Mitsubishi Outlander
2.0 DI-D Warrior review
by David Finlay (20 March 2007)
We're going to have to get used to the Outlander - or cars very like it - in the near future. Not only does it form a range in its own right, it is also effectively the same thing as the Citroen C-Crosser and Peugeot 4007 which are due to follow it, and which represent the French manufacturers' first appearance in the medium-sized SUV market.
This is something simpler than platform-sharing. The body structures of all three models are the same, and the most obvious differences in styling are at the front end. Here the design is characteristic of each manufacturer, and personally I like the Mitsubishi effort best - it's quite attractive in a rather snarly sort of way.
There are three trim levels, named Equippe, Warrior and Elegance following recent Mitsubishi tradition. The car tested here is a Warrior, and is expected to represent about 60% of UK sales. It looks better than the Equippe thanks to the fitment of a bodykit, and it also has larger wheels, more airbags, more seats, and cruise control.
For satellite navigation and top-level audio you need to choose the Elegance, but it costs nearly £25,000 and somehow that seems uncomfortably expensive for this car.
As mentioned in our launch report, all Outlanders are fitted with the two-litre turbo diesel engine which Mitsubishi has bought in from the Volkswagen Group. A 2.2-litre turbo diesel will be added to the range soon (this one sourced from PSA Peugeot Citroen) followed by a 2.4-litre petrol unit built by Mitsubishi itself.
I can see why such a variety should be made available to customers, but I suspect the other engines will struggle to offer as much as the VW one does. The 2.2 will have more low-down grunt, but the two-litre already has enough of this to make the Outlander come over all squirmy if you try to apply any kind of power in a tight corner. And neither of the alternatives will be able to match the two-litre's combined fuel consumption figure of 40.9mpg and CO2 emissions of 183g/km.
Impressive as the VW engine undoubtedly is, it's not shown at its best here. Mitsubishi allows too much of the noise it produces to enter the cabin, and it's very easy to stall in low-speed manoeuvring, largely because the accelerator pedal does so little in the first couple of inches of travel.
That's fine if you're doing a lot of off-roading (where you don't want to bring in a lot of power too suddenly), but there are limits, and in any case Mitsubishi is not seriously marketing the Outlander as an off-road car.
You can tell this from the fact that there is no low-range option in the gearbox, and that four-wheel drive is available only if (a) the system senses that power needs to be distributed to the rear wheels and (b) you have asked it to do this - in normal mode (selected via a rotary switch on the centre console) the Outlander is exclusively front-wheel drive.
I haven't yet taken an Outlander off-road, but I'm led to believe that it's rather good in those conditions. Fine, but few customers will be inclined to try it for themselves. Much more importantly, the Outlander - in all forms except the entry-level Equippe - has seven seats, so it immediately shows promise as a school-run car.
At least two of the occupants will need to have a lot of school years ahead of them if they're going to fit in. The two seats in the third row are tiny, and not worth considering for adults. The ones in the middle row are better, but even though you can tilt them and slide them forwards and backwards there still isn't much room for persons as tall as myself.
One thing I do like about the layout is that the back-row seats fold completely into the floor, so you don't have to remove them from the car to take advantage of the 541 litres of luggage room. Folding the middle row is very easy, and opens up the available volume to 1691 litres.
If the seats are so versatile, why in the name of Beelzebub has Mitsubishi not also made the steering wheel adjustable for reach? For a car designed from scratch in the 21st century, this seems astonishing. Apart from that, the front of the Outlander is a comfortable enough environment, at least when the car is standing still or travelling along a very smooth road.
For the rest of the time, it bounces and wallows more than it needs to. You might say that SUVs are inevitably going to be like this, and it's true that the Outlander's height (and therefore high centre or gravity) are always going to cause compromises. But other SUVs are better in this respect, and not necessarily just the more expensive ones.
There are many good things about the Outlander, and Mitsubishi has time to sort out the less good things during the car's life cycle. At the time of writing, it's interesting to speculate whether Citroen and Peugeot, with their own interpretations of the same basic vehicle, will get there first.
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