Mitsubishi i (2007) CAR review

Haven’t we seen this somewhere before?

Not the European version, no. The diminutive Mitsubishi i city car closely resembles the ‘Concept i’ shown back in Frankfurt 2003 and a production version has been on sale in Japan since January 2006 – and CAR Online drove the Japanese version recently. But from 1 July 2007, you’ll be able to buy this innovative rear-engined, five-door, four-seat urban runabout in UK showrooms. Mitsubishi UK thinks the car will appeal to design-conscious city-dwellers who want something small (it’s shorter than a Fiat Panda by 143mm and narrower than even the new Smart forTwo by 84mm), nippy (57bhp 659cc engine) and eco-friendly (54.6mpg and 114g/km CO2). Crucially, it doesn’t look like a Noddy car either.

Is the UK-spec car different from the original?

Not too much, which is a good thing. The UK version is almost identical to the Japanese car save a few Europe-specific legislative necessities like a rear foglamp, radio bandwidth converter (so when you tune to Radio 1 you don’t get Radio 4) and a carbon filter in the catalyst and a slight engine re-map to trim emissions below the 120g/km mark to ensure a Band B road tax rating. Mitsubishi hopes it may qualify for London Congestion Charge exemption under new CO2-based proposals. But the remapping blunts power (by 7bhp) and mpg (by 1mpg) slightly over the Japanese version. A shame.