The Internet has become the end all, be all, for car shoppers.
There are all kinds of studies, surveys and whatnot on this giant series of tubes suggesting bathrobe-wearing consumers spend hours online researching vehicles, ultimately determining what they’re going to buy.
But there are pitfalls to this approach — such as seeing, touching and driving the second-most expensive purchase in a person’s life (the first, of course, is a cable subscription).
The 2010 Lancer GTS looks great online. Click on its photo over there on the right. It even looks good in real life.
Walking up to it in a crowded parking lot, I noted how it stood out in an asphalt sea of ho-hum, humdrum hatchbacks and four-door compacts. The Lancer GTS at least comes with a few teeth.
That large mouth grille and squinting headlights give the Lancer GTS a menacing touch and right below the bumper are two jutting pieces of plastic that could very well serve as “Twilight” choppers.
But that doesn’t mean the Lancer GTS can take much of a bite out of the competition.
It may look nice from afar, but it’s far from nice.
This is the kind of car that the closer you get to understanding it, the less you like it. The first date is blissful; the second, you start to have your doubts. By the third date, you’ll choose hair washing over driving.
Looks, it appears, do not always determine the total package. Not enough oomph
Powered by a 2.4-liter 168-horsepower MIVEC four-cylinder engine, the Lancer GTS possesses a stronger engine over the base Lancer DE and ES models. But even when mated to the five-speed manual transmission, the Lancer GTS lacked much oomph.
Capable? Sure. Fun? Not so much.
If you drive the car at higher-than-normal revs, you can start to feel some of its 167 pound-feet of torque. This, however, adds to an already loud ride. On the highway, the car’s performance is even louder with a combination of road and wind noise.
The faster you go, the more you need to pump up the volume of the mega-powerful 710-watt Rockford-Fosgate Punch stereo to drown out the hypnotic static sound wind noise creates. At one point, I even checked the windows to makes sure they were fully rolled up. There was enough hissing to summon Rikki-Tikki-Tavi from the grave.
The car offers some zip around town but on the highway, the hydraulic assisted rack-and-pinion steering felt twitchy and the ride unnecessarily rough. There are times when a car will provide a firmer ride because it was tuned to handle fast corners and provide superior handling. The Lancer GTS’ suspension felt incomplete and never instilled confidence in driving. Details not fully developed
Inside was almost as uninspiring. The dash included giant swaths of resin. The three plastic silver knobs in the center that control the heat and air conditioning looked like they might snap off if you turned them too hard.
There’s a cheap silver veneer about the trim that is distracting. Everything seems to be in the right place, but the Lancer feels like a “good enough” design inside. If the details were fully developed, it could be nice. But Mitsubishi never takes that last step to complete it.
One annoying feature Mitsubishi offers is two RCA jacks at the base of the dash to connect your iPod or other personal music device to the stereo. You’re required to buy a wire adaptor from the dealer in order to connect it and if you lose the wire, which is bound to happen, you’ll just have to buy another one. This is one of those things that seem like it is taking advantage of the buyer.
My test vehicle did not include the connecting wire, though the two jacks stared at me every time I drove it, taunting me that I couldn’t play my own music.
There’s plenty of space inside the Lancer GTS — 42.2 inches of leg room up front and 36.1 in the back, and the seats were comfortable all around. So it does have that going for it.
But you’ll never learn those things over the Internet — you’re going to have to take a shower and get out into the world to find out.
The information superhighway doesn’t blast wind in your hair when you’re hitting 100 mph with the window down.
So as soon as you’re done reading this online-only review, go outside. And if you want to have some fun behind the wheel of a good compact– avoid the Mitsubishi Lancer.
sburgess@detnews.com (313) 223-3217
