The Lancer Gets Lanced

Remember the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, popularly referred to as the Evo, the high-performance four-door which competed in the marketplace with the  Subaru Impreza WRX?  The Evo was discontinued in the 2015 model year.

Now the sedan on which it was based, the Mitsubishi Lancer, is going the way of the dodo, too, a victim of the declining market for sedans in general, the ongoing growth in the market for SUVs and crossovers, and Mitsubishi’s own lackluster presence in the marketplace as a whole.  Mitsubishi has announced that production of the Lancer will cease in August.

Mitsubishi will instead, like many other automakers, focus its attention on the SUV and crossover market in the US.  Where the Lancer was once a lynchpin in the brand’s lineup, Mitsubishi’s Outlander and Outlander Sport both have outsold the Lancer in recent years.  In the generally weak market for conventional cars, Mitsubishi sold only 14,304 Lancers in the US last year, as opposed to 33,067 Outlander Sports and 26,576 US sales of the Outlander.

The two crossovers accounted for 65 percent of Mitsubishi’s US sales last year, with the Lancer, the Mirage subcompact, and the MiEV comprising the rest.  Curiously, the brand has added a four-door the to Mirage line for 2017, a line that has been poorly reviewed in the press and which has not made much of an impression in the marketplace.

But a third crossover, as yet unnamed, is due to be introduced by Mitsubishi in early 2018.  This new vehicle will likely slot between the two Outlanders, because it is said that the Outlander will get a little bigger and the Outlander Sport will get a little smaller.

The Lancer, in the meantime, will soldier on until August, remaining a choice worth considering for small sedan buyers because it is not a bad car and it carries a ten-year, 100,000-mile powertrain warranty.

Image selected from the Mitsubishi Newsroom.