Mitsubishi Outlander 2021 Review

Are the confronting looks of the 2021 Mitsubishi Outlander mid-size SUV a truly smart play from the Japanese car company?

The Outlander competes in a lucrative segment of the market contested by a plethora of very similar wagons. Almost all are front- or all-wheel drive, have four-cylinder (usually petrol) engines, automatic transmissions and five or seven seats.

The Outlander ticks all those boxes, but has maybe carved itself a niche by being so different externally that it is rememberable.

Anyway, we’ll leave you to settle on your favourite adjective that fits the Outlander’s looks and just concentrate on what it offers you.

There are five model grades, four of them standard with seven seats, carryover models go up in price at least $2000 and there are two new models, the Aspire and the flagship Exceed Tourer we are testing here.

Replacing a model first seen in 2012, the new Outlander is now a technical close relation of the Nissan X-TRAIL. It is underpinned by the Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi Alliance CMF-CD platform and the sole engine on offer is the alliance’s 2.5-litre petrol four-cylinder mated with an eight-step continuously variable transmission (CVT) and front- or all-wheel drive.

The old Outlander’s 2.4 and 2.0-litre petrol and 2.2-litre turbo-diesel engines have gone, along with the manual gearbox.

The plug-in hybrid Outlander PHEV will be launched in Australia early in 2022.

The Mitsubishi Outlander Exceed Tourer comes standard with seven seats and all-wheel drive, which is modestly labelled Super-All Wheel Control (S-AWC).

Standard Exceed Tourer equipment includes 20-inch alloy wheels, roof rails, a hands-free power tailgate and exclusive two-tone body colour. The latter is complemented inside by a two-tone black/tan leather interior and driver and front passenger seat massaging. Both features are exclusive to the Exceed Tourer.

Other stuff includes tri-zone climate control, a panoramic sunroof, front seat power, heating and memory, Bose audio, a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, 9.0-inch touch-screen, wireless smartphone charging and Apple CarPlay connection, wired Android Auto, USB ports front and rear, keyless entry and engine start, and a head-up display.

Despite its standard AWD, only a space-saver spare tyre is found under the boot floor, which is underwhelming considering this car does have some off-road aspirations.

Impressively, the new Outlander family comes with a warranty that can cover it up to 10 years and 200,000km. There’s also a 10-year capped-price service plan that adds up to a very affordable $3190, but you have to service at a Mitsubishi dealer to tap into this deal.

As this review was written we were still waiting to hear whether the new 2021 Mitsubishi Outlander collects a five-star ANCAP rating. Blame COVID for that delay.

Mitsubishi is pushing the safety spec of the new Outlander very hard, but it does fall short by offering curtain airbags that cover only the first two seat rows.

Officially, that’s because the third-row seats are for only occasional use. Try using that argument with a parent of young kids who always want to travel in row three.

A likely reason for the curtain shortfall is the CMF-CD platform doesn’t appear to be designed to accommodate three-row airbags. The Outlander is not alone with this problem. The Kia Sorento was good enough to win carsales Car of the Year despite it.

The Outlander does include several safety firsts for Mitsubishi including lane departure prevention, driver attention alert and traffic sign recognition.

Outlander firsts include rear autonomous emergency braking (AEB), hill descent control, trailer stability assist and adaptive driving beam for the LED headlights. It has eight airbags including a centre airbag between the front seats.

The Outlander’s AEB system operates at up to 144km/h and detects pedestrians day or night and cyclists during the day.

There are two ISOFIX mounts in row two outboard seats and three child seat top tethers.

The lane assist function does not include self-centring active steering assist or automated parking assist. The warning tone for lane departure was switched off after about 30 seconds of driving because it was so annoying.

The new 2021 Mitsubishi Outlander is overdue because Mitsubishi joined the Renault-Nissan Alliance in 2016.

Existing plans for a new model were scrapped and it was migrated onto the monocoque CMF-CD platform and swapped to Nissan’s 135kW/245Nm 2.5-litre naturally-aspirated engine (codenamed PR25DD) and its eight-step CVT auto.

Mitsubishi says it applied its own tune to the direct-injection engine, which will also come to Australia in the new-generation Nissan X-TRAIL next year.

Mated to S-AWC, the engine claims an 8.1L/100km fuel consumption average running on 91 RON unleaded. This is a significant climb over the old 124kW/220Nm 2.4 and six-step CVT, which claimed 7.2L/100km.

Increased weight is a culprit here. The old Outlander Exceed flagship weighed in at 1610kg, while the new Exceed Tourer is 1760kg. That’s a fair amount of extra heft to haul about.

Extra equipment is one cause of that, but the new Outlander is also bigger in all key dimensions than its predecessor. It’s 15mm longer (4710mm), 52mm wider (1862mm), 35mm taller (1745mm) and 36mm longer in the wheelbase (2706mm).

It also has slightly better ground clearance at 210mm (+20mm) and the same turning circle (10.6m). Braked towing capacity is 1600kg.

The luggage space is also improved, expanding from 163 litres to 478L to 1473L as (third- and second-row) seats are folded.

The Super-All Wheel Control system is on-demand, bringing the rear wheels into play via a new electronically-controlled hydraulic multi-plate clutch. The system, which also retunes throttle and steering feel, can be tuned through six different modes by the driver to suit road (and off-road) conditions.

Rear wheel brake control is added to Mitsubishi’s active yaw system, which acts like a limited-slip differential on the rear axle.

The new Outlander has electric-assist rack and pinion steering, rolls on a combination of MacPherson strut (front) and multi-link (rear) suspension and is braked by a combination of 350mm ventilated discs up front and 330mm solid discs at the rear.

There is no doubt the 2021 Mitsubishi Outlander Exceed Tourer is a significant improvement over its predecessor when it comes to the driving.

Right from the start there are positive signs. It’s easy to get comfortable because the quilted leather driver’s seat is deep and supportive and the steering wheel adjusts for reach and rake.

The interior presentation – yep, acknowledged we’re judging by the flagship here – is a huge uplift compared to the old car. There’s little of the divisiveness you get outside. The horizontal themes work nicely and are emphasised by the two-tone trim.

All that’s backed up by plenty of storage choices up front and a relatively straight-forward set of controls. The digital instrument panel actually looks very analogue. It really could be a bit more Flash Gordon.

The touch-screen did all that’s expected of it and is a significant step up from previous Mitsubishi efforts.

Row two delivers some nice touches such as climate controls and a plethora of seat-back pockets, but it didn’t feel optimised.

Look, there is decent space depending on how you slide the seat base, but even scrunching yourself forward into the front buckets isn’t going to give much room over to row three.

It’s hard to access, too squeezy for anyone other than small kids and has the further, admittedly minor, annoyance of having to remove the head restraints each time you want to raise or lower the third-row seats.

Mitsubishi is right – those third-row seats are very much occasional. At least there’s sizeable boot space with them out of the way.

If you’re a family buyer keen on travelling to the Aussie Outback, then bring all the kids with you when checking it out, just to make sure everyone is comfortable.

Anyway, back to the driving. The positive impressions continue once you get rolling.

The new Outlander really does handle very calmly; it turns into corners cleanly and without early-onset understeer, sits pretty flat with a well-tethered body and steers accurately.

On the right road, it’s actually enjoyable to drive.

Emphasis on the ‘right road’ though. It has to be relatively smooth because when the going gets a bit rugged the big wheels and low-ish profile 255/45R20 rubber smash into potholes with a wincing level of shock.

There’s a tendency for the rear-end to dance a bit of a jog on corrugated corners.

This is a real discouragement to travelling on gravel roads, which often tend to be rougher than bitumen. Still, we ventured beyond the black stuff and the S-AWC hooked up and did its job efficiently.

Interestingly, there was no localised suspension and steering tuning of the new Outlander, which based on this experience is a bit of an oversight. Clearly, in days of yore when it was a local manufacture, this was something Mitsubishi did very well. Cars like the Magna and 380 were very comfy cars in Australian conditions.

The Exceed Tourer clearly has had plenty of sound deadening thrown at it because it’s quiet in the cabin.

That’s handy because the drivetrain does tend to get revved a bit in the way that just happens when a naturally-aspirated engine and CVT are combined.

It’s a better combination than you might expect looking at the specs, something aided by the stepped way the auto operates, reducing the feeling the engine is always tapped out.

The CVT ensures that when you hit the throttle there is response, which helps when having to make a decisive thrust to enter busy city traffic flows. The gear is selected by a stubby lever on the centre console and manual changing is only available via flappy paddles.

And one final validation for the drivetrain, it actually undercut the official fuel consumption claim – only narrowly at 8.0L/100km – to demonstrate its efficiency.

Based on what we’ve experienced so far via the new Exceed Tourer flagship, there’s no doubt the 2021 Mitsubishi Outlander is significantly improved.

It feels better both to drive and sit in without being anything revolutionary.

That bit’s left to the divisive, debatable exterior. It bins the logical progress made elsewhere to make a bold statement. Too bold for me, but each to his own, I guess.

Because of the price point, the Exceed Tourer itself isn’t that compelling and Mitsubishi acknowledges it won’t be a big seller.

It will be great when we get the chance to test model grades lower down the price list to see what most people will be shopping for and how they stack up.

How much does the 2021 Mitsubishi Outlander Exceed Tourer cost?
Price: $49,990 (plus on-road costs)
Available: Now
Engine: 2.5-litre four-cylinder petrol
Output: 135kW/245Nm
Transmission: Continuously variable automatic
Fuel: 8.1L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 185g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Not tested