Mitsubishi Motors Brings Versatile New Five-Door Sportback To Award-Winning U.S. Lancer Lineup.

Mitsubishi Motors North America today confirmed that the versatile all-new five-door Lancer Sportback will arrive in U.S. dealerships this summer for the 2010 model year.

The Sportback will meld high performance and progressive design with an extra dose of utility to feed the most active lifestyles.

The newest member of the multiple award-winning Lancer family is part of Mitsubishi's refocused efforts to introduce new models designed to meet evolving consumer demands.
MSRP will be announced nearer to its summer on-sale date.

"American consumers are increasingly asking for fun, attractive, yet practical cars that complement their active and individual lifestyles," said Dan Kuhnert, executive vice president of sales and marketing for Mitsubishi Motors North America.

"The Lancer Sportback answers those calls with a heady mix of performance, aggressive styling and the bonus of greatly increased utility, and will be available in two versions - the economical GTS and high-performance Ralliart. The five-door platform has considerable upside potential in the domestic market."

Mitsubishi designers created a dynamic new shape for the Sportback that is instantly recognizable as a Lancer from the front, with its signature "jet fighter" grille, while being completely fresh from the C-pillar rearward.

The key element is a sleekly sloping rear door with integrated "roof wing" that creates a visually distinctive shape while making the Lancer significantly more versatile.

The door extends down to the rear bumper to make loading cumbersome objects like surfboards, camping gear and bicycles as easy as possible.



The Sportback's overall length is just slightly longer than the Lancer four-door sedan, yet it gains substantial cargo-carrying flexibility-especially when the 60:40-split rear seats are folded flat.

One-touch auto-folding rear seats make the newfound space almost effortless to configure.

To add still more volume, the rear cargo-area floor of the GTS version can be cleverly lowered three inches, yielding 52.7 cubic ft. maximum cargo space. The roof will also conveniently accommodate a plug-in Thule® Sport Rack for additional flexibility.



The Sportback's basic architecture, technical features and most optional equipment is shared with the Lancer sedan, a winner of several awards, including:

+ J.D. Power and Associates' 2008 Navigation Usage and Satisfaction Study, naming the touch-screen interface system an industry-leader and the first non-premium brand to ever capture the award
+ NHTSA 5-Star Safety Rating
+ IIHS Top Safety Pick
+ CNET Editors' Choice (Lancer Evolution)
+ MSN Top-10 New Cars

Sportback GTS models feature Mitsubishi's efficient 2.4-liter engine with 168 horsepower and 167 pound-feet of torque, mated to either a five-speed manual or six-speed CVT automatic transmission.