First Impressions
When you’re pregnant, like I am, and a turbocharged, all-wheel-drive road rocket equipped with Recaro seats and a Rotor Glow paint job shows up in the driveway, first impressions of the 2010 Mitsubishi Lancer Sportback Ralliart (view photos) are not favorable. Knowing I’d be hoisting myself and the 20-pound basketball currently sitting on my waist in and out of these low-slung, stiffly bolstered sport seats for a week straight made me groan in discontent, especially after discovering these optional front chairs offer zero height adjustment. Add the Lancer’s ocean of hard, cheap, buzzing and squeaking interior plastics, it’s lousy outward visibility, and it’s obnoxious front styling, and I knew it would be a long week, and not just because my third trimester is absolutely dragging by.
By the time I relinquished the Fast Key fob, however, I’d made my peace with the Lancer Sportback Ralliart. It is a flawed but mechanically sophisticated machine, aimed at a specific kind of buyer. A buyer unlike me. Especially in my current condition. Given its equipment level and impressive hardware, combined with its performance capabilities and everyday utility, even the starting price tag just north of $28,000 doesn’t sound too far-fetched.
Just one thing. Skip the optional Recaro Sport Package unless you drive crazy-fast along twisting mountain roads the majority of the time.
Pricing, Trims and Options
When choosing a 2010 Mitsubishi Lancer Sportback, you can select GTS or Ralliart trim. The GTS starts at $19,950 with a manual transmission. Add a grand if you can’t operate a clutch pedal and require the optional continuously variable transmission (CVT). The Sportback GTS includes a knee airbag and side curtain airbags to bring the total number of inflatable supplemental restraints to seven, and there’s a standard stability control system. Power windows, power door locks with remote entry, and power mirrors are also standard, along with Bluetooth hands-free calling, a 140-watt audio system with a CD player, and an auxiliary audio input jack. Tilt, cruise, automatic climate control with a micron air filter, and a six-way adjustable driver’s seat are also part of the GTS trim level, along with a front strut tower brace, 18-inch alloy wheels, fog lights, a rear wiper, and a leather-wrapped steering wheel and shift knob. Roof rack sockets designed to be compatible with Thule equipment are included, along with a handy dual-level cargo floor and a cargo cover. For less than $20,000, the Lancer Sportback GTS is impressively equipped.
The price can rise quickly. Two of the car’s three option packages require one another: the Sun and Sound Package and the Touring Package. You can’t get one without the other. The Sun and Sound Package includes a Fast Key keyless ignition and locking system, a power sunroof, a 710-watt Rockford Fosgate audio system, Sirius satellite radio with three free months of programming, and a six-disc CD changer.
The Touring Package adds leather, heated front seats, rain-sensing wipers, Xenon headlights, and sound-insulating windshield glass. Add these to the price of the base car and you’re up to $24,350. There’s also an Accessory Navigation Package with a 40-gig hard drive navigation system, a music server, and Mitsubishi’s Diamond Lane Guidance technology. Fully equipped, this model rings the bell at $26,349, and that’s before dipping into the lengthy dealer accessories menu.
Looking for a street-legal rally car? Check out the Lancer Sportback Ralliart at $28,350. It includes a ton of go-fast technology, including a turbocharged engine residing under an aluminum hood with air vents; a Twin Clutch Sportronic Shift automatic manual transmission (TC-SST) with real aluminum paddle shifters; all-wheel drive with an active center differential featuring selectable Tarmac, Gravel and Snow settings; Yokohama Advan summer performance tires; and a Ralliart-tuned suspension setup. The Ralliart also includes the Fast Key keyless ignition and locking system, dual chrome exhaust outlets, an aerodynamic body kit with a larger rear spoiler, real aluminum pedals, a sport steering wheel, sport cloth upholstery, and sport bucket seats.
The main option packages for the Ralliart are the Accessory Navigation Package (defined above) and the Recaro Sport Package, the latter of which has the Xenon HID headlights, the 710-watt Rockford Fosgate audio system, the Sirius satellite radio, and the six-disc CD changer. It also has the Recaro sport seats, the ones without height adjustment and the huge, stiff bolsters.
Did I mention how much I enjoyed these seats?
Interior Features
Yes, our test car had the optional Recaros, which are like manna from heaven for driving enthusiasts. And they are when the Lancer Sportback Ralliart is driven to its limit on a favorite back road. But how often are you doing that?
Most of the time, you’re commuting, running errands, maybe taking a weekend road trip, perhaps even visiting the doctor for an ultrasound. A Lancer Sportback Ralliart with the Recaro Sport Package is not the best car for performing these tasks. The Recaros sit very low and don’t offer height adjustment. Plus, the bottom cushion side bolsters are hard and unyielding, making it somewhat difficult to enter and exit the vehicle. Once inside, the seats are comfortable enough, but every single place you wish to rest your arm or elbow is hard plastic, or hard plastic covered by a thin piece of fabric.
Visibility is troublesome, too. Because you’re sitting low in a car with high sills, guiding the Lancer occasionally requires a leap of faith. The Sportback’s long, jutting nose can be hard to judge when parking, the view to the sides is obstructed, and views of the landscape rearward are challenged. Thankfully, the Lancer has giant side mirrors that help eliminate some of the guesswork associated with changing lanes, and the car is equipped with standard side turn signal indicator lights to help warn fellow motorists that, ready or not, you’re coming over a lane. In general, this car does not foster driving confidence in urban or suburban areas.
It could use a reversing camera. Or parking sensors in the bumpers. And if only the Ralliart’s optional Recaros were height adjustable.
Safety, Quality and Reliability
Equipped with standard stability control, ABS with electronic brake-force distribution, and seven airbags including one for the driver’s knees, the Lancer Sportback’s standard safety equipment list might not be long, but it is effective.
In crash tests performed by the NHTSA, the Sportback received a 5-star frontal impact rating for the driver, a 4-star front impact rating for the front seat passenger, a 5-star side-impact rating for front seat occupants, and a 4-star side-impact rating for rear seat occupants. The NHTSA has not assigned a rollover risk rating for the Sportback.
That’s pretty good. Better is the “Top Safety Pick” rating the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) gives the Lancer for achieving a Good rating in the offset frontal impact test, the side-impact test, the roof crush strength test, and for the rear crashworthiness assessment.
Because so few Consumer Reports subscribers buy Lancers, the ratings organization does not offer any predictions about how the Sportback might fare when it comes to reliability, because it doesn’t have enough data. J.D. Power and Associates, on the other hand, does have enough data, and says the Lancer’s dependability is expected to be slightly below average. Notably, according to J.D. Power’s 2010 Initial Quality Study results, the Lancer rates below average in all factors associated with mechanical and powertrain satisfaction.