The Outlander Sport: A Vehicle That Feels Like a Toy

Going to get old very quick now in terms of the way that it feels to steer and handle, I feel like this is one of the most synthetically feeling steering wheel. The way that they have the steering tuned, it really is truthful. This thing just feels like it's not even connected to the car. It feels like they literally just put what is this? The easiest and highest power motor we can put in here where you could steer it with a pinky. So if you're somebody that has limited upper body strength or you're somebody that has a difficult time physically turning a steering wheel, you might like the fact that this is so easy to maneuver. But I gotta tell you, it just feels like a children's toy when you're driving it. There's just not a lot of connection that you get with it.

I'm gonna launch it one more time and I'm gonna put this in all-wheel drive auto and see if it makes much of a difference. No, it really doesn't. I think if you're concerned about fuel economy, you want to switch four-wheel drive button and just put it into two-wheel drive mode. You're gonna get the best fuel efficiency, and for me, the best I've gotten in the cold is about 25 miles per gallon as soon as I switch it off two-wheel drive, I've noticed it dropped down about a mile per gallon. So that's something to talk about.

Really at the end of the day, there's nothing particularly exceptional and there's nothing particularly horrendous about this. It's average in every single capacity. There's a pretty decent amount of frontal room in the front, and I would say that's the only really good thing you don't have a sun or a moon roof in here, so you do feel like it's a pretty big cabin, and the sight lines are good.

But you know this is a very confusing car. I found myself driving it, putting things in the back transporting things at some point. I really enjoyed the simplicity how simple it felt compared to like early 2000s 90s cars. It made me feel nostalgic in that way. But if you're buying this as a new vehicle, it becomes a very difficult thing. There's just no way that you would get behind the wheel of this and be like "Oh, I gotta have it." It just doesn't have that "gotta have it" feel.

Final Thoughts on the Outlander Sport

When I saw this was on the calendar, I almost canceled it because I thought there's no possible way I could have anything positive to say about it. And I've had to do a lot of thinking about what I could bring to the table. The good and the bad, what it is and what it's not.

After driving this, you know, there's a couple vehicles that come to mind. Something like the Chevy Trax and Ford Ecosport, which I think are total waste of money boxes. They're built so to a price point that you would not possibly want them long term. This one, though, is MSRP-wise it's like pushing 30 for the fully loaded one, but the discounts are so steep they have zero percent financing, the leases are good on them, and this has been around for so long that you look at the reliability of them, that's what you're buying this for. It is a simple to service simple to work on the interior. There's nothing fancy about this. This is the closest thing that you're gonna get to like that 90s 2000s vehicle.

You're just you know, there's just not a lot of flair there's not a lot of fluff to this, and it's not that competitive with the new products that are on the market. I think that's the biggest negative. There's like you you're just kind of like the whole time you're around this but you know.

I will give them this; they stuck to what's tried and true in the Mitsubishi world. It is what it is, what you see is what you get here. And I think that's the big thing.

Testing the Audio

We tested the audio in here, and it was surprisingly not horrible. There's no bass at all, but the sound quality there's not a lot of harmonic distortion. I'll show you the charts; there's not a lot of like rattles or anything weird about that. So that's positive.

Really though, let's face it, you're probably going to buy this used because when you look at what they are used with a couple years and very little mileage on it, this is where this makes the most sense. If you're looking for more budget-friendly transportation that is just no nonsense, and that's it.

In conclusion, the Outlander Sport is a vehicle that feels like a toy, but in some ways, it's exactly what it's supposed to be – simple, reliable, and budget-friendly.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enyou've seen the outside it looks like a cuv doesn't it except mitsubishi does not particularly have that many vehicles in america anymore instead of going into the political or business reasons why i think that's the case it's time to talk about what this really is and it's gonna be hard for me to be objective about this because when you when you look at mitsubishi as a whole it's hard to fathom how they can compete in a market with so many products when there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of energy spent on trying to make this anything more than a budget option and it definitely when you look at the new price tag this outlander sport which is kind of the smaller cuv is almost 30 000 msrp now the reality is is most dealerships will sell this same thing for like 25 26 and when you look at used prices that's where it makes a lot more sense and i hate to say it but it's true there's 2018s and 2019s out there for like 15 16 17 000 with low miles and i think given the reliability history of how good mitsubishi's are and how simple this really is that might be the best option but before i get into all that let's talk about the interior space it's as basic as it comes and i think that's the only word i could come up with to describe the entire experience if you're someone that's coming from a 90s car an early 2000s car you're going to feel right at home there is no possible way that you could fathom that this is a car from the modern era knobs buttons and switches are all classic there's no like real digital touch or any fancy pants type stuff in here in a large part that's why it works so well i've driven this i've used it and i think this is about one of the most basic motoring experiences you can get on the market now the problem is of course most people do not want to spend this kind of money and not gets something that makes you feel like oh this is shiny and new because this does not feel that way everything has this old school like the plastics are very textured very hard very durable almost like you're in some type of industrial vehicle it definitely feels like it has a more industrial design to it although everything is very positive positive feedback the shifter your seat heater switches your traction control buttons everything has that solid clicky feel but there's just not a lot of quality there's not a lot of aesthetic design to this if you're somebody that like likes to fuss over the attention to detail that's not here the only good thing that i can really say is if you're a little bit bigger this definitely feels like a much larger space and you're going to get different body types in here because there's no moon roof there's no sunroof you definitely have more room to grow in here but other than that it is the most rudimentary style interior right down to the infotainment that is just as basic it looks like a it really does it looks like either a chinese knockoff or something that was designed for industrial use the only other thing to talk about is the hatch space is actually pretty good for the size of this for the proportions of it you can fit a ton of stuff back there the only thing like most of these types of cuvs is the load force floor is pretty high and then the actual load height is kind of your restriction point but other than that really i mean there's not much else to talk about in here so let's get this on the lift and see what the underbody looks like you wanted a real japanese experience well here you have it the mitsubishi outlander sport underneath it's more exposed than i am during happy hour and that's probably a good thing if you're somebody that's going to buy this and keep it for the long haul because if you want to do stuff like maintenance i can get to the oil filter without even jacking this up i know i'm not i'm not even exaggerating you put an arm under here it's right here about this far from the the under paneling your drain plug is right here again you don't even need to jack this thing up to get that off so again there is some things about this car despite some of the age of it or design age of it that makes it much more easy to live with in the long term there's nothing fancy about this everything's steel you can get to everything there's nothing esoteric or strange about it and that's probably why you would buy this mitsubishi but let's take a look at the back in the back of the outlander you're going to see a lot more of the same that you saw in the front it's all opened up back here everything is exposed and this is strange because when you see all the new vehicles everything has a cover over it plastic covers composite covers nothing is covered up here like those this looks more indicative of what you saw in a 2000s car or late 90s vehicle now the positive part is you can get at everything it's all exposed the negatives you're gonna have a lot more road noise wheel wells aren't covered underbody so basically everything's going to transmit into the cabin there's literally no nvh attempts here now the other part is you have an independent rear suspension again this is an older school looking design you have the longer trailing arm to the knuckle your lower control arm houses a shock absorber with a coil spring on it or a coilover design a lot of newer cars are separating the spring from the damper for packaging or just going to torsion beam to save money and cost this still has it which is good because it does help improve the ride the last thing is this has an all-wheel drive or an on-demand all-wheel drive setup which mitsubishi does something interesting here on the interior they give you an all-wheel drive button or four-wheel drive button that you can choose front wheel drive only all wheel drive auto where it will send power to the rear wheels when it needs it or detects slip or you can do four wheel drive lock which sends a certain amount of torque to the back which helps you in wet and snowy conditions it really propels you off the line and it works great in the snow as we've tested on previous mitsubishi vehicles but let's get this on the road because you're probably falling asleep like i am you've seen the underbody you've seen the interior exterior now it's time to take this for a spin so what do you hear you hear a cvt or continuously variable transmission connected to a 2.4 liter naturally aspirated motor now you get the 2.4 liter in the upper trim levels and the interesting part about the way that this cvt is set up is they didn't waste any time or engineering trying to make it seem like it's a torque converted automatic with gear changes or simulated gear changes it will hold where the engine is optimally tuned to make power so when you accelerate it's just going to kind of wind up to that peak rpm hold it there hold it there until you let off the throttle there's no kind of down steps up steps none of that stuff the only thing you can do with the transmission is put it in low which means if you're going downhill it gives you some sense of engine braking but this is exactly how cvt should behave and things that press and people complained about when they first were released that people did not like the rubber bandy sound so since mitsubishi is kind of well they're not kind of this is an old-school older vehicle you get the way that the transmission is supposed to behave and it's kind of a breath of fresh air after you get out of all the other normal cars that try to try to make it more than it is now the horsepower and the torque are fine out of the 2.4 liter you don't have the complexity of having a turbo you don't have the complexity of a lot of the newer engines and it the side effect is the biggest thing you're gonna notice driving this around objectively is it is insanely loud it is so buzzy there's no attempts at real nvh or noise reduction vibration reduction it's just it's always it's always inundated you inundating you with wind noise road noise everything and even when you get this thing out in the highway it tends to blow around a lot more than other cars i've driven now torque horsepower transmission performance it's all just kind of average there's nothing special about it but there's nothing that's really bad either ride quality is something that people want to know about and i feel like on normal pavement it feels pretty good on you kind of normal bumps and dips it's pretty well controlled it's only when you get over really bad pavement or sudden impacts it just kind of like hops and skips over pavement different bad payment it's really kind of annoying and i think if you need a softer ride or you're in in areas where the pavement is really bad this is going to get old very quick now in terms of the way that it feels to steer and handle i feel like this is one of the most synthetically feeling steering wheel like the way that they have the steering tuned and i hate to talk about steering but it really is truthful this thing just feels like it's not even connected to the car it feels like they literally just what is this the easiest and highest power motor we can put in here where you could steer it with a pinky so if you're somebody that has limited upper body strength or you're somebody that has a difficult time physically turning a steering wheel you might like the fact that this is so easy to maneuver but i gotta tell you it just feels like a children's toy when you're driving it there's just not a lot a lot of connection that you get with it i'm gonna launch it one more time and i'm gonna put this in all-wheel drive auto and see if it makes much of a difference no it really doesn't i think if you're concerned about fuel economy you want to switch four-wheel drive button and just put it into two-wheel drive mode you're gonna get the best fuel efficiency and for me the best i've gotten in the cold is about 25 miles per gallon as soon as i switch it off two-wheel drive i've noticed it dropped down about a mile per gallon so that's something to talk about really at the end of the day there's nothing particularly exceptional and there's nothing particularly horrendous about this it's average in every single capacity there's a pretty decent amount of frontal room in the front and i would say that's the only really good thing you don't have a sun or a moon roof in here so you do feel like it's a pretty big cabin and the sight lines are good but you know this is a very confusing car and i found myself driving it putting things in the back transporting things at some point i really enjoyed the simplicity how simple it felt compared to like early 2000s 90s cars it made me feel nostalgic in that way but if you're buying this as a new vehicle it becomes a very difficult thing there's there's just no way that you would get behind the wheel of this and be like oh i gotta have it it just doesn't have that gotta have it feel but i'm gonna talk more about that and final thoughts and kind of talk about the pros and cons final thoughts on the outlander sport when i saw this was on the calendar i almost canceled it because i thought there's no possible way i could have anything positive to say about it and i've had to do a lot of thinking about what i could bring to the table the good and the bad what it is and what it's not after driving this you know there's a couple vehicles that come to mind something like the chevy trax and ford ecosport which i think are total waste of money boxes they're built so to a price point that you would not possibly want them long term this it is msrp wise it's like pushing 30 for the fully loaded one but the discounts are so steep they have zero percent financing the leases are good on them and this has been around for so long that you look at the reliability of them that's what you're buying this for it is a simple to service simple to work on the interior there's nothing fancy about this this is the closest thing that you're gonna get to like that 90s 2000s vehicle you're just you know there's just not a lot of flair there's not a lot of fluff to this and it's not that competitive with the new products that are on the market and i think that's the biggest negative there's like you you're just kind of like the whole time you're around this but you know i will give them this they stuck to what's tried and true in the mitsubishi world it it's it's just what it what you see is what you get here and i think that's the big thing we tested the audio in here and it was surprisingly not horrible there's no bass at all but the sound quality there's not a lot of harmonic distortion i'll show you the charts there's not a lot of like rattles or anything weird about that so that's positive um i mean really though let's face it you're probably going to buy this used because when you look at what they are used with a couple years and very little mileage on it this is where this makes the most sense if you're looking for more budget reliable transportation that is just no nonsense and that's it for this video thanks for watching i'll see you next time i'll show him i'll get ripped and punch him right in his teeth down then he'll learn please help me unsubscribe for friend and please help you\n"