By EWAN KENNEDY
24 July 2006

Pleased with the big increase of sales of the Mitsubishi 380 following serious price cuts a couple of months back, the company is giving its small Colt similar treatment. You can now buy a Colt for as little as $15,990 plus on-road costs.

Previously the lowest-cost Colt was priced at $18,990 and struggled to gain market acceptance in Australia against competitors that often came in at $14,990 or below. However, the price drop isn’t as significant as it seems as the Colt came only with an automatic transmission. The new price is for a Colt ES with a five-speed manual gearbox.

There's no automatic option for this new ES variant, however, the Colt LS and VR-X now both come with a choice between the new five-speed or the fuel-saving CVT automatic.

Colt ES is reasonably well equipped, with air conditioning, an MP3 compatible audio system, dual airbags and electric windows on all four doors.

We love the styling at the front of the Colt, admiring the way the windscreen pillars continue all the way down to the bumper without any deviation from a straight line. The bonnet bulges just enough to make the whole appearance something really out of the ordinary. The tail doesn’t work quite as well, being a bit pear-shaped, especially when viewed directly from the back.

Inside Colt's cabin there's a wave-shaped dash with stylish instruments housed in a lavishly curved binnacle.

There's good interior space for four adults, with sensible legroom in the rear seat due to its being adjustable. Boot space is restricted if the back seat is set all the way rearwards to achieve the best legroom, but that’s an understandable compromise in a car of this size.

Ride comfort is better than average for this class and overall refinement is good. However, we feel that the handling and steering are on the soft side, this car being aimed at the average driver rather than the enthusiast.

This small Mitsubishi is powered by a 1.5-litre twin-cam engine with variable valve timing on the inlet valves. We have yet to test drive the engine teamed with a manual gearbox, but will report on it as soon as we are able.

Mitsubishi feels many buyers will be happy to pay slightly more for a Japanese-made car than one from another Asian country and is pleased to now be able to offer the Colt with a manual gearbox.

Coming to Australia soon is yet another Mitsubishi Colt. This one totally at the opposite end of the spectrum to the cut-price Colt ES. The Colt Ralliart is to be a hot turbo version and will join the much praised Mitsubishi Lancer Evo as a smaller brother. We are shortly to attend the launch of that vehicle and will bring details as soon as possible.