2022 Mitsubishi Outlander Exceed review

For the last ten years, it has been my solemn duty to inform people that the Mitsubishi Outlander was not a good car. It had its moments, like with the introduction of the PHEV, a sub-$30K starting price and er, well, that’s it. I have variously described the driving experience as tedious, melancholy and awful.

Perhaps compounding my displeasure with Mitsubishi was the fact that it used to be much better than the Outlander (and Mirage and ASX and Eclipse Cross). It used to be a company that made interesting, fascinating and just plain brilliant cars. Yes, the original Magna was good and way better than some of the dross falling out of Elizabeth and Broadmeadows at the time during the 1990s.

The brand used to be synonymous with the World Rally Championship. For nearly ten years it has been more synonymous with dreary, cheap transport. That’s a big, fast fall. It made me cross, even though the reasons for that fall weren’t all deliberate. Mitsubishi knows better, I tell people.

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It turns out that all the company needed was to be introduced to a lovely couple known as Renault and Nissan. Being able to rummage through the Alliance’s technology portfolio meant the Outlander’s geriatric platform could be sent off to the back paddock, or at least restricted to its smaller SUVs.

Access to a whole bunch of new technology without all that pesky payment of billions of dollars to get it (or at least, a 66 per cent discount) meant the company could get on with building a fresh new car to take on the mid-sized SUV segment. And with one that’s nearly a segment bigger.

Pricing and Features

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While the Outlander range kicks of at $34,490 before on-road costs, we find ourselves $13,500 away in the Exceed, priced at $47,990 + ORC ($51,490 drive-away). That’s $4000 more than the previous Exceed petrol, which is a lot, but I think it might be worth it.

Before we go through the features, it’s worth noting that the new Outlander is a significantly larger machine. Longer, taller and most importantly, wider, it’s not the slim-hipped, knock-kneed car it used to be. It’s also much heavier, but we’ll worry about that later.

Amusingly, Mitsubishi included a reference to weight-saving measures in the launch press release, which means it could have been even chunkier. It seems like Alliance partner Renault got into Mitsubishi's ear and sang the praises of plastic guards.

As you near fifty grand, you get handsome 20-inch alloys, 10 Bose-branded speakers, three-zone climate control, reversing camera, around-view cameras, keyless entry and start, front and rear parking sensors, adaptive cruise control, glass roof (above the front and middle rows), sat-nav, auto LED headlights, heated front seats, head-up display, partial leather interior, powered tailgate, auto wipers, wireless charging and a space-saver spare.

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The media system and sat nav run courtesy of a 9.0-inch touchscreen with graphics by Mr Blobby. It’s an okay system, but wireless Apple CarPlay and USB Android Auto make it all worthwhile. The screen is bright and very useable, with good contrast and, fundamentally, it’s way better than the old one, barring the chintzy physical controls on the bezel.

It’s loaded with safety gear, too. Eight airbags, including a driver’s knee bag and a front centre airbag (to prevent head clashes in a side impact), the usual braking and stability controls, forward auto emergency braking (AEB), forward collision warning, reverse AEB, reverse cross-traffic alert, lane departure warning, lane keep assist and speed sign recognition.

The forward AEB works at high and low speeds and features pedestrian avoidance.

From the rear and side, I think it’s a handsome car … It looks thoroughly modern and, like the interior, is going to get people talking.

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Frustratingly for a seven-seater (okay, 5+2), the curtain airbags do not reach the third row (as they don’t in the Kia Sorento and Hyundai Santa Fe) and nor does the third row have any child seat anchors, which I guess is fair enough without airbags.

At the time of writing, ANCAP was yet to provide its assessment.

We probably need to consider the looks. From the rear and side, I think it’s a handsome car. Probably a little big looking for my liking but that’s subjective. It looks thoroughly modern and, like the interior, is going to get people talking. They’ll mostly be talking about that big bluff chromed snout, though. Cards on the table, it’s A Lot.

Depending on the direction of the breeze, I either like Dynamic Shield or think it’s too self-consciously masculine and overdone. I think some de-chroming would work wonders on the Outlander but I think it’s less about the chrome itself and more the shapes.

Hyundai and Kia are having a lot of fun with their front ends, why can’t Mitsubishi? I think it will, in time, settle in and we won’t talk about it, much as we won’t be worrying too much about the BMW penchant for big grilles.

Comfort and Space

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Mitsubishi calls the new car a 5+2, meaning that there are five seats humans can fit in and two jump seats in the back for, well, I don’t know. Whatever Yoda is, I guess, because he has really short legs. He’d be reasonably (if fictionally) happy in the third row but it’s hard to see how you could fit anyone with legs. You can slide the middle row fore and

aft by quite a distance, but it just means you’d have to move the old Jedi master to the middle row and irritate whoever you put in the third row. You can’t even put child seats back there because there aren’t any top tether anchors and nor are there ISOFIX points back there. That’s to add to the curtain airbags failing to reach.

So, basically, the seats are there to rob some boot space. On the upside, the tiny windows reminded me of an Apollo space capsule’s porthole.

The rear seats don’t come with retractable headrests, they stow under the floor with the tools. You’ll also find that to access the space-saver, you remove the tool tray and lift the jump seats out of the way. Not great if you’re on holiday with a full boot, but at least the wheel will be clean when you get to it.

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There are, however, five other seats that are very comfortable and very good in the Outlander. The middle row is broader than the old one, so three across is a more distinct possibility. Here in the Exceed, the sunroof takes a massive bite out of headroom, meaning that a six-footer’s head clearance is rendered marginal. The seats themselves are exceedingly comfortable, however, and a big leap on the old car. There is also a third climate control zone for the rear seats.

Second-row room is significantly better than before because the wheelbase is much longer at 2706mm (an increase of 36mm) and a hefty 51mm wider. It’s now bigger than the ASX’s rear seat and the reason it used to be the same size is that the Outlander was just an ASX with longer overhangs.

Materials throughout are quite pleasant. The leather is either mostly or all fake, but perfectly nice. The fake carbonfibre isn’t overbearing and there are few missteps.

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The front seats are even better. Broad without being slippy or unsupportive, the front is a good place to be. You sit very high over the traffic, which some people like, and the long, broad bonnet has a bit of a Range Rover feel about it.

Front and middle rows each have two cup holders and a bottle holder in each door. The cup holders in the rear are a bit silly, though – the 40:20:40 split-fold bench is a welcome bit of practicality but you have to fold down the 20 section to get to the cupholders.

The boot is a competitive if not outstanding 478 litres (just seven fewer than the base model five-seat-only ES, thoroughly rinsed by the VW Tiguan), or a maximum of 1461 litres with the seats down.

Materials throughout are quite pleasant. The leather is either mostly or all fake, but perfectly nice. The fake carbonfibre isn’t overbearing and there are few missteps. Scott Newman reported the chrome surround for the slightly novel auto shifter dazzled him in sunlight but given the lengthy cloudy period we endured while (mostly) enjoying the Outlander, I can’t confirm. It is a great looking interior and a long-awaited return to form for the once-innovative Japanese company.

On the Road

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A lot is really good about this new Outlander. One thing that isn’t good and doesn’t fit with the massive improvement is the fact that you still get a 2.5-litre naturally aspirated four-cylinder engine, which Mitsubishi assures us is newly developed.

In itself, that's not a big drama, but to shift a chunky 1760kg (up more than 200kg from the previous heaviest Outlander) you probably want more than 135kW and fairly weedy 245Nm. While both of those numbers are better than the outgoing 2.4, they’re not really pushing the envelope.

That kind of torque figure might be fine for a car a class down, but if you load this thing up with kids and stuff and a trailer, you’re going to need a sundial for the 0-100km/h figure. Ah, you say, what about the diesel? Well, it’s dead Jim (if you’re name’s not Jim, don’t worry, it’s still dead) and the PHEV is still a few months away if you want more torque and/or better fuel economy.

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Speaking of which, the official 8.1L/100km figure looks exceedingly optimistic. I have a personal rule about ADR figures, which states that if you can get within 30 per cent of the claim, you’re doing okay.

Mitsubishi’s own ASX can’t get anywhere close to its claimed consumption number, sinking 12.5L/100km every time I drive one. That car has shared a driveway with twin-turbo V8 sportscars that don’t use that much under similar conditions.

The Outlander impressed with a very reasonable 8.4L/100km in a very solid mix of town and freeway driving, so that’s a good win, especially as it’s happy on 91 RON petrol.

Still with us is the automatic continuously variable transmission (CVT) that I despised in the old car. It is much improved in the MY22 Outlander, with less flaring when you roll off a full-throttle application and it’s more eager to please than in the past.

It has a more positive feel off the lights, too, and while it can’t match the Hyundai/Kia CVT in the Kona/Seltos pair, it’s a big improvement. With shift-by-wire, you can “change gears” with the paddles that are sadly no longer the beautiful if incongruous aluminium items of the previous car.

Engineers programmed eight fixed ratios into the CVT but given how much better the transmission is, I didn’t use them for any other reason than novelty.

That kind of torque figure might be fine for a car a class down, but if you load this thing up with kids and stuff and a trailer, you’re going to need a sundial for the 0-100km/h figure.

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The six drive modes are unlikely to trouble too many owners but each has a slightly different effect on the updated Super All Wheel Control (S-AWC), a system made famous by the late, great Lancer Evolution series.

Whether or not they’re related is the subject of my deep suspicion of heavy SUVs claiming motorsport connections.

With updated Active Yaw Control and a revised hydraulically activated coupling, the new system behaved itself in grinding traffic, rain that would have had Noah racing for his old blueprints and during a spot of vigorous cornering.

Steering, one of my many complaints about the old car, is also much better. Light and direct, it’s dropped the slop and even sends the car into corners with a bit of keenness. It’s vastly better than the old car, which would heave itself onto its doorhandles at the first sign of a change in direction.

I don’t recall the all-wheel-drive system being particularly recalcitrant, so the improvements here are transparent, at least on the road. The rear suspension is also much more invested in its job, rather than just reluctantly holding the rear end off the ground. We’ll have to wait for a more thorough off-road rumble to test the majority of the drive programs’ worth.

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You will notice some body roll and the squishy brake pedal in the car I drove wasn’t exactly confidence-inspiring, but it’s truly a breath of fresh air after a dreary decade of the last car. Less of a breath of fresh air is the sometimes chippy ride in urban areas.

It could be the huge wheel and tyre combination or a swing-and-a-miss on the damping but either way, it's at odds with the otherwise plush vibe of the car. All of that fidgeting disappears on the highway, but it's something to note rather than worry about.

Ownership

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Mitsubishi’s headline act is – or was until this new Outlander came along – was a 10-year warranty. While you can’t pack in terms and conditions voiceover to an ad without sounding like an American pharmaceutical commercial, there are a few reasonable caveats.

Ten years is a good amount of time, but there is a troll at the bridge here. First is that it might be a 10-year warranty but it only covers 20,000km per year. If that’s your kind of usage pattern, you’re in great shape and I imagine that’s a good chunk of readers here. But there’s more than one question from the troll.

The second is that every service during that period must be with a Mitsubishi dealer. If you take it somewhere else during the first five years, your warranty reverts to a less generous but still reasonable five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty. If you do so after five years, the rest of the 10-year warranty is nuked.

Mitsubishi’s headline act is – or was until this new Outlander came along – was a 10-year warranty … Ten years is a good amount of time, but there is a troll at the bridge here.

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Luckily, there’s a pretty sensible 10-year capped-price servicing regime to keep you coming back for more, with service intervals every 12 months or 15,000km.

Seven of the 10 services are ridiculously Toyota-cheap at $199 but then there’s a bit of a shock at the sixth service that jumps to $499, as does the eighth, and then the last one is a not-inconsiderable $799. All 10 services still total at a fairly impressive $3190, or an average of $319 per service.

That’s excellent going if you’re not a high-miler. Actually, even if you are a high miler, 10 services for that price – even if it means the warranty finishing earlier – is good value. Knowing roughly what you’re going to pay for the long-term is good for those who hold on to their cars.

VERDICT

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The new Outlander is a whole new way of doing things for Mitsubishi. The old car was a cut-price hack-job, hopelessly outclassed by everything apart from the truly dire Holden Captiva. Vague steering, gasping 2.0 and 2.4-litre engines, its only saving grace was the price of the petrol versions and the PHEV’s efficiency and cleverness.

While it’s late to the party owing to Mitsubishi joining the Renault-Nissan Alliance, it has been worth the wait. It has transformed the Outlander from an “as if you would” to a “why not?”.

There are still a few bugs to iron out like the chippy urban ride on the 20-inch wheels and the unnervingly soft brake pedal, but it’s not a car I’d have to be held at gunpoint to own. And I don’t say that to damn it with faint praise, because it’s a whole lot better than that.

And given its size advantage over the rest of the medium SUV pack and the long warranty, there are plenty of good reasons to own one.

I have never, ever said that about an Outlander.

2022 Mitsubishi Outlander Exceed specification