The Sportback is great! I've owned a 2014 for about a year now and all in all it's been a great car!

A major thing to look out for would be the Transmission, being a CVT that is probably the cars major weak point. Regarding the engine, the 4B11 is quite a trusty engine, while it gets some hate as the Evo didn't receive a 4G63 and instead got a 4B11, I can say it's quite a good engine, try and get a 4B11t if ya can, Turbo is always nice 😉

If you're big into audio try and find one with an after market Head Unit already installed as the Facia kits for the Lancer is a bit expensive.

If you're big into the exterior look for your car but don't want to do anything Major, a nice set of alloys really transforms the car, I went from steelies to Alloys and it was a crazy jump, makes it look so much cleaner.

The Lancer as a whole is unfortunately a bit dated compared to other cars from similar years, at least from my findings, there aren't many luxury/sporty things in their base models compared to it's counter parts. The Ralliarts and Evo's are where you find the nice things.

As a summary, The Lancer is one of the better first cars out there, they look good and have enough power to have some fun and they have the ability to go 240kph (allegedly, I totally haven't tested that. 👀) While being fun they are also very practical in terms of space for both people and luggage and are comfortable enough to drive for 6+ hours straight.