Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Review: Mitsubishi Lancer GS3 DI-D

Post Thumbnail

With similar aggressive looks to its hell-raising cousin the Evo X, the Mitsubishi Lancer GS3 DI-D offers sporty excitement with one eye on economy.

During my travels with the Mitsubishi Lancer, I was asked at least half a dozen times: “Is that an Evo you’ve got?” Nay, I replied, it is not the 290bhp turbo-charged, four-wheel-drive, fire-breathing Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X. It’s the sensible, reasonably priced, much more economical Mitsubishi Lancer GS3 DI-D.

I can see where they were coming from. Viewed from the front, the Lancer looks similar to its hell-raising cousin, with an aggressive nose, angular headlights, and a general appearance of thinly-veiled menace. Look at it from the back and the illusion is shattered, however — there’s a weedy little single exhaust instead of the Evo’s huge stainless steel twin pipes.

It’s also a hatchback, whereas the Evo X comes as a saloon only. In fact, when the current-generation Lancer first hit these shores back in 2008, all models were saloons.

Realising they had forgotten about our nation’s love of a tailgate, it wasn’t long before they followed up with the model you see above.

Counter-intuitively, it’s actually the saloon that offers the more boot space — 400 litres compared to 344 — but the hatch offers 1349 litres with the rear seats folded (they fold almost flat at the touch of a button), which is massive for this size of car.

With the aggressive nose, sizable rear spoiler and (on my car) tinted rear windows, its sporty looks help it stand out from the market leader — the hugely capable but rather drab-looking Ford Focus.

Starting at £14,849, the Lancer hatchback is available with 1.5 and 1.8-litre petrol engines or the 2.0-litre, 138bhp diesel my car came with. Officially it only does 0-62mph in 10 seconds, but its power comes in low down the rev range and it feels quicker than that.

Although I said at the start of this review that it’s economical (compared to the Evo X) it returns an only-reasonable-for-a-diesel 43.5mpg. A Golf equipped with virtually the same engine returns 58.9mpg, by comparison, though a 2.0 diesel Focus betters the Lancer by only 5mpg.

It emits 173g/km of CO2, meaning vehicle excise duty will be £180 for 2010/11.

Inside, it’s stylish and clearly targeted at a younger market than the Astra and Focus with a modishly dark colour scheme and lots of fake carbon fibre.

The cabin is pretty spacious, though taller rear occupants may be troubled by the sloping roofline which slightly restricts head room.

Dynamically, the Lancer is very good.

I took it on a jaunt from Dundee to Glenshee for a day on the slopes. The suspension soaked up bumps and potholes, while the car remained taut and fun to drive on the twisty mountain roads.