Short Drive: The Mitsubishi Attrage sedan. Does a 1.2 liter three cylinder sedan work?

Mitsubishi Indonesia's idea of what it should be...hmmm.

And so after quite awhile of not writing any car reviews we have one for you readers out there right now. Of course it would be nice writing about the time I drove the Peugeot RCZ (I will, I guess) or the time I where I drove an old Triumph Stag (it happened, but somehow I am not too bothered at the moment too) but I know it makes more sense writing about cars most of you can actually buy, like the Mitsubishi Attrage sedan. 

Now you could actually buy this car but do read on and see if you should (you shouldn't).

The Attrage is a 1.2liter sedan that weighs under 1,000kg (905kg for the CVT auto). It costs RM60,980.00 for the base manual, RM69,980.00 for the auto GS and RM77,980.00 for the full monty bodykitted SE. 

It is one of the lightest sedans in the market and is surprisingly spacious. Even with Yours Truly in the front seat a decent sized asian adult can squeeze in behind and not feel like he or she is in a tin of sardines. The thing about the Attrage is that this car is basically a Mitsubishi Mirage with a boot. It has the same engine and gearboxes. The 1.2liter three cylinder engine, yes, three cylinders, makes 80PS and 106Nm torque. I believe the engine is essentially Mitsubishi's 1.6liter four cylinder with one cylinder chopped off. The reason for such a set-up is that you get the optimum piston size for producing torque (big bore pistons produce more torque or pulling power) that will ensure a small and compact engine enough pulling power for a city car. 

Here we have a slightly sad looking Mitsubishi Attrage parked beside its bigger brother, the ASX and a toilet.

                                I drove it...it had a broken passenger air vent too.

But upon starting the car (push start in the variant I drove) and slotting in the INVECS-III Continuously Variable Transmission to Drive you can hear that familiar three cylinder thrum that you get when driving a Perodua Kancil, Kelisa, Viva or a Suzuki Alto, albeit with slightly better engine noise suppression (or more sound proofing in the engine bay in other words). 

But it isn't all quiet. After all, the car is sub 1,000kg and you achieve such weight by not adding unnecessary weight, which includes soundproofing. So on the move, especially under acceleration where the CVT holds to a certain engine revolution things can get slightly trashy. If you hold is at half throttle the engine sticks at around 3,000 rpm and if you gun it, it will hold at slightly above 5,000rpm until you ease off the loud pedal. Now couple that with some tyre noise, which is bearable due to skinny tyres I have to judge by ear that it is only slightly quieter or as quiet as a Perodua Myvi. Now this is not good news as even the Myvi 1.3ezi auto comes in at around RM47,000 on the road. 

If you're wondering about how fast it accelerates or whether that three cylinder engine is enough to lug around people I have to say that it isn't dead slow. It is quite slow but you're able to keep up with city traffic. Don't expect miracles.

 Now let me remind you folks again that this is a city car. It is based on a hatchback city car. So therefore the Attrage is to take you to work and back, to the gym and back, to the mall and back, to pick up the kid at school and back and to go from point A in a town to point B in a RELAXED manner. The Attrage is not meant to attack mountainside roads and for you to do a Banzai midnight run on some empty highway. Even if you did you won't see more than an overly enthusiastic 180km/h on the speedometer (which must be over-reading like a crazed chipmunk high on caffine). But doing 160km/h in this poof of a car is already going waaayyyyyyy too fast as the suspension is tuned for an extremely comfortable ride whilst pootling or tootling  or trundling around town slowly. 

And it is comfortable. So comfortable that if you overdid a corner you'd find the car wallowing and swaying left to right and you may find yourself understeering into the nearest tree, with the urge to suddenly hug it with the car. Of course, that may only happen if there was a strong tailwind. 80PS still means leisurely acceleration. You could actually press the accelerator and then pick up that IPAD, do some on-line shopping, place and order before you see 100km/h on the speedometer. It is a very comfortable riding car, softly sprung and not one bit set-up for some spirited driving. There isn't any Lancer Evolution DNA in it at all folks. Not one single bit. So if you buy one, don't waste your money doing it up. So don't bother doing it up like the Thai Attrage Club mock up below. There isn't any point as the taxi pic at the start makes more sense.

So who is supposed to buy this car? Normal people without petrol or diesel flowing through their veins. The Attrage is not for petrolheads. It is for those who do not like to drive and just need a car for transport. It is for those whose nickname is Encik or Cik Kedekut or Mr or Mrs Miser as he or she wants to save so much petrol that he is willing to buy this car (It is claimed to give you up to 21km per liter of petrol consumed - amazing).

Oh, one more thing needs to be brought up. I found the center air vents to be tiny. If you folks noticed it hasn't rained in ages and the weather is ridiculously hot and humid. One of the improvements in the current Perodua Myvi over the previous one are larger air vents and it actually helps cooling down the Myvi faster than before. In the Attrage, I feel that the center air vents are more style over function as they are too tiny as it takes too long for the interior to cool down. 

The rest of the interior is sound for a car of its price and the car is well equipped too. But gadgets like a body kit, 2 DIN player, push start button, keyless go, ABS, EBD, 15 inch wheels with skinny tyres), good packaging may give you some thrills, but the problem is the thrills aren't cheap. A Myvi 1.5 has all of these and is cheaper, faster, nimbler, as well screwed together and faster. Did I say faster already? I did, but I should mention that whilst the Mvyi isn't the key word in driving pleasure, it has more than this car and is much faster. 

In fact, if you want a sedan so badly, a Proton Persona SV 1.6 is more refined, handles better, cheaper and is miles faster too. The Attrage should make 100km/h from nought in about 14 seconds. And that folks, is an eternity to a petrolhead.

Mitsubishi Attrage

Pros : good ride, light weight, good packaging, well equipped, fantastic fuel economy

Cons: slow, sloppy handling, slow, average NVH, shockingly expensive for what they're pushing even though well equipped, too much ECOnomy can be a bad thing

Conclusion: Not a car to buy at RM60,000-77000. Unless you think 21km/l makes perfect sense but I doubt anyone would get such mileage in the real world. Perodua Myvi and Proton Persona no matter how much you feel about local brands ARE THE BETTER BUY here. And there is not one ounce of Lancer Evo DNA in there too, trust me.