Head-turning vim

The new Mitsubishi Galant has been intelligently redesigned and upgraded.

After years of Galants cruising our roads as the poorer cousins of the two main Japanese family sedan contenders, Mitsubishi has upped the ante with flair!

The all-new 2007 Mitsubishi Galant is indeed a triumph, and expect to see a lot more as motorists stop to take a second look.

The new Galant is a gorgeous automobile - very intelligently re-designed and upgraded - and its likeable, spunky personality is especially apparent when compared to some of the more boring midsize sedans currently available.

First off the design is very attractive, with a happy smile front grille centring the headlights and a well-worked two-tier hood leading up to a swooshing cab roof, which gives it an alert, sporty look. The wedge-like cut from the side is inspiring and makes the Galant appear fresh and spirited.

Indeed that is what the drive feels like. You jump in and feel immediately light and spunky as you start off. There's no sluggishness or need to get accustomed to the driving position - straight-away at home, you just start and go.

The 2.4-litre engine is instantly powerful off the line, and the overall ride is effortless - as if you had owned one all your life.

To verify this feeling, I invited a good friend of mine, a confirmed Mitsubishi man with years of happy Mitsu ownership under his belt, Tim Kirk, to join the testdrive so he could comment directly from his experience, comparing the new 2007 with his current 1999 model.

Night and day, he said. Although seven years of Galant ownership leaves him with a faithful car still with years of good service ahead, and he was keen to point out just how reliable his sturdy workhorse has been, he was surprised and delighted with the new Galant.

Besides the obvious redesign and modernization of the exterior, he commented that the new Galant was more luxurious, comfortable and overall a great jump forwards. Out with the old and in with the new!

We found the interior cab space to be excellent; back seat passengers had plenty of leg and shoulder room, and the cargo area is spacious. The dash layout added to the feel of roominess, and the purple instrumentation backlight was provocative - nice touch, Mitsubishi!

The controls were all perfectly placed, and we actually remarked how nice it was not to have too many electric gimmicks to distract from the drive.

Perhaps quite the opposite of modern manufacturing philosophy that prides itself on 12-way adjustable seats and steering wheel-mounted flip-flop knobs and controls, the Galant was simple and functional.

What's the point in adding thousands of dirhams in consumer cost to outfit a seat electrically when a well-designed and intelligently-placed manual command does the job much better, and without any gremlins later in life?

We loved the smoothness of the transmission, and also how it dropped readily into 1st whenever needed, such as when entering a roundabout and requiring that little extra oomph to sprint in, and we noticed how at the legal urban speed limit of 80 kph the Galant engine sailed along at just under 2000 rpm providing a beautifully smooth ride.