1996 Mitsubishi Lancer GLXI CE coupe 16 valves from Australia and New Zealand - Comments

This is a fair reliable car; it has stuck through with my family from the beginning till now.

I only started driving it when I got my provisional license in year 2001.

But it did have a few electrical problems in late 2001, which resulted in the shorting of the Electronic Processing Unit. It turned out to be a lose wire scraping within the engine bay.

It freaked me out, as me and my friend were testing its gears, suddenly the rev meter clocked.

It appeared that one of the wires in the engine bay was apparently lose and was messing up the electrical flow.

Total Fixing cost: $250AUD.

Currently while driving the lancer, I do hear a banging noise, when ever the auto transmission shifts a gear down.

I' am not too sure what it is, maybe it's the gear box; maybe something lose in the engine bay because I do seriously take the car to its handling limits.

Also the hand break suffers most if you use it often in your driving abilities.

Basically this is a real neat car to drive; I would recommend this to be any teenager's first car.

Lancers looks nasty when they are modified, especially I saw this one lancer within Sydney's western suburbs.

It had a neat European dragon air brushed all over the lancer's body, with its twin exhausts and extremely sharp 17 inch wheels.

It is a 1.8 Auto sports coupe, which means it dose have a fair bit of power, it holds general 92kw engine power stock.

So imagine the simple gain you will get if you fitted in a simple sports air filter, exhaust, replace the extractors & have a decent air intake system weather it would be air intakes upon the bonnet or an air intake trumpet system.

It's extractors do tend to look seriously rusty, but it's only looks and still will hold for years to come.

It is comfortable for the driver and passenger and is reasonable to fit 5 people, as it is a 2 door car.

This car is beautiful on its handling; I am so impressed as I did drive a few of my friends cars', which were Honda Integra, Mazda 121 and Suzuki GTI swift.

I can't stress how sweet the lancer's handling is, especially in the wet.

But when you drive this baby long enough, you will know when it will slide.

It's sharp maneuvers like the 180 and 360 degree turns are impressive, but I wouldn't recommend hand break corner turns for amateurs as I did have 2 minor accidents while attempting to do this within 2 mini streets.

It can make the turn easy, but recovering from it is tricky.

Also be sure if you do decide to turbo this baby, you will give WRX's run for its money.

Providing that you are willing to spend less than 10 grand in modifications including replacing the gear box.

If you really want to test it's ability, hire a race track.

I give it thumbs up.

Please don't be a full maniac with this car, its engine bay looks really not permanent for maniac conditions, as wires will get lose.

It is affordable, you can get a decent second hand Lancer GLXI, from $12,000AUD to $17,000AUD, reasonable price if your purchasing in year 2002.

And by the way, never be afraid to use the brakes, just don't use them too hard in the wet, you will regret it as it is a front wheel drive.

Yasha J.F.

From spending a lot of time in a friends GLXi, in contrast to your comments, I have found the Lancer to be true to its budget price tag. This is infact an economy car with an economy price, and even the 1.8 litre engine endows it with just average performance. It is also noisy, harsh-riding and very cheaply made (the first CE2 models didn't even have a cassette player!). The sedan's body is just too light and goes all over the place when cornering with any amount of verve. That, and the so-called 'INVCESII' auto transmission just doesn't adapt, instead shifting up and down all over the place. No thanks.

I don't know what this person is on about. I drive the lancer ce model and I find that when I go up and down hills that my gear box adapts to the road conditions. It does this by either holding the lower gear for longer to increase the engine rev whilst going up a hill or, selecting the lowest possible gear for engine breaking while coming down off the hill. I find that it works well. Although the gear box does need to "learn" how I drive. The learning process took about 2 minutes and another month to get it prefect.

Yes the lancer is a budget car on the budget price. Mine still has drum breaks on the back and it's a 2000 model and there even isn't any airbags, but I wouldn't drive anything else. I love my lancers and I would buy another one any day. Again what are you on about? Of course there wouldn't be a tape player in a 2000 model car, no one uses tapes any more. There is a cd player how ever. I don't find my lancer noisy at all, in fact its quiet all the time. You can hardily hear the engine when cruising at 100 km/h. Your noise problem could be your tiers. I find that when mind are running a little flat that it is a lot more noisy.

I wouldn't say they are cheaply made, I find them put together very well and very strong (able to take a beating)

-Marty.

I agree with the auto trans comments. The 'INVCESII' system sucks ass in my car ('01 GLXi). I beleive it's because I drive differently all the time, sometimes lots of highway driving, sometimes like a 'bat out a hell' and sometimes like a little granny. My next car will certainly have a sequential auto so I can choose the gears when I want.

I recently purchased a 97 GLXi coupe with the four speed auto and found it difficult to get used to. There are some good points from all comments made by the previous people here.

I find that the gearbox does tend to kick back too early when coasting down hills and can cause problems when those hills are wet and have a slight bend in them. But in saying this you have to learn how "YOUR" car drives for you.

As for the noise I agree the lancer is a bit noisy for a modern car. At first I thought it was just tyre noise like previously mentioned, but found a lot of road noise gets in. I bought brand new mags and tyres for my lancer and it quietened a lot, but still has a lot of road noise there. this is an easy fix though if you can afford to get the car sound-proofed (app. $1500 aus. for a good full body treatment).

In talking about these few little faults, the lancer in my opinion is the BEST little car I have driven. I drove about 50 different cars when I was looking and found the lancer I bought to be the best not only for money value, but for all-round value (comfort, style, accessories, handling and economy). THANKS MITSUBISHI, I'm hooked for life.

If you use words like 'extreme' to describe how a lancer handles, you really need to get out more. I've had a lancer, prelude, MR2 and currently BMW 3 series. The lancer was the poorest in the handling department. Its OK for what it was, but far from extreme.