SINGAPORE, May 16 — Some people like the bold and new, while others go for the tried and true. No prizes for guessing which crowd the Mitsubishi Lancer EX is for.
It’s billed here as an “all-new” Lancer, but it’s more of a new-and-improved model. Actually, old-and-improved model would be more accurate. The Lancer EX has been around in its current form for nine years, an aeon in car terms.
In that amount of time, other car makers would have trotted out at least two generations of a given model. What ought to be in Mitsubishi showrooms now is not the Lancer EX, but its grandson.
Still, the Lancer hasn’t soldiered on completely unaltered. The latest iteration has a noticeably freshened face, with a large lashing of chrome surrounding the grille. There are LED daytime running lights now, too, an obligatory feature these days.
The revamp is more subtle at the back of the car, where there are redesigned tail lamps. Not much could be done about the Lancer’s boxy shape, but overall the Mitsubishi wears its age well.
Subtle changes
Ironically, it helps that the slim headlamps that it started out with have had time to come back into fashion. But overall, the cosmetic surgery has helped the Lancer EX to age better in nine years than, say, Meg Ryan has.
In other ways, though, the Mitsubishi struggles to hide its age. Contemporary cars have become much quieter, leaving the Lancer with what now sounds like a fairly clamorous cabin. On the highway, you’ll hear noises from the wind, tyres and engine that rivals conceal much better.
There’s nothing much that’s positive to report about the engine, either. It’s boomy and sends a buzz through the cabin when revved hard, and while the automatic transmission actually chooses its gears well and responsively, it only has four of them to play with.
The Lancer’s handling is pretty indifferent, too, with tyre-squealing understeer setting in early if you tackle a corner with any sort of zeal.
Perhaps the best thing about the way it drives is that the turning radius is good and tight, allowing you to pull off U-turns and parking manoeuvres with ease.
Big in Japan
Still, people forget that Japanese cars were once the main source of basic, reliable motoring here, and it’s in that vein that the Lancer EX makes a case for itself.
The interior may not be fancy, with hard plastics for the dashboard and a straightforward layout for the controls, but it has adequate seating for five people (though only proper, three-point seatbelts for four of them).
And it’s not like you have to wind the windows up and down by hand. In fact, the Mitsubishi comes with keyless entry and engine starting, a rudimentary trip computer and a powerful automatic air-conditioning system, all useful features.
There’s also a seven-inch touchscreen entertainment system with an unsexy but perfectly useable Windows-based interface. It incorporates GPS navigation and a reverse camera, which makes the Lancer one of the cheapest cars in town to have those features.
How cheap? It’s currently priced at S$89,999 (RM264,621) with COE, meaning it’s not only cheaper than its once-contemporaries like the Mazda 3 or Toyota Corolla Altis, but is also more affordable than Korean cars like the Kia Forte K3 or Hyundai Elantra.
The latter two are superior cars with inferior reputations, so the Mitsubishi is left with a specific audience all to itself: Namely, the kind of car buyer who wants a “made in Japan” sticker more than the latest technology.
Rivals may have left the Lancer EX behind, but they’ve deserted the corner of the market that it occupies, too.
Mitsubishi Lancer EX 1.6
Engine: 1,590cc, 16V, in-line four, 117hp, 154Nm
Performance: 180kmh, 0-100km/h 13.6 seconds, 7.3L/100km, 171g/km CO2
Price: S$89,999 with COE
On Sale: Now
+: Manoeuvrable, decently equipped and cost competitive
- : Unrefined and slow, lacks proper seatbelt for middle rear passenger — TODAY
