I spent a week and nearly 1,000 miles trying to fall in love with the 2011 Mitsubishi Lancer Ralliart sedan. I couldn’t.

It is a car that attempts to provide maximum driving excitement at minimum expense, but it manages to be little more than a disappointing cost-cutting exercise.

Interior design is bland, among the least appealing in the segment for midsize sedans with base prices from $15,000 to $30,000.

Interior materials look and feel cheap, fake. An example: The use of carbon fiber in cabin trim is an increasingly popular styling device in midsize sedans, especially those with sport pretensions. At first glance, the trim pieces in the Lancer Ralliart’s mundane cabin look like carbon fiber. But a quick second look reveals them as nothing more than thin pieces of aluminum covered with plastic film that mimics carbon fiber. A toy manufacturer could have done better.

I normally exit a better-designed car — say a Mazdaspeed3, Subaru Impreza WRX or Buick Regal Turbo — feeling invigorated, even proud of the car in my temporary possession. But I repeatedly climbed out of the Lancer Ralliart shaking my head. The list of cheap, fake silliness in it is so extensive it ruins any chance of sustained driving enjoyment.

Consider the transmission lever. Again, at first glance, it looks like a wonderfully inviting, straightforward six-speed manual shifter — perfect for a car with a turbocharged and intercooled 2-liter four-cylinder engine capable of producing a maximum 237 horsepower and 253 foot-pounds of torque.

Engines are essentially breathing devices. Turbocharged engines use their exhaust gases to drive impellers that pull more air into combustion chambers for a better air-fuel mix. Intercooled turbocharged engines cool that air as it flows toward engine cylinders, allowing more air to enter. It’s good engineering undertaken to maximize power output while minimizing fuel consumption, engineering that would make more sense with a good manual gearbox.

But what was presented in the 2011 Lancer Ralliart was an “automated manual” that, in terms of driving satisfaction, was neither.

For the record, I like most automated manuals — gear systems that are plainly, easily automatic when you want them to be and just as easy to use in manual mode. Automated manuals, increasingly demanded by drivers in North America, make sense in households with divided transmission loyalties — occupied by drivers who prefer automatics and those who favor traditional manual gearboxes.

The problem with the Lancer Ralliart’s gearbox is that it pretends to favor manual-transmission fans over those who favor automatics. Thus, we have paddle-shifters on the steering column left and right of the wheel — a design and engineering homage to drivers with Walter Mitty race-car fantasies. I can live with that. But what is the need for also installing a floor-mounted lever that looks and feels like a manual shifter, replete with the need to lift its collar before moving into reverse gear, but otherwise operates like an everyday, ordinary, run-of-the mill automatic?

Mitsubishi needs to make up its mind about its target audience. Is it primarily aiming at financially challenged young men who dream of racetrack glory and little else? Is it middle-income families in need of reliable transportation with punch and pizazz? Who?

Mitsubishi is going to have to choose. The market for mid-priced midsize sedans is one of the hottest, most lucrative automotive retail segments in North America. It is dominated by models such as the Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, Hyundai Sonata, Ford Fusion and Chevrolet Malibu, and slightly smaller, sportier models such as the Mazdaspeed3 and Subaru Impreza WRX.

What all those rivals have in common is consistency of design, engineering, fit, finish, and quality of interior materials. The Lancer Ralliart is lacking in too many of those areas.

Good grief! The Mitsubishi car still uses that ugly mouse-hair fuzz on its cabin ceiling, the “headliner” in automotive parlance, at a time when most of its rivals have switched to a more attractive synthetic mesh. That is truly disappointing.

But there is in all of this a mildly saving grace. The Lancer Ralliart is very fast. On turnpikes and other high-speed motorways, it’s an absolute demon, very much capable of leaving more expensive and prestigious rivals in the rear. That might be enough for someone with an insatiable need for speed and little else. But it is not enough for me, and it is apparently insufficient for most other motorists — which is why the Lancer sedan, in any of its several iterations, perennially ranks at the bottom of U.S. auto-sales charts.

Bottom line: The 2011 Lancer Ralliart is an affordable buy for someone who wants excitement in an otherwise mundane midsize sedan that can carry five people. Better buys in terms of design, comfort and finish quality include the Mazdaspeed3, Subaru Impreza WRX and Buick Regal Turbo.

Ride, acceleration and handling: The Lancer Ralliart is not the most comfortable car in its class. The car has a multi-adjustable suspension — you can switch from a “normal” ride to a harder, tighter “sport” mode — but ride feel is mostly choppy, especially on poorly maintained roads.

Head-turning quotient: The styling is deliberately macho — low-slung, menacing, with a grille that looks like an upside-down version of the grille on an Audi A8. The feeling is juvenile.

Body style, layout: The 2011 Lancer Ralliart is a front-engine, full-time-all-wheel-drive midsize passenger sedan equipped with an active center differential, front helical limited-slip differential and rear mechanical limited-slip differential (all used to more efficiently transmit and meter engine power going to drive wheels).

Engine/transmission: The car comes with an intercooled and turbocharged 16-valve in-line 2-liter four-cylinder engine with electronically controlled variable valve timing (237 horsepower, 253 foot-pounds of torque). The engine is mated to a six-speed automated manual transmission.

Capacities: There are seats for five people. Cargo capacity, with the 6 0/40 split fold-down rear seats raised is 10 cubic feet. Folding the seats down give you more room for cargo at the sacrifice of rear space for passengers. Gasoline fuel capacity is 14.5 gallons. Premium grade is required.

Mileage: Real-world mileage was 15 miles per gallon in the city and 22 miles per gallon on the highway, also disappointing — and ultimately expensive ($210) on a nearly 1,000-mile run.

Safety: Standard equipment includes four-wheel disc brakes (ventilated front, solid rear); four-wheel anti-lock brake protection; electronic brake-force distribution; electronic stability and traction control; seven air bags, including driver’s-side knee bolster and side and head bags; and tire-pressure monitoring device.

2011 Mitsubishi Lancer Ralliart sedan

Base price: $27,695

As tested: $31,590

Type: Front-engine, full-time-all-wheel-drive midsize passenger sedan

Engine: Intercooled and turbocharged 16-valve in-line 2-liter four-cylinder engine with electronically controlled variable valve timing (237 horsepower, 253 foot-pounds of torque). The engine is mated to a six-speed automated manual transmission.

Mileage: 15 mpg city, 22 mpg highway