Mitsubishi’s mid-sized four-door saloon, the Lancer, is now available with a higher level of specification and a revised interior.
Mitsubishi’s mid-sized four-door saloon, the Lancer, is now available with a higher level of specification and a revised interior.
Keeping in line with the face of Mitsubishi, the new Lancer’s front-end is characterised by the three-diamond badge with the almost semi-circular grille and integrated bumper. The styling of the new headlights also contributed greatly to the vehicle’s new design up front.
The rear-end too is now considerably sportier, styled around an oversized boot lid with angled light clusters.
Moving inside the cabin, the centre console now has sharper angles and bigger switches for the climate control and radio/CD systems. It is fitted with an anti-theft system as standard as well as a Becker radio with front-loading CD player, airconditioning and electric windows all round. Driver and passenger airbags, central locking and a door-open warning light and buzzer are standard features too.
The fuel-injected 1,6-litre ECI-MULTI 4-cylinder engine develops 77kW at 6 000 r/min and maximum torque of 136 N.m at 4 500 r/min. The Lancer accelerates from zero to 100 km/h in 10,7 seconds.
Complementing the restyling, the body’s rigidity and suspension have been increased to further improve handling stability while reducing vibration and noise levels.
Sascha Gaede, divisional manager of the Mitsubishi Motors division, said: “In its new form, Lancer offers exceptional performance, efficiency and value for money, and initial customer interest and sales successes indicate that Lancer is set to become an increasingly popular choice in the mid-sized sedan market.”
With only one model available on the South African market, 30 Lancers left showroom floors last month, according to the latest Naamsa figures.
The Mitsubishi Lancer 1600 GLX has a two-year/100 000 km warranty and retails for R137 000.
Meanwhile, the Lancer Evolution has been voted car of the year in Automobile Magazine’s January 2004 issue.
In awarding the magazine’s top honours after evaluating dozens of other cars, Automobile Magazine said the Lancer Evolution “unapologetically, uncompromisingly, unequivocally provides the most performance for the money of any car in the world.” On editors noted that the Lancer Evolution “is both a reasonable everyday sedan and a supercar” and “also very likely the automotive icon of the decade.”
