Mitsubishi Outlander LS 2015 Review

Love it or hate it – and most people seem to be of the latter view – there’s no doubt how much attention the ‘it’s a Mitsi’ advertising tagline is generating.

Appropriately it doesn’t have quite the macho bravura of ‘I bought a Jeep’, accurately reflecting a less defined brand image for Mitsubishi, which not that long ago was one of four car companies that built passengers cars here. Remember the 380?

That’s was then. Nowadays Mitsubishi is an importer and has declared its interest lies in SUVs ahead of passenger cars, a preference which certainly strikes a chord in Australia these days.

So it’s only a minor surprise we’re already road testing the facelift of the latest generation Outlander medium SUV barely two years into its life. After all, if this is the area where Mitsubishi’s is concentrating, then it makes sense to pay more attention to it than it has to the weary and ageing Lancer small car.

This is no lame decorative effort either. Outside there a quite substantial facelift led by the new Dynamic Shield corporate snout. Under the more expressive skin there’s a mechanical overhaul that’s aimed at making the car a better and more refined drive.

We’re testing the cheapest model in the range, the 2.0-litre front-wheel drive, five-speed (yes five-speed) manual LS. Let’s just mull that for a second. The Outlander LS is the one of only a handful of SUVs around this size that still go with five speeds, and most of them are ageing. It’s a sign of the financially tight times at Mitsubishi and – as you will read further along – it does affect this car.

Previously the LS was badged ES and along with the badge change has come a significant kick-up in equipment and a $750 price rise.

That puts it at $28,490 before the various on-road costs, which is $1300 more than the equivalent and recently updated Mazda CX-5, $1500 more than the about to be superseded Hyundai ix35 Series II, $500 more than the new Nissan X-TRAIL and $1000 more than the perennially popular Toyota RAV4. The Subaru Forester – which is all-wheel drive only – starts at $29,990.

Without being too bold, it’s easy to suggest that this price positioning ensures there are deals to be had on the Outlander.

To help compensate for being one of the more ‘expensive’ buys in the category, the new LS joins the rest of the range in adding revised 18-inch alloy wheels, LED daytime running lamps, LED rear combination lights, a rear foglight, a new design steering wheel and upgraded seats as well as the aforementioned mechanical changes.

LS-specific upgrades include privacy glass, side turn lights in door mirrors, a chrome belt line moulding and new fabric for the seats.

That lot join Bluetooth with voice command, reversing sensors and a camera, single-zone climate control, cruise control, seven airbags including driver’s knee, hill-start assist, stability and traction control and a full-size alloy spare tyre mounted on an alloy wheel.

The braked towing capacity is 1600kg and the warranty is five years and 100,000km, dipping from the old five years and 130,000km.

From this price-leader model the Outlander range heads upwards through XLS and Exceed model grades, offering the choice of 2.4-litre petrol and 2.2-litre turbo-diesel engines along the way, as well as all-wheel drive, automatic transmission (CVT for petrol, six-speed for diesel) and a third row with two kid-only seats.

Pricing tops out at $46,490 for the Exceed diesel (only AWD, only auto), which is actually a $400 drop from its predecessor.

Back down at the starting point, the initial external impression of the Outlander is somewhat angry thanks too that new snout. But it’s misleading. The Outlander LS drives with a blandness common to the class – think X-TRAIL, RAV4 levels of vanilla and you are getting the picture.

There’s nothing especially good or bad about what it does. The best of the experience is a result of the effort put into making the Outlander quieter via initiatives that include a revised door-seal structure, a modified intake system for the engine, additional damping materials, acoustic windscreen glass, modified tyres and damper tuning.

And it really does help the isolation of the cabin from various ugly noises, making the Outlander a more pleasant place to be.

Of course the driver is already feeling pretty isolated via the numb electric-assist steering. Mitsubishi says it’s revised but it still seems vacant, except for the tug when turning and accelerating – especially on greasy surfaces, a classic front-wheel drive trait. A small 10.6m turning circle is great for round town work.

At low speed the retuned MacPherson strut (front) and multi-link (rear) suspension combine with body reinforcements and 18-inch 225/55-series Goodyear Eagle rubber to make the ride a tad too stiff and the rear jump around over mid-corner bumps as the pace rises. It’s not as if this tautness has turned the Outlander into a sporting drive. The focus is on safe understeer if corner entry speed is too high.

Not that you are ever liable to get anywhere in too much of a hurry. Producing an unchanged 110kW and 190Nm, the 1998cc four-cylinder engine copes reasonably well with hauling the relatively lithe 1410kg (kerb mass) LS along. It’s actually quite responsive but only up to a point and a lot of that can be attributed to the five-speed’s short gearing.

The downside comes in top gear at 100km/h, with the Outlander is buzzing along at near 3000rpm. That has a deleterious effect on fuel economy, which is claimed at 7.0L/100km on regular unleaded, but came out at 9.0L during our week of test driving. By comparison Mitsubishi claims the optional CVT which has had some work done, averages 6.7L.

Most likely, most people will surely pay the extra $2000 for the CVT, even though the manual’s throw is neat enough and the clutch malleable. Incidentally, we have also sampled a 2.4-litre CVT Outlander XLS recently and thought its soft throttle calibration actually stopped it from feeling any friskier than the base model.

Move inside the Outlander LS and the best part is the amount of space it offers front and rear for full size adults. The luggage area offers a merely acceptable 477 litres of stowage, but that opens up to a more spacious 1608 litres with row two split-folded. Disappointingly, there is no security blind to hide your stuff.

Up-front the driver gets manual adjustment of both the steering wheel (height and reach) and the flat-ish seat (fore-aft, height), so you should be able to find a decent driving position. The external mirrors are big, but the media screen is set too low in the centre stack, there are no door grabs (but there are overhead grabs) and the surfaces are all quite hard, although they look better in piano black. The number of button blanks spread through the dash and console remind you that you are in the starter car.

Storage options include a large glovebox, door pockets front and rear, cup and bottle holders and one seatback pocket.

What it all boils down to is this: the Outlander provides good interior space, a quiet cabin and a small turning circle – all things that will help you live with it on a day-to-day basis. But fuel economy combined with the manual gearbox is a question mark, while there’s no doubt the drive experience is uninspired. So ‘it’s a Mitsi’. Hopefully there are better Mitsis to come.