Now lets just pick on one Wheels Australia January 2008 Magazine review that contradicts your damming review of the Ralliart Lancer.

You described the steering wheel as quote” the steering wheel feels like it’s in another time zone” Wheels Magazine say ” Lovely Evo Wheel”

Yes the Subaru Impreza will out sprint the Ralliart but get the power MRT Mitsubishi Race Tune upgrade for a few hundred dollars more and the Ralliart will kill it and return equal fuel consumption figures too. (Ask your dealer to throw it in as an option)

I test drove a MY09 Ralliart Lancer in the west of our state where the roads (Donkey Tracks) are awful to say the least the test sedan I drove had just under 20,000kms 12,000miles on the clock the steering and handling on dirt were super responsive and where ever I pointed the car it went and I was doing close to 100KMPH (62MPH) the whole time.

There were No rattles or shakes in the car, and when it hit cattle grids or large rut’s in the roads/tracks at speed it soaked up the impacts and once again the Mitz pointed where I asked it to go. I suppose you are used to driving Hummers and M1A Abrahams that that Joy sticks or even worse a 44 Gallon drum lids as a steering wheel I will be happy to send you one if you like.

Once on the sealed stuff on a wet day through the very demanding and twisty bits, as you would put it “at light speed” a fraction of under steer could be felt but if you were going as quickly as I was even in my 08 Subi you can gets some under steer through this stretch of road.

On the Wheels test They stated that the excellent damper rates of the Ralliart Lancer allowed far greater pace to be carried over the same stretch of road whilst feeling both sewn into the tarmac and isolated from and nasty imperfections and on the dirt the Mitsu’s damper rates works in it’s favor as well. Surprise Surprise same result as I found.

I found no problem with the Auto cold or hot and its shifts were seamless maybe you had a press car that had been flogged to within an inch of destruction.

As for the interior appearance it is matter of personal preference I had no problem reaching or adjusting any of the controls and the it was easy to adjust the seating and steering position to a very comfortable position maybe you want a Mercedes C class with a Mitz badge on it to test next Frank.

I have been hearing that problem on line or on Subaru Forums. Michaal Karesh might have the statistics on this problem. That is pretty dangerous it has almost the same problem with Nissan SE-R.

Just take it easy I bet Subaru will fix this problem soon. It will not be the same competition without the Subaru WRX with the Lancer in the street,tracks and sales.

The wife and I have been flogging an 05 WRX since….05, go figure. We’ve had an excellent 70k miles so far: from highway to skihill we’ve loved every mile. However, I would suggest you check the VIN/build date of your new WRX. Over 60 case of spun bearings have been documented on NASIOC, and most of those at less than 10k miles. While SoA is in general replacing the motors without a to much hassle, the fact that they still won’t explain the source of the problem makes me nervous. As well, the the turbo regularly shit’s it bed when the motor goes, and those aren’t always replaced. Not to mention, it appears that both longblocks and turbos are and are on back order now, and in a couple of cases dealerships are using lot cars as donors.

I wouldn’t take accept a car with a build date in range of July, August, or September of 08, lest you get the “Change Engine Sound”.

These cars are not designed to give you BMW like luxury and Buick like rides. Thats what you have to like about them. They are made for the boy racer in all of us and they dont apologize for it. Subaru made that mistake last year with the new god awful hatchback they crapped out.

Long live the Lancer EVO and Ralliart with their crappy seats and too far steering wheels!

Goodluck with your Subaru Wrx with GAS. it drinks more than an alcoholic. It’s $32,000 without A,
No 650 rockford fosgate system, no 7 airbag, no brembo brakes, No Bucket seats, No Pedal Shifter (excuse me),No Huge Subwoofer, carbon fiber trim etc etc.

The Subaru is damn ugly. the only good about it is A LITTLE FASTER than the Evo x or Ralliart but it’s not a good car to be tuned.

I got my car on 2007 and the model is 2008. I don’t drive the Ralliart if the Regular Lancer has no issue with the brakes system or stopping power. Do you think a brake system made by Brembo is not good enough to stop a car. For me the steering of the Lancer is soft compared to the steering of the Honda Civic,Toyota Corolla and Nissan Sentra.

I am here on my honest opinion about 2008-2009 Mitsibishi Lancers family of sedans.

The only complaint about my Lancer is the Engine is a little bit loud but with a 4 cylinder engine with 156 horsepower there’s nothing I can do with the engine that’s made of Alluminum and 156 hp.

What does that have to do with any of the comments? I didn’t see the discussion about Lancers being problematic. Do you have a Ralliart? I don’t think they made those in 2008.

Just watch the Top Gear and ask them if they are kidding doing 80 miles on a corner better than a Lambo or Ferrari compared to this Sedan.

You must be referring to the FQ-400 bit. First of all this was a previous generation UK market distributor-modified Lancer Evo, it has not much to do with USDM Lancer Ralliart other than sharing an AWD system.

Also if you go back and watch the rest of that bit, Jeremy details the ridiculous quirks that one would have to live with to keep up with Lambos in that Lancer. And then he reccommends buying the standard FQ-260 model…

Uh… no, but neither did I say anything about the Lancer’s steering.

Recaro seats are for driver’s who knows how to drive. That’s why they use the seat for car racing. Recaros was installed on the Ralliart and Evo because tuners or car enthusiast doesn’t have to buy any aftermarket seats.

Do you know how much Recaro seat cost?

The Lancer was design for tuners and wanna be tuners and Men who likes sport sedan and that doesn’t look and handle like any other Japanese cars.

Did you notice that the exhaust manifold is near the fire wall? The tuners has no problem putting on headers and cat back exhaust.

I have no problems with the brakes because it was made to last longer and I have not replace them since I bought my car. The CARBON FIBER trim is real it just the cheapest carbon fiber on the Lancer if they put the high end carbon fiber that car won’t be the same price it will be more expensive.

You always bad mouth Mitsubishi and this company it’s only been in America for 25 years and still has a strong market for any age bracket.

You want see an ugly car? watch the ‘The Day The Earth Stood Still” with Keanu Reeves check how ugly the Honda Civic on that movie.

Ya don’t like the design but every car manufacturer has the same front end sharky design like Volvo,Ford, etc etc etc. Test drive it for week doesn’t mean you know everything about the car. totally BS and Bias.

The brakes is fine 0-80 it’s on 10 feet from the car in front of me.

Just watch the Top Gear and ask them if they are kidding doing 80 miles on a corner better than a Lambo or Ferrari compared to this Sedan.

Gees that’s why Pontiac died fellow Americans you don’t how to buy a car.

To the Author did you compared the hard steering of Honda Civc, Especially Toyota and Nissan Sentra with the Lancer?

That was one of the items on my page-long list of dislikes. The rear seat does fold, but the center shoulder harness is anchored to the package shelf so it stretches across the opening when you fold the seat, getting in the way of anything wide you’re trying to put in there.

ajla,

You’ll just have to go drive the car to see what you like. I loved the idea of the dual-clutch transaxle, what better for paddle shifting performance AND I can turn my brain off and put it in D when I want to drink my coffee in the car! Turns out “in person” so to speak I wasn’t sure that it was for me. To be honest a good GM automatic puts the TC-SST to shame at everything except for “sport mode” which runs at 5k RPM constantly and rev matches the downshifts perfectly.

I might have gotten over it, but there were other deal breakers, I couldn’t get comfortable in the base seat like Frank did, the bottom cushion is very short and it tilts a bit down. Also the engine is thrashy and loud, the trunk is ridiculously shallow although the seats do fold down. I could get the nice seats but they couldn’t locate one at the dealer and that package is expensive. Forget a sunroof or anything else fancy. But keyless operation is standard. Frankly the equipment level is kinda confusing. Thought they are willing to deal on these things, there was a $1500 rebate and the salesman indicated that we could work further on that. So anyone doing comparisons to “28k Evos” need to consider that, and also the base Evo has even less equipment than the Ralliart.

I pick up my WRX this week. A much better real world car despite Johnny’s review which wasted entire paragraphs waxing poetic about a mid 13 sec 1/4 mile. The Ralliart could have been good but isn’t. The real world for me is Boston so I did not consider FWD this time, the GTI was out along with all of the other lesser priced FWD rockets engineered to win magazine comparos.

Other than the GTI/GLI and Jetta TDI, this is the only dual-clutch game in town that is in my price range. The Ralliart is faster than the VWs, offers AWD, and IMO, is better looking.

The price on these have been dropping, and I’m really not too dissuaded by the bad reviews I’ve read. I have a feeling either this or a Genesis Coupe 3.8 is going to be my next car.

Yup. I can’t drive the new one because they pulled the dash too far forward, but the old one is not too bad. The Fit has a good amount of track travel, low seats and a very high roof. My only complaint is the short seat cushion and the lack of foot space. It’s certainly a better fit than the low-roof Civic and Accord.

As for the Europeans: yes and no. older Saabs, Volkswagens, smaller Benzes and BMWs all work well enough, but modern Volvos and the larger Benzes and BMWs are really cramped. I blame the seats: they’re nice, but they’re huge and can’t go very far down. Volkswagen is excellent across the line.

The Lancer is not a bad car inside, if you’re tall (like the Fit, it’s much better than the larger Galant). The Golf is better still, but more expensive.

Admittedly I’m a freak (6′8″ and my arms are overly long) so this was probably more a personal thing. What was nice is that the seats moved back far enough; that’s a rarity for me. That the dash curves away from the knees is nice, too.

I could have cut it some slack if it was priced in the $20K range, but it’s pushing $30K and there are just too many much better cars out there for that price.

I guess I have low standards. Or I’m easily impressed. Or both.

That’s true. You can get a good deal on the base Lancer (which was what I was looking at) and the Evo, quite frankly, is worth it. I didn’t really look at the Ralliart as it was new to Canada at the time, not in the showroom and neither here nor there in terms of ability.

I did notice that you can get the Ralliart in a hatchback bodystyle, which you cannot do with the Evo. That helps some.

I never had any problems with the brakes. They worked when I pressed the pedal. However, I never overstressed them, either so I really can’t say how they’ll hold up.

“The leather-covered steering wheel, shift knob and shifter boot have contrasting white stitching that looks like a summer camp craft project”

“So, in spite of your aspirations of being the next Andrew Comrie-Picard, you end up driving like Jean-Luc Picard: streaking forward at warp speed and then slowing drastically for maneuvering. ”

I actually laughed out loud at the “Jean-Luc Picard” reference

It makes we wonder how long MitMoCo hang on.

I’m 6′3 and wear a 37/38″ sleeve and it was a reach when the seat was far enough back that my legs were comfortable. And the sunroof isn’t a problem, because Ralliart isn’t available with one, according to Mitsubishi’s web site.

I can live with the interior plastics because they’re a) black, b) fit together well and c) aren’t too badly textured.

One out of the three applied to the test vehicle.

I didn’t have enough space in the review to cover everything on my page-long list of notes on stuff I hated about it. I could have cut it some slack if it was priced in the $20K range, but it’s pushing $30K and there are just too many much better cars out there for that price.

I actually like this look, but I have no taste. I brought a Lancer home over a year ago and was told to take it back because it looked like an angry vacuum cleaner.

the steering wheel feels like it’s in another time zone. This is the first car I’ve driven in a long time where I had to stretch to reach the steering wheel when the seat was far enough back to accommodate my long legs.

This is the other reason I liked this car. If you’re tall (and I mean really tall, as in “above 6′4″”) it’s a good fit even with the Recaros, provided you skip the sunroof.

Unfortunately the suspension holding it in place isn’t. That part is basic Lancer GTS with a bit of additional firmness.

And that’s a bummer. I can’t fathom what Mitsubishi was smoking when they spec’ed out the suspension for the non-Evo Lancers. What they ought to have done was try and grab the people who find the Mazda3 too soft. What they actually did was equip every Lancer with Corolla-grade suspension, which is ok, but not in a car that looks like this one does.

I can live with the interior plastics because they’re a) black, b) fit together well and c) aren’t too badly textured. It’s a lot like the previous-generation Honda Fit, which again, is rock-hard but not unappealing. But the ride and steering are not good, which is a shame because this car, with decent running gear, would be a great blank canvas.

WHUH?! Yarg, why?! Please, enough of these automatic transmissions! This should have been a lightweight, basic and fun car! Instead it seems like a cheesy, cheap knock off with annoying features.

Please, Mitsu, fix this thing.

But then Mitsu screwed up.

Only 235hp? C’mon guys…at least 260hp

EVO 9 AWD system…good start but let down by the Lancer GTS’ basic suspension.

And probably the biggest fault..to have the SST transmission as the only choice.

This is more a Lancer GTS + than an EVO lite.

The Lancer’s problem is that it just doesn’t have the mainstream reputation of the Rex. It’s a little too niche; even my mom might have some familiarity or awareness of the turbo Subaru, but she might not even know that Mitsubishi makes cars. Also, and I might be wrong on this, but I think the whole “giant wing & go-fast doo-dads” aesthetic is falling out of favor. The new Impreza is subtle, the MS3 is (was, maybe, the ‘09 is a little dressy), the Cobalt looks like a Cobalt, etc. The Ralliart just looks kind of kiddy, and the only people that can afford it are grown-ups with good jobs.

On another note, I wonder if the engine blows up all the time, as seen with the ‘09 WRX (NASIOC has a whole thread devoted to the issue). I’m guessing not. Maybe Mr. Karesh can chime in…

EDIT Oh hey look he did sometime after I opened the review…