
The budget SUV that could
Mitsubishi Outlander||| Press Car ||| Korczuch
Not so simple
Most of the cars I drive are cars that I would like to own, a Mitsubishi Outlander isn’t exactly that. No offense to Mitsubishi, it’s just that this car is built for a specific audience I just don’t see myself being a part of, but with that in mind, I decided to put my sensible hat on and try to appreciate this car from the point of view of someone I believed to be a typical client, a soccer mom.
The driving
It’s been a while since I’ve driven an SUV, the last being a Range Rover Vogue, a car that’s probably five times more expensive than this car, and I just hopped out of an Audi to pick this car up, so I wasn’t expecting much performance and luxury wise. My first impressions however were very positive, the car was very well equipped with gadgets, and the interior was decently comfortable. The car is quite large, however thanks to the 4 cameras and a load of sensors I didn’t have trouble maneuvering the car, even around some very tight streets. During city driving the gearbox was smooth and the small two liter engine was pushing out just enough power for me not to complain. Don’t get me wrong it wasn’t quick, but in the city where the top speed limit is 50 it wasn’t an issue. However, taking the car out on the highway and country roads I quickly became annoyed with the lack of power and slow reaction to the accelerator, the car felt sluggish and the fuel economy rose quickly with the car not being smooth at all, in addition to the automatic gearbox which would constantly shift down to 5th from 6th when even on the slightest incline, resulting in a lurchy ride and a high noise pollution. Back in the city fuel economy wasn’t that much better, with a record of 28l/100 in stop-go traffic (The aforementioned Range Rover managed closer to 15). Although, in the city environment, the car felt smoother and more relaxed, rarely downshifting under acceleration. Although even someone who drives in a relaxed manner I think the lack of power will quickly be noticable and annoying, possibly the PHEV model might solve some of these issues with the electric motor picking up some slack and helping out under light acceleration.

Interior trim and gadgets
As I mentioned earlier, this car is filled to the brim with gadgets and boasts a decently comfortable interior. The seats are (probably eco) leather along with the steering wheel. The driver has ample room, along with the passenger and 3 rear seats, although the space in the last 2 seats are pitiful and you can forget about using them unless you only put small children back there. The layout of the interior is rather curious, with lots of buttons, most of which are poorly accessible, and a poor amount of space for your personal items apart from the 2 cup holders. The wheel itself was littered with buttons and not massively ergonomical, partially due to two massive column massive shift paddles which didn’t fit the car at all. The area was also poorly lit with no ambient lighting to help, and with some buttons having no backlighting at all (unlocking and locking, mirror adjustment). The gadgets are also a hit and miss in most cases. The heated seats worked well, although at the lower level they were barely noticeable and at the higher level they made you sweat almost immediately, however the heated steering wheel worked brilliantly and I refuse to complain about it (okay maybe apart from the poor button placement for it). The lane departure warning worked about 50% of the time and didn’t hold you, just warned you (Not complaining about it not holding you, just thought it’s worth mentioning it’s only a warning), while the blind spot monitors worked 95% of the time but were also there as a warning. Other gadgets include the electrically heated front windscreen which didn’t work at all (No LED indication of it being on and wouldn’t clean off ice), heated mirrors which barely worked, automatic cruise control which was slow to react and made the ride very lurchy, the front radar system which constantly warned me about cars parked off to the side, but didn’t apply any brakes, however if you happen to touch the brake when the warning is on however it’ll send you into a full emergency brake, even if you barely touch the pedal. Finally an electrically foldable rear bootlid which was painfully slow, and was disabled by a button on the center console which was not visible from a driver’s perspective and would not leave a message about it’s status which resulted in a very confusing first use. Unlike the boot lid the screens were pretty straightforward to use, with the driver’s cluster screen being operated by a button off to the side (which was at an odd angle to press) and showing everything you’d like to know about a car. The main screen in the car was decently sized, and was pointed at the driver resulting in a better ease of use. As far as looks, I wasn’t massively impressed with the grey-blue colour scheme and the poor use of space in many sections, however plugging in my Android Auto (Or Apple CarPlay) supported phone made me forget all about it. All in all the interior was acceptable, but definitely nothing to rave over, it’s what you’d expect from a top trim version SUV in this price range.

From the outside
My favorite part of this car were the LED lights which did a superb job at night, and a feature I think all modern cars should come with as standard. I personally thought the car looked all right from the outside, again nothing special but it isn’t hideous. I can’t speak for the quality of the paint as I only had a few days with this car, but I assume it’s not going to be massively impressive to anyone. I did however find out after returning the car that some of the components on the bottom of the car got damaged in the time I had it, slightly worrying considering the car didn’t go through any tough terrain and was mainly driven on highways, something a potential buyer should worry about. The car also had a very large flaw, where after one drive in rain and on a dirty road I opened the boot to find it wet and dirty inside, something I was shocked by, even my 40 year old Mini doesn’t leak this bad. I’m going to write it off as a one off issue, possibly something to do with this specific example, however, it does leave a worry about quality and quality control of this model.

Final thoughts
At the end of the test period I was left to ponder if this was a car worth recommending. It’s well equipped and didn’t skip a beat during my testing. The high fuel consumption is probably down to a small engine pulling a big car, although 28l/100 in traffic is dreadful for most cars, even taking into consideration the size. The boot wasn’t big, even with the rear row folded down and had poor organization, with no nets or hooks.The seats were decent but not great on longer rides, and the infotainment system as standard was pretty disappointing, especially since it froze twice and only restarted when the car turned off and on. Overall quality and quality control didn’t seem to be brilliant, and the overall cabin’s design left some questions on the table. I personally wouldn’t buy this car, but that’s obvious since I’m not the client Mitsubishi is looking for, but I’m not sure that I can recommend this car to anyone, especially with so many options on the market, ranging from the Nissan X-Trail which i’ve heard nothing but great things about, and features a much more sensible Diesel engine, Kia Sorento which once again has much better engine options, or even a smaller and more expensive Land Rover Evoque which I’m confident will do a much better job. At the end of the day the Outlander feels like it’s worked so hard to stay in the competition, and then forgot to implement a modern engine and gearbox. The odd placement of many buttons, and the lack of space for personal items in the cabin also left me puzzled, considering how large this car. I could excuse some of these issues if they were on their own, but together it feels like a poorly engineered and designed car. As a whole, I can’t in good faith recommend this car to anyone, especially with great alternatives with much better design.
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