The Mitsubishi Colt: Sink or Swim? By Pete J Ridgard At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

The Mitsubishi Colt is yet another hatchback that has found itself lumped in with a myriad of others in the saturated supermini market. This market is very much sink or swim recently and to stay afloat your car has got to have something a little different or special to attract interest. So will the Mitsubishi Colt be riding along on the crest of a wave or sinking irretrievably amidst the gloomy waters of supermini failure?

The first impression is suitably impressive as the exterior ticks boxes you wouldn’t expect it to, as it manages to look solid and chunky yet you can be sure that you will be able to fit it into all but the very tightest of parking spaces. It has a tall roof that means that there will be enough room to comfortably seat at least 4 6-foot+ adults; reassuring news if you were ferrying guests to a medical giant’s convention.

The interior is relatively basic, but looks smart enough and appears to be of a high manufacturing standard and all the plastics are rigid and will stand up to ham-fisted testing. The seating is perhaps a little too firm, which makes long journeys a little undesirable, but as these cars are primarily designed for short city driving, this isn’t too much of a pressing concern.

The Colt is available in 3 door, 5 door and cabriolet editions and the engines range from 1.1 Litre to 1.5 Litre Petrol, which is proof if any were required that Mitsubishi have no delusions of grandeur about the Colt being adapted into some kind of racing car. No, it is a fairly slow car and you’ll get bored of counting the seconds it takes to get from 0-60. That really isn’t the point of the Mitsubishi Colt though. This car has been designed with practicality in mind, so the evaluation criteria should be more a question of handling, boot space, economy and ecology.

In these terms the Colt does pretty well. The handling isn’t exactly pin-point accurate, but is more than fit for purpose on a car of this ilk. The boot is actually smaller than you would expect, but put the passenger seats down and you have an impressive capacity that will manage to accommodate most shopping trips. Economically speaking the Colt is a triumph on two counts; firstly, with the basic Colt model starting from £7,799, it is very competitively priced for a new car. Secondly, with economical engine, you should find yourself achieving very high and wallet-friendly miles per gallon ratios. Tying in with this, the ecological implications of owning this car are almost negligible; the Colt produces one of the lowest CO2 emissions for its class and will not cause too much damage to the environment.

So far, so good for the little Japanese Mitsubishi, but there is one small flaw in its conception; the Mitsubishi Colt lacks a gimmick. Whereas the Ford Fiesta, Vauxhall Corsa and Fiat 500 have got stylish good looks in there corner, the Mitsubishi just has fairly bog-standard practicality stamped all over it. The Colt can’t compete in performance terms with the Volkswagen cars so its difficult to see where it can fit in the over-crowded marketplace.

However, if you are looking for a basic, no-frills, reliable and cheap city car, the the Mitsubishi Colt is definitely worth your consideration.

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