One has got options for Steermatic parts like Thailand, Japanese, Indian and to some extent local as well. But for Lancer you have only Japanese version.
You just can not compare prices for the both.
There is another problem in Lancer. The air intake is very low in the car and when ever one is crossing some street high waters in moon soon season, it gulps the air, they have removed this issue in the 2009 model but that model is too expensive to buy. Also they have stopped producing the 1.6 version, which makes another issue as the body is too heavy for 1.3 litres.
The biggest problem which I faced with the car is the road clearance, I changed the tire size of city from the original low profile ones and am pretty happy with the clearance now but Lancer lacks that as well. I don't know the exact height but it is too low when you drive it on rough roads with few people and some stuff in the boot.