Summary
Overall I'm pleased so far. The 2.2 diesel engine is smooth, powerful and economical. The car is quiet, comfortable, spacious and economical for a largish car that will tow up to 2000Kg.
Only the built in touch screen navigation system really lets it down – with a clunky interface, outdated maps and no postcode compatibility – worse than my low expectations for built-in navigation, which I wouldn't have added as an extra had it not been bundled with the equipment level.
The details -
Mitsubishi calls the diesel engine in the Outlander a “2.2 DI-D”. Actually there are now two different engines, the 2179cc Ford/PSA with 154bhp/280Nm also found in the similar Citroen C-Crosser and Peugeot 4007, and the new 2268cc Mitsubishi 4N14 diesel with “MIVEC” variable inlet valve timing and lift. As well as being more powerful with 174bhp/380Nm, the MIVEC diesel is more economical and in my opinion quieter than the PSA engine.
Versions with the SST twin-clutch auto flappy-paddle gearbox still get the PSA engine. For 2011MY, the manual transmission cars get the new MIVEC one. That was a factor in choosing the six-speed manual that I have now owned for two weeks and about 1,000 miles. A friend runs a diesel C-Crosser, and his experience of real world economy with that engine is well below the official combined figure of 40.4mpg. The Outlander MIVEC diesel claims 43.6mpg combined, and so far that looks achievable, with a brim-to-brim figure of 41 on the first refill.
The MIVEC diesel of course has a DPF. This is 'regenerated' by injecting extra fuel, some of which can end up in the oil – sounds familiar? The dipstick has an 'X' some way above the full mark, and should the oil level reach it, the car has to have an oil change. Service interval is a very low 9,000 miles, compared with 12,000 for the PSA engine, presumably largely because of the potential for oil dilution.
Happily the engine has a timing chain, with no scheduled replacement requirement, unlike the PSA engine which needs a belt change at 75,000m.
There are 3 settings for the transmission – 2WD, 4WD Auto, in which typically 30% of torque goes to the rear wheels, and 4WD Lock which distributes a higher proportion of torque to the back. It's all electronically controlled and can be switched on the move using a rotary control on the centre console. In theory, in 4WD Auto or Lock, it should perform better than the on-demand systems found in rival models which need to see some front wheel slip before sending drive to the rear wheels.
Performance is brisk and feels very sure-footed, at least in the dry and in 2WD – I haven't seen much rain in the last 2 weeks, only just enough to test the operation of the automatic wipers. The engine is quiet, and while some reviews complain of road noise, it seems fairly subdued to me. Steering is positive and direct and the car changes direction very smartly, without undue body roll or drama. The handling presumably benefits from the Outlander being a little lower than most rivals, assisted by a weight-saving aluminium roof, meaty-looking anti-roll bars and a front strut brace.
I picked up the car with 6 miles on the clock, and immediately embarked on a 140 mile drive. The ride is certainly not “magic carpet”, but it is acceptable in the context of relatively good handling and, though I was surprised and disappointed by the ride initially, it improved dramatically when I reduced the tyre pressures from 37 to the recommended 32psi. The GX4 has 18” wheels with 225/55R18 tyres, not too silly, but I think I would have preferred higher profile tyres even if the out and out handling might have been slightly compromised.
In addition to the auto-wipers, the GX4 also has auto-lights, cruise control, climate control, leather seats, electric glass tilt and slide sunroof, xenon headlights, the now essential turning lights mounted just inboard of the headlights, rear parking sensors and a reversing camera.
Boot space is very good at 590 litres up to the window line with 5 seats in use. The boot floor conceals a further two fold out seats, but frankly they will be a waste of space and weight for most people, including me – not just because I don't need 7 seats, but because they are only suitable for very small people or young children – even then, they look very thinly padded and uncomfortable. They also create the only rattle on the car and I will look into removing them.
The second row seats can be moved back and forth to maximise leg room (more than adequate in the rearward position) or luggage space. They also have adjustable rake.
The drivers seat has electric adjustment including height and tilt, but no memory. The front passenger seat has no electrics and only fore-and-aft and rake adjustments. The steering wheel has height adjustment but not reach. As it happens the reach is fine for me, but at the price the lack of adjustable reach is disappointing.
What should be the piece de resistance is the only real let down. That is the all singing and dancing multimedia navigation and audio system. On the plus side, it has the probably the best sound I have heard from an OEM system, at least when carefully tweaked with the sound controls, including turning down the boot mounted sub-woofer.
On the minus side, it has a 40GB HDD “music server”. That should be a good thing, but unfortunately the implementation of it is poor. Short of some sort of hack, the only way to load this with music is to feed it CDs, which it will then rip at 4x speed. To fill it (and I do have 40GB of MP3s) would mean sitting in the car for several days and nights. Album and track details are added from the Gracenote database stored on the HDD, which was of course going out of date from the minute the image was created. I dread to think how long it would take to add catalogue details manually. A much better approach which I am following is to buy a 32GB USB stick, add the MP3s to it with a few clicks, and plug that in to the USB socket. That works quite well, and can be browsed at folder / album / song level and displays all the artists, album and song titles -so what's the HDD for anyway?
The USB connection is also supposed to work with an iPod. It did, for a while, but it now refuses to 'see' the iPod, and tries and fails to read it as an ordinary USB drive. Apparently this is not unusual either.
The coup de grace from this frustrating device is the navigation - the last map update was in 2009, and it will not accept UK postcodes either – just an address. The next update is due in 2012. So I find myself carrying a £100 Garmin as a back up.
It should play DVDs when stationary, but I haven't much use for that function and haven't tried it yet.
The top trim Outlander at a list price of over £29,000 including metallic paint is more expensive than the Citroen and the Peugeot equivalents, though you'd need to add extras to them to match the equipment level of the Outlander GX4. In all probability you could probably still get a better net price on the C-Crosser given the deals available on Citroens, but you would then be limited to the PSA engine.
Overall the Outlander meets my expectations, with the exception of the multimedia/navigation gadget – an embarrassment for Mitsubishi in my opinion, and the fact that none of the professional reviews I have read even hints at it shows the limitations of relying on them. I still hope to crack the iPod issue and get the maps updated (sometime).
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