Category: Small Family 
Price Range: £14,499 to £24,149
Cheap to buy, should prove reliable, good specification levels
Short service intervals, bland styling, engine noisy, no diesel option
For those who just need to get from A to B without much fuss - don't expect a mini-Evo.
When driving gently around town or cruising along the motorway the Lancer is a pleasant enough place to be, with the soft suspension soaking up bumps effectively. All the controls are where you'd expect them to be, so orientating yourself is easy. The steering is a little too light when underway, but makes parking manoeuvres a doddle. That boot-mounted spoiler on saloon models does obscure rearward visibility, though.
Press on through a series of backroad bends and the Lancer's liabilities come to the fore, however. Body roll is extremely pronounced, the car pitching about when cornering or under hard braking. Even the so-called 'Sport' estate with its stiffer sports suspension suffers a roly-poly ride.
The manual gearbox has a mechanical movement and long throw, but isn't overly notchy. The four-speed auto is slow-witted and best avoided.
The only engine offered in both saloon and estate forms is a 1.6-litre petrol producing an anaemic 96bhp and 111lb ft of torque (pulling power). It needs to be revved hard to make any headway, and even then you'll get to 60mph from standstill in the saloon in 11.8secs. The auto takes almost two seconds longer. With its extra 65kg to tug around, the estate takes 12.6secs to reach 60mph with the manual gearbox and a lethargic 15.1secs with the auto. A 2.0-litre petrol engine is available for the Lancer Sports estate, but with just 133bhp and 130lb ft, it's no Evo. The 2.0 shuffles to 60mph in ten seconds, but again, the raucous engine has to be worked hard all the way to its 7000rpm rev limit.
No diesel engine is offered because Mitsubishi doesn't think the sales would make up for the added cost of producing it. However, the all-new Lancer that arrives in 2006 will have a diesel option.
