It seems appropriate that the car with what must surely be the shortest model name in the history of the motor industry is also one of the smallest on sale in this country. The Mitsubishi i is one of those city cars which comprise a well-defined market segment of their own in Japan, and although these things have never been more than a minority interest in the UK (partly because it's rarely worth the trouble of importing them from halfway across the world) Mitsubishi reckons that demand for this one is far greater over here than the supply situation can cope with.Part of the definition of Japanese city cars is that they can't have engines larger than 660cc. The i just qualifies, since it has a three-cylinder turbocharged petrol unit of 659cc. This produces a maximum of 57bhp, so it's pretty strong for its size, and although the performance figures don't look terrific the combination of that much power and very little weight make the car quite perky enough in most situations.The engine and gearbox are in the back, and this gives the i an immediate advantage in town. With the major mechanical components at the other end of the car, the front carries very little weight and the steering is correspondingly fingertip-light; step from the i into any conventional front-wheel drive hatchback and you immediately realise that every turn you make in the latter involves hauling large lumps of metal on to a new course.The i has none of this feeling, and since it's so short it also has an astonishingly tight turning circle. One result of this is that the i can be whisked through 180 degrees in one go with minimal effort when almost any other car would require a laborious three-point turn.And since the only gearbox supplied with the car is a four-speed automatic, you don't even have to worry about changing gear. All in all, this is possibly the most user-friendly car you can buy for urban use.With the engine being where it is, you'd expect the luggage to go under the bonnet, but in fact there's no room there for anything other than a few ancillary components. Fortunately, the engine is so compact that there's still 246 litres' worth of space in the rear - more than half as much again as you'll find in a MINI, which in terms of overall size is a bloated monster by comparison with the i.Of course, the MINI is hardly a direct rival, and it's vastly superior out of town. But I took the i for a short blast along the motorway, just so I could say I'd done it, and it turned out to be quite acceptable. You have to drive it pretty much as hard as it will go to keep up with other traffic, and the fact that the sides are almost completely flat means that it can be a bit wobbly if the wind is coming from the wrong direction. You wouldn't want to drive it the entire length of the M1 on a daily basis, but a few miles of this sort of thing once in a while would be all right.Mind you, I wouldn't want to be in an i during a high-speed shunt; it's too small and feels too flimsy for adventures of that nature. Admittedly I can't back this up with any figures, since Mitsubishi hasn't provided Euro NCAP with an i for crash testing and is unlikely ever to do so. Still, I doubt it would do very well, except perhaps in the matter of pedestrian protection. Those bulges around the front wheels look like shin-crackers, but they're so soft that you can bend them several inches out of shape and back again without any damage whatever.I liked the i very much and I can see why there's a demand for it. At the same time, it's up against some strong competition. Few rivals can approach it in terms of luggage space and ease of town driving, but most of them easily undercut the i's list price of nearly £9000, and the Mitsubishi's 54.6mpg combined fuel economy and 114g/km of CO2 emissions do not give it any advantage in terms of tax or congestion charging.Perhaps more crucially still, the i will be relatively expensive to insure, since its Group 4 rating is much higher than that of the main opposition.Above all that, it has to be said that the i is one of the oddest-looking cars for sale in the UK at the moment. That could make or break the deal - it might render the i unacceptable to people who don't want to be noticed, but it might also make it the number one choice of people who do. Engine 659 cc, 3 cylinders Power 57 bhp @6000 rpm Torque 62 ib/ft @3000 rpm Transmission 4 speed auto Fuel/CO2 54.6 mpg / 114 g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 14.9sec Top speed 84 mph Price From £9450.00 approx Release date 01/07/2007
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