Note To Self: Buy Leather Jacket

The way to size up the Mitsubishi Lancer Ralliart is to first know in your head that it's a bad boy with good intentions. Who wouldn't love the growl of the 237-hp 2.0 liter 4-cylinder turbocharged engine?  The engine is paired with a 6-speed, twin-clutch sportronic transmission, which I found imprecise and annoying.  Even after settling in to the car, I had problems shifting gears.

Once in gear, this performance-enhanced Lancer is a blast to drive.  It felt secure and grounded and responsive.   Foglamps and dual exhaust, makes this shark nosed, chrome-appointed, hood-scooped sedan a head turner.   The interior finishes and materials left me wishing for a better execution although sport meter gauges, leather-wrapped steering wheel and shift knob make up for some of those issues.  I'm also one who doesn't care for the pumped up Rockford-Fosgate sound system.  The target market for this car would totally approve, but the sound is way to heavy and pounding for my musical tastes.  You can find me on  Broadway channel (XM 72) whenever I'm not listening to news.

Getting down to brass tacks, the fuel economy on this beast is 18 city/ 25 highway/20 combined.  My car as equipped was $34,240 including delivery with about $5,300 worth of extras.  The monroney (sales sheet) actually includes a full tank of gas.  Like, really?  Well the average annual fuel cost calculations do estimate that you will spend $2,850 annually in fuel costs.  It averages out to about $2,600 more over five years than an average new vehicle or about $500 a year.   

Mitsu is one of a couple of car companies that are struggling in the U.S.  In the Lancer slice of the market there are many desirable muscle cars to choose from so competitors have to be at the very top of their game.  With Mitsu total sales hovering around 40,000 in a market that is being estimated at 14.4 million vehicles this year, it is hard to see how they will survive.  Chevrolet,  sold 40,000 cars  over two weeks in August.

I had fun in the car.   But if you don't want to draw attention, you might be better off with a Camry.  I was stopped by the state troopers at 12:30 a.m. on the parkway.  He was more interested in the fact that I had California distributor plates than the fact that I was going 72 in a 55 mph zone.  "I've only ever seen one other California plate on this road in my entire career," he said.  (He had to be all of 19.)  And then he didn't know how to input a distributor plate and was fascinated by my job so I got off.

Suzuki Kizashi with All-Wheel Drive

Great looking car.

I wish Suzuki had sold more than 11,000 cars this year because they have good car.  The use of the singular in the previous sentence isn't a grammatical error, but it is a slight exaggeration.  Suzuki sells two cars in the U.S., the Kizashi and the Aerio SX4.  Oh, yes, and to date in 2012, they have sold 1 Forenza/Reno.  They sell crossovers too, the Grand Vitara and the Equator.  Compare that to their Japanese counterparts.  Toyota has sold 625,000 cars, Nissan, 389,000, Mazda 110,000.  You get the drift.

 This is a shame.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, Suzuki makes good cars.  I drove the Kizashi  2012 Sport GTS with AWD.  It has a 2.4-liter inline 4-cylinder engine that delivers 180 horsepower and 170 lb.-ft. of torque.  That translates into plenty of power for this sedan and it is available with a six-speed manual transmission.  It also comes with a continuously variable automatic transmission (CVT).  Mine came with dual zone climate control and cloth seats which I vastly prefer over leather especially when wearing shorts in hot weather.  (How long does it take you to peel your legs off leather seats in the summer?  It takes me around 4 painful minutes.)

The interior is very well designed, plenty of leg room, easy to manage controls, and cool touches that aren't so terminally hip you feel diminished if you're not in the latest fashion.

Roomy, sleek interior.

 

Very cool IP.

Fuel economy is competitive at 22 city/29 highway/25 combined.  The GS has some very nice features included in the base price:  sunroof, tilt and telescope steering wheel, power driver's seat, 18-inch wheels, a 425-watt Rockford Fosgate audio system with 10 speakers, iPod and MP3 USB port, front fog lights, sport aero body kit, sport wheels, sport tuned suspension and sport design steering wheel.

In the highly competitive sedan category, the Suzuki Kizashi lines up against the best selling Toyota Camry and Honda Accord.  It competes with the best of them.  If there is a Suzuki dealer in your area, you can bet that they are hungry for business and will very happy to see you walk through the door.  Go for a test drive.  See what they're offering.  The MSRP on my test vehicle was around $26,000.