Unlike its competitors, when the new Mitsubishi Lancer debuts, it will have shrunken proportions and likely a forced-induction engine.
“The new Lancer will be a very new car, and will be sized somewhere between the current model and its predecessor,” Mitsubishi President Osamu Masuko said to The Motor Report.
The downsize will bring weight savings for the car, and Mitsubishi says the engine will be smaller displacement with forced induction of some kind to boost fuel economy. The Ford Focus and Volkswagen Golf grew in their latest forms, but the current Lancer is still larger. Downsizing will actually put it more in line with the competition.
A hybrid drivetrain is also rumored to be an option on the 2014 Lancer, although at this point that is still speculation.
[Source: The Motor Report]