Mitsubishi Outlander Road Test

Mitsubishi Outlander

There are three trim levels. The Equippe is priced at £19,466 and comes with five seats and a sensible specification list including keyless entry. The Warrior will set you back £22,016 and adds, Bluetooth hands-free kit, side and curtain airbags, body kit and the Hide and Seat system, amongst other items. It is the Elegance that has all the goodies, such as the electrically heated seats, powered sunroof and the mega Mitsubishi Multi-Communication System (MMCS), which includes 30GB hard-disk, Sat-Nav, music server and DVD player, all controlled through a full-colour, 7-inch touch-screen. The 650W Rockford Fosgate Premium Sound System with nine speakers is standard on the Elegance and might be just enough to entice music lovers to part with the necessary, £24,766.

You may have noticed that the prices are pretty specific. This is because, until the end of the year, all Outlanders house the same, VW-sourced, 2.0DI-D, intercooled turbo diesel engine. Towards the end of 2007 this will be joined by a 2.2-litre turbo-diesel and Mitsubishi’s so-called ‘World Engine’, which is a 2.4-litre petrol unit, developed in cahoots with Daimler Chrysler and Hyundai.

All of the present batch of Outlanders are mated to a six-speed manual gearbox and they all have the same outputs of 138bhp at 4,000rpm and 310Nm of torque at 1,750rpm. This propels the Outlander to a top speed of 116mph after a 0-62mph dash of 10.8 seconds. As the Equippe is two seats short of a Warrior or Elegance, the fuel consumption is a little better than that of the 7-seaters. Both have the same figures of: 32.1-, 47.9- and 40.9mpg for the urban, extra-urban and combined respectively, while the CO2 emission exhaust at the rate of 183g/km (VED Band E).

The car feels taut and I liked the positive feel of the steering but the gearing needs a little attention as down-changes can be somewhat harsh at times. On motorways the ride is smooth, without being wallowy and on twisty, minor roads, the Outlander is very stable and balanced, unless you push the laws of physics beyond the point where the Active Stability & Traction Control and ABS with EBD can help out. Twin, dual-stage front airbags are standard but it’s only the Warrior and Elegance than come with side and curtain airbags.

The bigger and much, much better, Outlander should prove popular for Mitsubishi and is further proof that the there is more to the company, than the EVO. Mitsubishi tells us that they are expecting the mid-range Warrior to be the best-seller in the range, which is not surprising as it has all the necessary equipment without going over the top.

Mitsubishi Outlander