Lancer Concept X shows new direction

The radical look of the Concept X is going to be carried right through the new compact car, which will be sold as a sedan, hatchback and wagon in Australia from the back end of next year.

The Concept X was always expected to be morphed into the next-generation Evo X road rocket, but Mitsubishi Motors has decided to go all the way with a car which promises to be one of the most aggressive looking newcomers in the small-car class.

Test and development work is into the final stages in Japan but Mitsubishi is still keeping quiet on final details, although the local brand of the business cannot wait to get the all-new Lancers into showrooms.

"They cannot get here fast enough," the spokesman for Mitsubishi Motors Australia, Kevin Taylor, says.

"The mainstream cars come in the third quarter of next year.

"And the performance variants come sometime in the first six months of 2008.

"What is coming out is the sedan first-up, then the performance variants. And that is Evo and a Ralliart version, which will be more like a WRX. The hatch will be in the last part of 2008."

The Lancer is now one of the oldest cars in the small-car class, although it is priced from the $19,990 benchmark. The CG Lancer hit the road in 2000 and the body got a mild makeover to the current CH model two years ago.

"We need the new car fairly badly. That small car category is a very quickly growing segment and the existing Lancer has been around for a while now," Taylor says. "We'll get a fresh look with new engines in a market sector that is burgeoning."

He says Mitsubishi is on track with the Lancer program but it has been shuffled down the list to clear space for other important newcomers.

"It was a matter of doing what we could. There is a lot of work on the product front," he says. "From our point of view its a matter of where we start. The old Triton was much older than Lancer.

"Our core products are Triton, Pajero and Lancer. We'll get two of them this year, Triton and Pajero, and one from next year.

"It's been a big year, but none of them can come quickly enough."