Redesigned and reengineered for 2016 the Mitsubishi Outlander
2016 Mitsubishi Outlander
2016 Mitsubishi Outlander
2016 Mitsubishi Outlander
2016 Mitsubishi Outlander
2016 Mitsubishi Outlander
2016 Mitsubishi Outlander
2016 Mitsubishi Outlander
Redesigned and reengineered for 2016 the Mitsubishi Outlander
http://media.mitsubishicars.com/channels/2016-Outlander/photos?la=1
2016 Mitsubishi Outlander SEL
Sunday Drive
By Craig and Deanne Conover
The car maker that previously brought the industry- the ever so sexy 300GT and more recently the Lancer Evolution street racing machine that will finish out its run this year with a final 1500 numbered vehicles, has now furnished us with a very updated version of their midsized Outlander SUV. It seems to us that since 2008 Mitsubishi has pretty much sat on the sidelines and watched while other manufactures have brought forth many new concepts and vehicles, especially in the SUV market.
Instead of continuing to sit and watch as other move forward, the designers and engineers at Mitsubishi have come up with over 100 improvements to the Outlander in this 2016 mid-cycle refresh, most of which have caught the attention of the automotive world and have most folks looking now at Mitsubishi as a competitor again in the marketplace. In fact, they have added a new moniker to the SUV calling it now a CUV or Compact Utility Vehicle.
The Outlander still is one of the smallest ‘CUV’s’ to sport a third row of seating, although it still remains very cramped in the third seat and Mitsubishi themselves have termed it “emergency seating”. During our test drive we found it to be very lacking in space for adults, but would be adequate for smaller kids in a growing family.
When the Outlander arrived the first question out of our son JaCoby’s mouth was “cool, that car that comes with a huge subwoofer”, and indeed the Rockford Fosgate sound system did have a subwoofer included. Something that seems to be very important with the millennial generation, and of course…. would his phone hook up? The two most important questions when looking for a new car as we have come to know with our kids, how will their tunes sound in the car and can they stream wirelessly.
Being that there are over 100 improvements in this New Year of Outlander, it would be very hard to list them all, so it will have to do that we hit some of the most noticeable ones that caught our eye during the week, as we did have the opportunity to have the 2015 Outlander for a week a little over a year ago.
The first thing that came to our attention on the inside during our initial drive with the new vehicle was the touch screen and its placement front and center in the dash. Mitsubishi has changed many of the interior materials and it was especially apparent with the screen as it looks far more sophisticated than in the past, even though it was the same 6.1 inch screen. The buttons had been changed and navigating the system was much easier, along with the new sleek polished black surround around the screen.
A lot of attention has been paid to the redesign of the interior of the Outlander as many of the hard plastic surfaces have disappeared to be replaced by other softer items; all areas we expected to encounter soft touch materials now have them. This included the dashboard cover, tops of the door seals and armrests they have also included some great white over stitching on the dash of the SEL model. The entire look of the cabin was, we had to agree, more than we would have expected in what has been billed as a cost effective SUV.
With the Outlander Mitsubishi really wants to appeal to the younger demographic of families that need a larger vehicle to get them and all their equipment around, yet still don’t quite have the means to afford that SUV with 4-wheel drive, Bluetooth and other options that might just be out of reach. They have accomplished this with the new Outlander as most options come standard, we would not have expected at its price point.
For example the 4-wheel drive system that has been cultivated through the companies rally racing sports division, and all the competitions that they have been in involved with. It was first introduced into the Lancer Evolution in 2001, and was later upgraded in the EVO to Super All Wheel Control in the 2007 model. Mitsubishi then started putting it into their 4- wheel drive vehicles to realize the maximum control of all four tires by sending the right amount of power to each at the right time under the right circumstances. This seems to be a very complicated way of saying… this will be one of the best 4- wheel drive systems for the money in this class of vehicle.
A short stint up Hobble Creek Canyon to test the Outlander on some unpaved roads proved to us that this compact SUV had what was needed to get around with the four-wheel drive or AWC, engaged and working. This would be especially helpful in some of our Utah snow storms as getting around in the Outlander would not be a problem.
The second row of seats are now much easier to flip forward through the pulling of a tab which caused the seat bottom to flip forward, followed by the headrest flipping down and then finally the seat folds forward, it is much better than the previous editions which required more steps to make this happen. There is also ample storage in the rear for a family on the go with 10.3 cubic feet with all seats up, that increases to 34.2 with the third row down and then to a massive 63.3 cubic feet with all the seat laying flat.
Outside there have been some changes up front with what is called the ‘Dynamic Shield’ which is a fancy new name for the front end of the Outlander where they have used a unique blend of black plastic, and chrome to hatch a better looking front, that now incorporates halogen headlamps and LED daytime running lights, with the back end getting LED tail lamps as well.
A thick garnish has been added to the bottom of the doors to give them a new more ‘macho’ look if you will, and along with other addition they now close with a much more solid “thunk”, this is a good thing in the auto world! 18- inch wheels are also now standard across the line where before they were an upgrade.
On the power side there was not much of a change here, with most Outlanders coming with a 2.4- liter 4- cylinder engine that produces 166 horsepower and 162 ft.-lbs. of torque. This is not going to put anyone back in the seat, and it was not meant to, gas mileage is the bottom line for this SUV and doing the best that it can was the goal at Mitsubishi. A newly improved continuously variable transmission has been added and we felt that it work far better than the previous version, although it still takes 10.2 seconds to get to 60 mph.
Being at the top of its class in MPG, as we tested it at 26.5 combined in over 200 miles of driving, most of that in the city. EPA puts it at 24 city 29 highway, so we felt pretty good about our experience since at least 80 percent of our ride was on city streets, and we were up 1 mpg over our last experience with the Outlander.
Rated as a five star safety pick, Mitsubishi has done many things right and with addition of touring package. We enjoyed lane departure warning, forward collision alert and adaptive cruise control along with navigation, rain sensing wipers, power folding side mirrors and a power lift gate. The Outlander is one of the safest SUV’s on the road.
We enjoyed our week with the new Outlander Sport and loved the way it handled and had enough storage in the back for even the largest grocery trip, even worked for Deanne on a Costco run. See one today at Cougar Mitsubishi in Orem, 273 South State, 801-225-6866.
Base Price: $26,995
Price as driven: $32,245
