MSRP: $32,599

Sports fans have seen it all too often.  A coach who won a championship or two stays around a little too long.  The rest of the game starts to pass him by, and he is the last one to know it.  Usually, he stays around a year or two too long.  This is what has happened to the Mitsubishi Eclipse and Spyder.  2012 will be the last year for the Eclipse Spyder Convertible.  Will it be a victory lap or a wake?

The 2012 Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder GT Convertible is the highest of three trim levels.  It has a 3.6 liter V6 engine that produces 265 horsepower.  It has 18-inch alloy wheels, front-wheel drive, and a 5-speed automatic transmission.  It is rated at 17 mpg in the city and 25 mpg on the highway.

The Spyder GT comes with heated front bucket seats with 6-way power driver controls and driver’s height adjustment.  It also has full power accessories, cruise control, leather upholstery, a tilt-only leather-wrapped steering wheel, a sunroof, foglights, xenon headlights, and automatic climate control.  The audio system is a Rockford Fosgate with AM/FM/satellite radio, 8 conventional speakers, a subwoofer, a 6-CD/MP3 player, and an audio jack.

The Spyder also has anti-lock brakes, side front airbags, stability control, and traction control.  The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety gave it their highest scores of good for front and side impacts.

Conclusions and driver feedback:

The interior is fairly attractive, especially considering the average quality of the materials.  The front seats have plenty of legroom, but the rear seats are basically a 2 + 2 afterthought.  Headroom is obviously not an issue with the top down.  There is only 5.2 cubic feet of cargo space in the trunk with the top down, and 15.7 cubic feet with the rear seats folded down.

The Spyder is a sport car, and the handling and ride reflect that.  The steering and suspension are tight and give great response.  The engine, though, is merely ordinary, and there is too much torque steer when accelerating in a sporty manner with front-wheel drive.

All in all, the Spyder is a tired old car that is rightfully being put out to pasture.  It looks pretty cool, and is almost a decent sport car for a poser who doesn’t really want to put too many demands on it, but there are much better for less money.

The verdict: the Spyder might not be dead yet, but it’s doing a pretty good imitation.

MSRP $33,995

The 2011 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution costs close to twice as much as the standard Lancer.  Not only does it cost more, but it looks different.  The large rear spoiler portends that it is going to have a lot more power than the standard model.  It is called the Lancer Evolution because it starts with a Lancer and evolves it into a pony car.

The 2011 Evolution GSR is a high-performance compact sedan.  It has a 2.0 liter 4-cylinder turbocharged engine that puts out 291 horsepower.  This is one of the best displacement/horsepower ratios we have seen in a small car.  It has 18-inch alloy wheels, all-wheel drive, and a 5-speed manual transmission.  It is rated at 17 mpg in the city and 23 mpg on the highway.

The Evolution GSR comes with a tilt-only, leather-wrapped steering wheel, keyless entry, cruise control, full power accessories, Recaro sport bucket seats, foglights, and the Fuse voice-activation system.  The audio system has 6 speakers, AM/FM radio, a CD/MP3 player, a USB/iPod port, an audio jack, Bluetooth, and streaming audio.

The Evolution has anti-lock brakes, side front airbags, side curtain airbags, driver’s knee airbags, active front head restraints, stability control, and traction control.  It also has a lot of advanced handling technologies built in.  In government tests under the 2010 standards, the Lancer received four stars for front passenger front impact protection and five stars for driver front impact protection.  The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety gave it perfect scores of “good” in all tests.

Conclusions and driver feedback:

While the exterior is very sleek and sporty, the interior doesn’t give any sign that the car is anything more than an economy sedan.  Besides the very comfortable and stylish Recaro sport seats, the interior is quite ordinary.  The alloy foot pedals do remind you that you are in a car built for speed, though.

There is plenty of  headroom and legroom in both the front and rear seats, but only 7 cubic feet of cargo space in the trunk.  Unlike the standard Lancer, the rear seat doesn’t fold down, so there isn’t a lot of extra cargo space to be had.

Really, though, if you are spending the extra money on this car, you aren’t buying it for cargo space.  You are buying it for performance, and the Evolution GSR doesn’t disappoint.  Of course, we don’t recommend trying this at home, but the GSR goes from zero to sixty in 4.9 seconds.  The spoiler creates enough downforce to keep the GSR on the road through raucous turns, and the suspension can handle pretty much anything you can give it.  The all-wheel drive helps even more with traction, and unlike older sport cars, ESC is there to bail you out if you get too carried away.

As on all sporty cars, the main negative is the ride quality.  It is definitely stiff, and it requires your passengers to have a sense of adventure.

The verdict: pony cars rock.

The 2011 Mitsubishi Endeavor LS is a 5-seat, midsize crossover SUV.  It has been around since 2004, and hasn’t really seen a lot of changes.  It has built a reputation for quality and versatility, but the game has changed.  Has Mitsubishi stuck with a “pat hand” too long?

The Endeavor LS is the lower of two trim levels.  It has a 3.8 liter, V6 engine that produces 225 horsepower.  It has 17-inch alloy wheels, front wheel drive, and a 4-speed automatic transmission.  It is rated at 15 mpg in the city and 21 mpg on the highway.  An upgrade to 4-wheel drive is available, though it decreases mileage to 19 mpg on the highway.

The LS comes with keyless entry, a tilting steering wheel, full power accessories, cruise control, cloth upholstery, standard air conditioning, and foglights.  The audio system has 6 speakers, AM/FM radio, CD/MP3 player, and Bluetooth.

The Endeavor has all of the modern safety essentials: anti-lock brakes, stability control, traction control, front side airbags, and side curtain airbags.  IN government testing under 2010 standards, the Endeavor got 4 stars for front impact front passenger protection, and a perfect 5 stars for everything else.  The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety gave it perfect scores of “good” in all tests.

Conclusions and driver feedback:

If there wasn’t any competition, the Endeavor would be a nice crossover.  The interior has a lot of headroom and legroom in both the front and rear seats, and the seats themselves are reasonably comfortable, at least on short trips.

There is plenty of cargo space for its segment: 40.7 cubic feet behind the seats and another 34.9 cubic feet that can be added by folding over the rear seat.  The dashboard has a functional appearance, and the controls are logically placed and easy to reach.

The drive and the ride are average.  They aren’t a detriment, but they won’t inspire anyone, either.  The steering is fairly responsive, and the suspension can handle commuting and hauling a family around town.  The ride is not luxury, but it isn’t really uncomfortable, either.  Acceleration is decent, but nothing special, and there is enough power to take care of business, but none really left over for anything else.

There are some negatives here.  Most of them pertain to a model’s engineering staff resting on its laurels or focusing its energy into the next bigger, shinier model.  The cabin doesn’t look like it has been updated in at least ten years.  It is a melange of hard and soft materials, with some that are cheaper than one would like to see in any vehicle over $20,000.  The seats could use more support, too.

Most of all, though, the 4-speed transmission is outdated.  A more modern, 6-speed automatic would take more advantage of low-end torque for acceleration while providing more gas mileage, especially on the highway.

The verdict: the Endeavor was a great vehicle 8 years ago.  That isn’t good enough any more.

The 2011 Mitsubishi Outlander SE is a compact crossover SUV, but a lot more on the SUV side than most crossovers.  It looks almost like a family sedan in a way, but still has plenty of excitement.  It might not be a perfect family vehicle, but it will work just fine for a single person, a young couple, or a small family.  It all depends on what you want in a vehicle.

The Outlander SE is the second of four trim levels.  It has a 2.4 liter, 4 cylinder engine that produces 168 horsepower and 167 pound-feet of torque.  It has 18-inch alloy wheels, front wheel drive, and a continuously variable transmission (CVT).  It is rated at 23 mpg in the city and 28 mpg on the highway.

The SE comes with sport seats, a leather-wrapped, tilting steering wheel, cruise control, full power accessories, sliding second row seats, third row seats, cloth upholstery, turn signal mirrors, foglights, keyless entry, and keyless ignition.  The sound system has AM/FM radio, a 6-CD changer with MP3, and an audio input jack.

The Outlander comes with anti-lock brakes, stability control, traction control, side front airbags, side curtain airbags, and active front head restraints.  It aced all government tests under the 2010 standards, and aced all tests from the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety.

Conclusions and driver feedback:

The interior, while not luxury by any means, is passable.  The materials are a mix of midrange and lower cost, but not enough to cross over into negative territory.  There is plenty of space in the first and second rows.  Headroom and legroom are more than enough.  Also, there is plenty of cargo space, and even more if you fold the second row, the third row, or both.

The Outlander handles very well, and is tweaked more for sporty performance than family use.  It doesn’t sit high enough off the ground to be a true off-road vehicle, but you wouldn’t know it from the suspension.  The steering is accurate and responsive, and the suspension can handle both cornering and surface irregularities with a minimum of roll or pitch.  The CVT works well for both mileage and acceleration.  The SE runs smoothly without a lot of noise or laboring.

There are negatives here.  Some are trade-offs and some aren’t.  First of all, the SUV-style suspension makes a lot of noise.  The fact that it is tweaked more for sport makes the ride too firm for some.  It is probably irritating to some that a suspension that would be great for off-road use is wasted on a vehicle that doesn’t have enough ground clearance to take full advantage of it.

Also, the third row seat is borderline useless.  It would be very uncomfortable for long rides, and isn’t fully covered by the side curtain airbags.  Also, the 4-cylinder engine is a bit weak.

The verdict:  perfect vehicle if you live on a dirt road, but I can’t find another reason to buy it.

The 2011 Mitsubishi Galant SE is a midsize sedan.  The SE is the higher of two trim levels.  Extra conveniences and features are the main reason for buying a Galant over its competition, and the SE has a lot of them.  But are conveniences and features enough to make the Galant a good buy in a somewhat crowded market segment?

The Galant SE has a 2.4 liter, 4-cylinder engine with 160 horsepower.  It has 18-inch alloy wheels and a 4 speed automatic transmission.  It is rated at 21 mpg in the city and 30 mpg on the highway.

As mentioned, the Galant SE is packed with features and conveniences.  It has an 8-way power driver seat with lumbar adjustments, a leather-wrapped, tilt steering wheel, cruise control, full power accessories, automatic climate control, a rear spoiler, heated mirrors, a back-up camera, foglights, dual illuminated vanity mirrors, heated mirrors, a navigation system, color display screen, and a power sunroof.  It also has a Rockford Acoustic Design sound system with 8 speakers, a 6-CD/MP3 changer, satellite radio, and Bluetooth.

The Galant has side front airbags, side curtain airbags, anti-lock brakes, stability control, and traction control.  It got 5 stars in all government tests under 2010 standards except for driver protection in a frontal crash, in which it got 4 stars.  It got top grades of “good” in all tests from the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety.

Conclusions and driver feedback:

The seats are roomy.  There is plenty of both legroom and headroom all around.  Cargo space is almost average for its class.  The pure amount of features and gadgets is very nice from a driver’s point of view.  There are so many that you may imagine you are piloting an airplane.  The Galant drives nicely.  The steering is precise and the suspension gives a little bit of road feel to the driver without sacrificing ride quality.

There are quite a few negatives here, though.  Most of them come down to one core issue: in spite of a few tweaks, the Galant hasn’t really been redesigned in seven years.

Think of how far things have come in seven years.  Imagine a driver in a race car with aerodynamics and gear ratios from seven years ago.  He wouldn’t win a race.  In fact, he would be hard-pressed to finish anything but last of the cars who don’t crash.  This is the main problem facing the Galant, in both cosmetics and performance.

The cabin just doesn’t look remotely contemporary.  People’s tastes have changed in the last seven years, and the Galant doesn’t reflect that.  The performance aspects are not any better.  Between the aerodynamics and an outdated, 4-speed transmission without enough gear ratio choices, the Galant fails to get the gas mileage it should.  When you consider its mediocre power performance, it’s a “worst of both worlds” scenario.

The verdict:  the Galant is a “gallant” effort, but Mitsubishi has fallen short here.  The gadgets are nice, though.

MSRP  $27,999

The 2011 Eclipse Spyder is Mitsubishi’s performance convertible.  It has two doors and seats four.  It is one of the few convertibles in its price range.
The Spyder has been around for four years, and carved out a decent niche in its market.

But times are changing, and so is the competition.  Does the Spyder still have enough left to snare a decent market share in its web, or is is the competition treating it like a common, household pest?

The 2011 Spyder GS Sport has a 2.4 liter, 4-cylinder engine that produces 162 horsepower.  It has front wheel drive and a 4-speed automatic transmission.  It is rated at 20 mpg in the city and 28 mpg on the highway.

It has a tilt steering wheel, heated front seats, a 6-way driver seat with lumbar adjustment, full power accessories, cruise control, keyless entry, standard air conditioning, foglights, xenon headlights, and heated power mirrors.  It also has a Rockford Fosgate audio system that has a 6-CD changer, MP3 player, satellite radio, an audio jack, and steering wheel controls.

The Spyder has anti-lock brakes, traction control, stability control, and side front airbags that compensate for the convertible top by being tall enough to cover the occupants’ heads.  The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety gave the Spyder it’s highest rating of good for both side and frontal crashes.

Conclusions and Driver Feedback:

On the outside, the Spyder looks like a great car.  Its exterior has been an eye-catcher since it came out.  It has a sleek, modern “look” that is much better seen than described.  The interior has a nice design, too.  The Spyder is a very modern-looking car, and should have no problem attracting a younger market.

There are plenty of features to like, and the stereo is an upgrade over many.  Also, the front seats and the trunk have a lot of room.  The steering is responsive, and the suspension, while sporty, isn’t so stiff that it makes passengers suffer from sacrifices in ride quality.  All in all, the performance is enjoyable but relatively sedate.

The problem here, though, is that the competition is shooting for performance that is inspiring.  And any car with the word “performance” in its description should seek to inspire, not merely placate.  The problem with the Sport is that the engine simply isn’t powerful enough to inspire anyone.  Calling this engine a dog would be an insult to canines.

If Mitsubishi were to put this engine in a lightweight car with a sportier suspension, it would have itself a world class car.  But the Spyder is too heavy  for this engine.  Also, the rear seats are almost an afterthought.  This is much more like the old “2+2” design in which the rear seat isn’t really meant to be a rear seat than a 4-seater.

The verdict: sometimes you’re the “Spyder,” and sometimes you’re the fly.  This Spyder can’t get unstuck from its own web.

Car information – 4 door sedan in white, (wicked white) Interior is listed as Beige. The Lancer is powered by a 4 cylinder Gasoline only engine with a 5 speed manual transmission. This Lancer is a front wheel drive vehicle. For full details on this car you will need to contact Daytona Mitsubishi Kia

PH: 1-888-342-2931 -

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