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.
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.
In a lot of ways, this was the Ford Focus’ mojo. From the beginning, Ford would use it as its rally car, and the everyday versions contain that DNA in one form or another, to a greater or lesser, but still there, extent. It’s a cool way to pitch a car. Worked on me.
There’s a great Ford Heritage Vault release of a short film Ford made for the UK market to introduce the Focus. It showcases side by side production of the road-going and race car variants, including a great ending where they end up on the road together, side by side.
My spouse had a Lancer of this generation when we stated dating. It was a bright blue CVT-equipped mid-level model.
Between various road trips and whatnot, I got enough seat time behind the wheel.
It suffered no major drivetrain maladies and was a decent transportation-mobile for a decade. It was a decent highway cruiser and had good visibility out of it compared to a lot of newer vehicles.
However, it was pretty uninspiring from a driver’s perspective. The engine was indifferent in both power production and fuel economy. The handling and brakes were fine if you had low expectations. The steering was a feel-free sort of affair.
The paint held up; the rust was relentless underneath. An anecdote: It was experiencing electrical gremlins towards the ends of its days. I checked the ground under the battery. Trying to break the ground loose ended with me shearing a chunk of the rusty body off where the ground attached. I ended up installing a new ground in a location that actually would allow electric current to flow properly.
If this car was in California, it would probably still be in the driveway today; they’ve mostly disappeared from northern roads by now.
To me, the Lancer kind of represents a more modern Chevrolet Cavalier; maybe the last version of such a vehicle sold. A very affordable car that held up better in the long-term than it should have given its low cost and indifferent maintenance these things generally ended up enduring.
It sounds as if the manual transmission made all the difference for the one you drove, because the CVT version stole about 90% of the pizazz you speak of.
Oh also, the wing annoyed me to no end. Right in the line of sight out of the rearview. I guess it looked cool if you were into that.
My friend just got rid of his, GTS auto. It’s a Nissan CVT (didn’t explode!) and had real full size metal (!!!) shift paddles. Not great on gas, but strangely about equal to his new CX-5.
Mmmm – Lancers.
My parents loved that wine back in the 60’s.
Really though? Are you just advertising used cars for Galpin or you actually liked driving that thing? I test drove this exact year back in the day when I was trying to decide what daily to lease and away very unimpressed. The fact that the mitsu dealer then wanted more on the lease than a better equiped subaru legacy was going for and was kind of an A-hole kind of left a bad taste on mitsubishis for me. I went and leased a subaru legacy right afterwards and it was only $2K down and something like $140 a month.
Implying THAT after all these years I’ve been in this biz: not cool.
You can’t even buy this car; it’s gonna get wholesaled.
What’s more, owner satisfaction for these seems to be really high. People dig them, just as I do!
I love hearing other people’s opinions on cars, even if those opinions differ from mine. But cars are huge purchases in people’s lives; I will NEVER lead anyone astray. That’s a responsibility we take seriously here.
my bad! I guess I just had a hard time believing this could get a good review. I mean, this is no jaguar xf
The Jag XF does reign supreme to be fair
Beau should open Galpin – b Stock, a used car lot so you can sell cars like this strictly to Autopians. Imagine all the car(singular) you’d sell! Can’t have a tax write off if you don’t spend money, to lose money.
I know of one that’s usually heavily hooned. They can hoon. And also this one’s a stick! Inherently more fun!
Holy grail of this car would be the Ralliart Hatch version. There’s 2 for sale in CA, both seems a bit overpriced.
“Zero to 60 is somewhere between 8 and 9 seconds, “
And that’s more than fast enough for a daily driver. And it’s as fast or faster than 7/9 vehicles I’ve owned.
“Cool looking, somewhat efficient, reasonably safe, dead-reliable, and dirt cheap? Why is nobody (ok not nobody) talking about Lancers?”
Because the majority of buyers are mindlessly obsessed with AWD CUVs, SUVs and trucks.
When my GF needed a new car 6 years ago, her first thought was to ‘get an SUV’. I asked her ‘why’?
There was no good reason.
I steered her to a decent, reliable car (Hyundai Elantra GT hatchback… which is still running strong today)
And when a friend of mind and his wife were having another kid, she immediately said that she wanted some big assed SUV for “more space”. I told my friend that if it’s space they wanted, then it’s a minivan they should get.
And I showed the actual space specs of common minivans compared to the SUV the wife wanted… and minivans blew the SUV out of the water in terms of space and practicality.
So they are driving a minivan now.
Unless a knowledgeable person like an Oppo intervenes, many people will just mindlessly get an ‘SUV’.
And the result of this is the death of solid, affordable vehicles like the Mitsubishi Lancer.
Definitely the kind of car people say they want, though it would be a CVT auto for those these days. and that would be a problem for me.
I’ve always liked these. Probably the best looking cheap sedan of its era. And it was a long era, these things were in production for ages.