads people to come to your dealerships and purchase the normal car they need, while still being convinced that they’re kinda-sorta getting a taste of that halo car they want.
[Welcome to Trade-In-Tuesday, a series in which we drive trade-ins brought to our sister-company, Galpin Motors. -DT].
It’s a brand-building strategy as old as time itself, and it’s a small part of why the Mitsubishi Lancer below is so great.
Look at that aggressive front end shared with the rally-beast. Look at that big wing. And above all, look at that five-speed manual whose shift ball is begging you to replace it with a boy-racer-ish style aftermarket shift knob.
This basic Mitsubishi Lancer isn’t a sports car in any way, even if it’s related to one. Under the hood is an engine whose architecture is shared with that of the Dodge Caliber and Jeep Compass. It’s a weak-sauce 2.0-liter making just over 150 horsepower, and when I open its throttle with a stomp to the gas pedal, Morgan Freeman comes through the car’s speakers and said: “We will take your input into consideration.” Zero to 60 is somewhere between 8 and 9 seconds, and unless the revs are above 5,000, the car is a cruiser and far from a bruiser.
And yet, I loved driving it.
It’s not the motor, it’s the transmission. Designated the F5MBB, this is an Aisin-engineered five-speed manual known for being reliable as heck and, above all, an absolute delight to shift. It snicks into gear just right, its throws are perfect, and the clutch is just heavy enough.
It’s a phenomenal transmission hooked to an average, somewhat buzzy but reliable and reasonably efficient engine.
The base Lancer with this engine only cost $13,990.00 back in 2009 — not much more than a Hyundai Elantra or Toyota Yaris.
And I have to say: This is a good car. The seats are comfortable and don’t look too dated, the dash is made of hard plastic but it looks OK for a 2009. And with boxes checked for power windows, power locks, a CD player, alloy, and that big rear wing, this car doesn’t feel like a penalty box.
It looks reasonably aggressive, with styling shared with the Evo that’s based on the same platform, it’s practical, and that stick makes it a true joy to drive. This was a surprisingly excellent trade-in, and with sale prices around $5000, these Lancers seem like great transportation, especially given 30 MPG highway and the fact that the model received the IIHS Top Safety Pick back around 2009.
Cool looking, somewhat efficient, reasonably safe, dead-reliable, and dirt cheap? Why is nobody (ok not nobody) talking about Lancers? This seems like a tragically underrated machine.
I haven’t owned or driven a stick-shift car in a while but not mentioned in your review is whether rev hang is significant. I test drove a GTI back in 2017 when I bought my Accord V6. Coming from a Jetta TDI, the rev hang on the GTI took a lot of the fun away from driving it.
My brother and my mum both bought these brand new. The manual makes a big difference, as the CVT is awful to drive.
I have a weird fascination with the Lancer’s platform-mate, the Outlander Sport. I believe some trims came with a manual
I think it would just make me wish I’d saved for an actual Evo.
I had a 2006 Ralliart Sportback. I really liked that car, shame it was only available with a mediocre 4-speed auto, but the engine and handling were great. Eventually the HVAC mixer got jammed (apparently a common problem) and I switched it for a Subaru Legacy GT wagon, which turned out to be a gigantic money pit. Wish had just payed to fix the Lancer instead.
Never drove one of these, but I can imagine they’re quite good. I had a rental Galant circa 2006 to drive from MT to CA and had to pilot it through a massive snowstorm going into Utah and even on all seasons it had a level of feel and intuitiveness to drive that made that a lot less terrible than it could’ve been. It was just a great version of what was on paper the same as any other 4 cylinder mid-size sedan from the era but it was was nicer to drive than most others.
They’re pretty good cars, but parts can be a bit of a problem. Not a ton of aftermarket support, and OEM parts are expensive and sometimes difficult to get.
I had a 1987 Peugeot 505 Turbo S (5MT) around the turn of the millenium. It had 150hp and a 10 second 0-60 time; it was an expensive performance sedan. And it was plenty fast, then and now. Now that I think of it, it remains the most powerful car I have ever owned…
It’s definitely one of the cars of all time
I don’t need to read the article – I just saw a picture of the stick.
We test drove and actually signed a lease for one of these when they were released, but with a CVT transmission. Never had I driven such an atrocious, unnatural, counterintuitive, constantly revving for nothing piece of garbage.
All I could think of was “With a stick or even a regular auto this thing would be very decent“.
The stealership still managed to charm us into signing the lease, which we cancelled a few days later. Long live cool down laws or whatever the name is.
If it was shared with the Caliber I had a rental one once and it was hilariously bad. Besides its other quirks, it would jump straight to the lowest ratio if you floored it off the line so I amused myself way too much doing burnouts from every stop light when it rained.
Mitsubishi lost my interest when dealers decided to deny warranty claims for autocross participants, despite selling the Evo as a boy rally racer. Mitsubishi was accused of scanning car club autocross photos and driver lists to support this practice.
Yup, I like this car. When I was in grad school, Enterprise used to have this $29 a weekend promotion for their cheap cars. I rented the pre-updated version of this car, with an auto, for a Hamptons trip on the cheap (friend’s house was empty). I still remember the steering had a nice heft to it – similar to a Kia Spectra I also rented under similar circumstances – and I also remember that it was suprisingly ok at 80 mph on crazy 495. Wish it had the stick of course!
Easily one of the first, if not the first, car I would buy in every GranTurismo game. Pretty much every one I’ve seen in real life has been hooned/trashed/Pep Boys’d out. Last one I saw was painted primer black with a pink hood/roof/spoiler/wheel combo.
Possibly the cleanest one I’ve ever seen, DT.
Yeah, I was looking for one of the previous gen wagons but they are all on the verge of non-existence.
If you like “on the verge of non-existence” I have a Saab 900 convertible for sale.
I like rear doors and long roofs… good luck, though!
This is my favorite car to drive in rallies in Dirt 4
The Lancers were great cars to those in the know. Unfortunately the masses didn’t flock to them like they did Corollas and Civics. Alas, no Lancer no Evo. No Mitsubishi’s lineup is almost as sad as Chrysler’s.
As a Cali car, this one’s engine was detuned to 143 hp.
This generation of Lancer was one of the last examples of Mitsubishi actually trying somewhat hard in the U.S. market. Unfortunately, that “somewhat” meant that you had to put up with very limited powertrain options depending on the bodystyle. If you got the mid-range Ralliart turbo you had to get the dual-clutch, which was unrefined. If you wanted AWD in your sedan, you had to get the awful CVT. If you wanted a manual, you had to get the base model or the full-fat Evo. If you wanted the wagon, good luck finding one.
When they released that wagon I thought it was really cool, and the idea of a more entry level but still performance Lancer a la WRX seemed like a good idea…but it was only offered with the DCT as I recall (not that I could’ve afforded it at the time)
I got it wrong by mentioning the wagon, which was offered for a single year in 2004. 4-spd auto only, even for the Ralliart version, which did get the 2.4
The Sportback was resurrected in 2009? as a hatchback, this time with the DCT if you went with the Ralliart trim.
Ah yeh I thought you meant the Sportback which was cool though anecdotally doesn’t seem like they sold well. If they’d offered the Ralliart with a stick I’d even now be tempted to look for a clean used one.
I was looking for a Lancer Wagon for a while but eventually I realized that just buying a JDM wagon would be much easier – better cared for (understatement of the decade), no more expensive, and honestly no harder to find parts for.
I’d love to have one in my driveway.
Same, if only that hideous wing could be disappeared.