Mitsubishi sweat the details regarding ergonomics. The radio, the HVAC rotary buttons as well as the door-mounted switches, everything feels solid. However, the curved plastic panel that covers the instrument panel reflects in the windshield, which is too bad. In addition, the red-coloured radio display is virtually impossible to read with sunglasses. "Nobody's perfect... right?"

Instrumentation is well laid out and easy to read.

The trip computer, whose display is sandwiched between the odometer and tach, is very practical and includes your fuel economy average. However, I quickly noticed that the average was resetting by itself. By looking through the owner's manual, it says that the average is automatically cleared every time the Lancer is turned off for 4 hours or more.

A more conventional mode can be chosen (i.e. resetting the average manually), but I never succeeded in accessing the menu to do so, even by following the user manual's instructions. And since patience is not my middle name, I gave up pretty quickly.

Another thing that bugs me: the trunk suffers from the same problem as the Mazda3's. This sedan's stubby rear deck means the trunklid is very short. Consequently, its opening is rather narrow. So despite the trunk being as spacious as those in the Civic, Sentra, Cobalt/G5 and others, moderately-sized objects can't be fit in. "In that case, get yourself an Outlander."

A familiar powertrain
I didn't have to drive very far to realize that the Lancer gets the same engine and tranny combo as the Dodge Caliber. Yes, the 152-horsepower 2.0-liter inline-4 was jointly developed by Chrysler, Mitsu and Hyundai. Same thing goes for the continuously-variable transmission, the only option in the ES model.

I must say that engine noise is lower in the Mitsubishi. However, the CVT gearbox has the bad habit of making itself comfortable at 6,000 rpm during full-throttle accelerations, and will stay there until we lift our right foot; we're either sick of hearing the noise, or we have the feeling the engine will blow. 0 to 100 km/h accelerations take about 9.5 seconds.

The 4-cylinder engine produces 152 hp and does a great job.