2024 Outlander: Why You Shouldn’t Overlook This Surprising Contender!

What’s going on Everyone? So we live in a world of RAV 4S and CRVs. However, there are some other options out there, such as this, the Mitsubishi Outlander, which might just have more up its sleeve than you’d expect. So, is this the best-kept secret in the compact crossover segment? Let’s go ahead and find out.

2024 Mitsubishi Outlander Specifications:

Engine and Performance

First things first, let’s go ahead and learn about what is under the hood. For 2024, we continue on with the same power string. It’s going to be a 2.5 L naturally aspirated 4-cylinder engine making 181 horsepower and 181 lb-ft of torque. There also continues to be the plug-in hybrid that is available for you guys.

We cover that in a separate review if you’re interested in that. As far as a transmission, you have a CVT, and your fuel economy is going to be coming in at 26 miles per gallon combined if you choose the optional all-wheel drive.

Now, of course, like all of our reviews, we’re going to take this out for a drive later on. We’re going to get things like our signature sound level reading so that we can compare to all the competition such as popular offerings like the RAV 4 and the related Nissan Rogue. But first, let’s close up the hood and take a look at the exterior design.

Exterior Design

Front Design

Now, I just mentioned that this is related to the Nissan Rogue, but you certainly would not know that with any of the exterior design because it is very, very different from the Rogue and also a lot bolder than most of the competition, especially when we’re talking about this front design.

As you can see, we have a very large grille up front. This is going to kind of come down all the way to this lower section and have this large, large piece of chrome that accents the side of it. Outlander is going to go across the front there, and then you’ve got the large Mitsubishi emblem right there in the center.

As far as our headlights are concerned, these are also unique because we have the separated housing up top. This is going to be just your daytime running light and turn signal indicator.

The main headlight units themselves are going to be down here in the middle. These are reflector LEDs, which will be standard on every single trim level, and all but the base model will also get the LED fog lamps.

Rear Design

Now, compared to the front design, which is very bold, the rear design is going to be a lot more kind of clean and classy looking in its overall appearance. I really like the way this Outlander looks. Here at Car Confections, we do like to test out the tail light elements and see if all three elements are LED.

So, just going to go ahead and hop inside and show us. So we do have an LED brake light portion, incandescent reverse light, and incandescent turn signal indicator. So, one out of three elements are LED. That’s pretty much the standard affair for this segment, and that’s going to be on all of the trim levels.

As we drop down to this lower area, you will notice that most of it is going to be body color, which I certainly appreciate. We’re also going to have faux exhaust outlets here on the sides, but no real exhaust outlets. As far as the tow rating, 2,000 lb for this Outlander.

Wheels and Mirrors

Let’s also talk about the wheels because this is a strong area for the Outlander. The reason being only the base model has 18-inch alloys. Everything else comes with 20-inch alloy wheels. That’s pretty rare for this segment, and these look really good.

I definitely like contrast finish we get on this SE. Now, as we move up to the mirrors, we also have some unexpected features. The unexpected feature is that power folding comes on almost every single trim level. Every trim level will come with heating and blind spot monitoring.

Now that we’re here at the side of the Outlander, I do want to just go ahead and mention the overall length first. It’s 185.46 inches. As far as the side design that I want to mention, that’s that we have a new Platinum Edition model. That’s going to be a black exterior, and you’re actually going to have a silver roof, which is new this year, which I think has a really cool look. Now, you can also get a black roof just like you would have been able to get last year, which I also think is a unique feature for this segment of vehicle.

Safety Systems

Now as far as your safety systems are concerned, for those of you who are not so great drivers, you are going to have two out of your four active safety features as standard equipment. And then if you choose all but the very base trim level, you’re going to have actually all four of them as standard equipment, including adaptive cruise control.

But guys, there are some changes on the inside that we want to talk about. But before, if you’re new here, we’re brothers and we’ve been reviewing cars since we were 12 and 16. We may be young, but we love cars and we’d love for you to subscribe to be a part of our car confections family. Let’s learn a lot and have some fun with all the latest cars.

Interior Design

Key Fob and Entry

Let’s go ahead and check out the interior, but first, we’ll look at the key fob. This is your typical Mitsubishi key fob. As you can see, we do have the smart entry system on board. No remote start on the fob; you actually have access to that via the Mitsubishi phone app, and it’s going to be free to you for 24 months. Now, getting inside the vehicle, there’s not a sensor behind the handle, so just press that black button, that’ll unlock the door and go ahead and fold the mirrors out.

Cabin and Seats

Now take a look inside the cabin. At first glance, you will think, does this vehicle actually belong in the compact segment? Because it has a very luxurious look to it, and that starts with the seats. So in terms of your different material and color options, you are going to have a cloth seat on the base model.

All the rest of them will come with leather or leatherette, and then this top-end model, the SE with the touring package, upgrades you to semi-aniline leather. That’s one of the nicest types of leather you can get in a vehicle. It is very smooth and supple, and I love the diamond stitching on board.

It looks quite nice. Obviously, this is black, and it looks like we have some great stitching on board. Now, as far as the seats themselves, they’re going to be eight-way power adjusting on all but the base model, and you do also have memory seating built into the door. But let’s go ahead and climb inside.

Interior Materials

Now, like I was saying, the Outlander does have an unexpectedly nice interior, and that continues to the other materials as well. So over here on our door trim, we’ve got a lot of the leatherette material running all through the surfaces, including this nice diamond-quilted area in the center.

As we move to the upper dash, all of this will be a nice soft-touch plastic. We have more of the leather material running through the center section with the double-color contrast stitching going through the lower areas, and we also have padding along the center console for our knees to rest against.

You’ve got a full aluminum trim and then some piano black finishing things off right there in the center. But to fire it up, just press the push-button start.

Gauge Cluster and Steering Wheel

Now after start-up, we can move into our gauge cluster. First of all, this, as you can tell, is a 12.3-inch full digital gauge cluster. This is going to be on your upper-end trim levels of this Outlander lineup, and it has all the functions that you’ve probably seen on some of the Nissan models because it is borrowed from there.

So you can do things like change your full meter view. In addition to that, though, this top-end model, the SE with the touring package, gives you a large 10.8-inch head-up display. Now as we pull back to the steering wheel, we do have a nicely finished steering wheel.

We have perforated leather here on the sides. It is going to be manual tilt and telescoping across the lineup, and then again on the top-end SE touring model, that’s going to give you the heated steering wheel, so you can leave the cold hands to frosty and take the top-end trim level for that.

Center Console and Storage

Now let’s turn over here and take a look at our center console. One of the things we like to do at Car Confections is do something called the donut test. That’s because that is our emblem, and we want to see how many of these donuts can fit into the center console.

The reason this is useful is that just because the vehicle is big on the outside doesn’t mean it’s big on the center console. This actually only fits five. That’s a very low number for this segment, one of the smallest options I’ve seen in this class, which typically has the really large center consoles.

Nevertheless, we do have our large cup holders up there. There’s going to be a little bit of storage on both sides of the center console, and then you’ve got a wireless phone charging pad up there in the front, which will be included on all but the base model.

Shifter and Drive Modes

Now as we pull back to the shifter, this is an electronic shifter, just going to pull back for drive. You can go back again if you want to activate a manual mode, and that will allow you to shift through some simulated gear changes with your paddle shifters.

When we head into reverse, this is another thing I really like about the Outlander because they’re very generous with the 360-degree camera system. So if you’re the type of person that typically hits curbs, this will be very useful for you guys because it’s going to be included on all but the base trim level.

Then just press the P for park. You do have an electronic parking brake and a brake hold. Now next to your electronic parking brake, you have a very prominent controller for all your different drive modes.

Climate Controls and Audio System

And then as we move up the dashboard, we’ll come to our climate controls. This does come standard with dual-zone automatic climate control, but we actually have a rare feature if you choose the SE and above for this class, and that is a three-zone automatic setup.

Mason will talk a little bit more about that in the rear seat, but as far as making your adjustments, it’s very easy because you do have physical buttons for everything. We also are going to have three-stage heated seats. Just be aware that you cannot get seat ventilation.

Now as we move up here to the screen area, I want to first talk about the audio system. Since we have an upper-end model, we have the 10-speaker Bose premium sound system, and I want to go ahead and give that a sample right now. So overall, that was a very nice-sounding sound system.

One of the things I like about this Bose system is that it has a lot of base, so it really fills up the cabin nicely. All right, so let’s zero in here on this display. There’s going to be two displays offered. You’re going to have an 8-inch or a 9-inch option. Most of the trims will come with the 9-inch premium choice, and that’s what you’re looking at right now.

This is going to be running the same infotainment system as many recent Nissan products. So you have the home screens where you have little widgets, and then you’ve got your shortcuts down there along the bottom. The feature set will be the same. So on this upper screen option, you’re going to have a wireless Apple CarPlay option and a wired Android Auto option.

Panoramic Sunroof

Moving above, we do have an auto-dimming mirror. HomeLink remotes are inside of the display, and I’ll go ahead and slide open our large panoramic sunroof. Mitsubishi does offer this as an option on many of the trim levels, including this top-end SE where it is part of the touring package.

Rear Seats

Space and Adjustability

Now, all the nice features don’t stop in the front of the Outlander. They also translate back here. So you’re going to find actually quite a bit nicer of a rear seat than you would in many of the rivals, especially considering the price point. But let’s go ahead and talk about the space first. So we’re sitting at about 40 inches of legroom, 39 inches of headroom, which does place it above RAV 4.

It’s also going to be above the Nissan Rogue. It’s still slightly less than the Honda CR-V, but really a good amount of space for this segment. All of our measuring devices are back in check, so I do have my ruler so I can measure how much knee space there is. I’m 5’9 for reference, and we’re sitting at about 8 inches of knee space. Also, my feet can easily slide up underneath the seat.

Speaking of sliding, we can adjust these second-row seats quite a lot. So this is actually very useful. I want to point this out. The seat can slide all the way up to here, so if you have a kid that you need to reach back and smack in discipline or just maybe a toddler or something that you need to have quick access to, you can do that. Also, the seats do have reclining functionality as well.

Climate Control and Features

Now here in the center, we do have rear vents. That’s actually going to be a standard feature. Like Drew mentioned in the front, since we have a higher-end model, we’re going to have three-zone climate control, a very rare feature for this segment of vehicle, so the rear can adjust their own temperature. You’re also noticing that I’m enjoying the sizzling function for my buns with the heated rear seats.

That’s actually going to be standard on SE trim levels and above. Now as far as the center seat, we can just pull that little lever. We have a nice fold-down armrest with two cup holders inside, and checking out the door trim, the door trim is also going to have rear window sunshades, which is also going to be included on the higher-end trim levels. Certainly a nice feature. Leather through the whole center area as well with the quilting design, and we do have some bottle storage in the very bottom.

Third Row Seats

Accessibility and Space

Now we’re not done yet with really nice features because we have a third row on this Outlander, a very, very rare feature for this segment of vehicle. I believe there’s only two options in the entire segment that even give you a third row, and it’s actually going to be standard on all Outlander models, so you don’t have to go for the high-end trim levels if you want the third row. So let’s go ahead and see how nice it is.

In order to get back here, you do have to pull that little lever there. That’s going to fold the seat forward and allow it to easily slide out of the way. Then I’ll allow Drew to just go ahead and take a quick look at it before I go into the third row itself.

It’s not going to be a massive amount of space, but I am going to just go ahead and put myself in that situation and see if I can fit back here in the third row. Now, this is for demonstration purposes only. There’s only about 18 inches of legroom in this third row.

You have a decent amount of headroom, so certainly it’s fine for small children. Now if you think you’re going to be fitting full-size adults back here, you’re probably not going to be able to fit back here unless you slide this seat forward quite a lot. I do want to point out that it is only two seats back here, but that does really increase your maximum seating capacity in this Outlander to seven, which is very rare for this segment.

We do also have a headrest not installed, so don’t worry, you’re not going to get full whiplash here in the third row. We just don’t have them installed on this model. And I did almost forget to mention our third row rating scale. This is going to fall on “Bad Kids Only” on that scale. I wouldn’t put the in-laws back here, that’s for sure. And we do also have nice cup holders here on the side.

Cargo Space

Hands-Free Tailgate

Now let’s go ahead and walk up to the tailgate. Mitsubishi is also throwing in a really nice feature here because we have a hands-free power tailgate, standard on all but the very base model.

Capacity

Now as far as the cargo space is concerned, you might be curious as to how the third row is going to impact that. Now behind the third row itself, we’re still going to have about 12 cubic feet of cargo capacity. If I reach up and quickly fold it down, that will reveal about 33 cubic feet of cargo capacity behind the second-row seats. And if I fold these second-row seats down, which I can easily do with the levers right here, we’re looking at a maximum of 80 cubic feet of cargo capacity. Guys, that is very, very, very impressive for this segment of vehicle. It’s going to be more than Rogue, more than RAV 4, and even more than Honda CR-V. This is really pretty much the class leader when it comes to cargo capacity in this segment, certainly a good thing for those of you who are looking to haul stuff around.

Measurements

Now we did finally replace our ruler with a very heavy-duty one so I can measure some different seating configurations. From the back of the driver’s seat here, we are looking at 76 inches of length in the cargo area. And then if I measure the width here, we’re going to be sitting at 41 inches wide. So very good usable cargo area in this Outlander. We also do have a little bit of underfloor storage here. That’s actually where our headrests are stowed for the third row.

Test Drive

Acceleration and Powertrain

Well, guys, here we are behind the wheel of the 2024 Mitsubishi Outlander. In this test drive, we’re going to be talking about quite a few different things, including getting our aforementioned sound level reading. So let’s go ahead and start with a hard acceleration. All right, and that’s 60 mph in the 2024 Outlander.

So one of the things that is, you know, I think most noteworthy about this Outlander is the fact that we discussed there’s a lot of, you know, Nissan componentry. It is a Nissan platform, and some of the parts inside of here are shared with Nissan, but the powertrain is actually not shared with the Nissan Rogue. If you remember, the Rogue launched with this powertrain, which is a 2.5 L 4-cylinder engine, naturally aspirated, and it has 181 horsepower and 181 lb-ft of torque. It launched with that same powertrain, but it has since upgraded or changed, depending on your point of view, to a turbocharged variable compression 3-cylinder engine.

So if you’re one of those people that are maybe a little cautious about turbocharged engines or worried about having a three-cylinder, this does keep that kind of classic Rogue powertrain where you’re using a four-cylinder, naturally aspirated, like I said.

Transmission and Fuel Economy

Yeah, and I think power feels fine. It’s definitely not going to knock your socks off. Compared to the Nissan Rogue, it’s definitely going to have a little bit less torque than that model and feel a little bit slower, but it’s nothing really abnormal for the segment, I wouldn’t say.

Right, this is about average for this class of vehicle, but like Mason said, that’s really the biggest thing you would notice between the turbocharged Rogue and this is the low-end torque. Now as far as the transmission is concerned, we have a continuously variable transmission, or CVT, and this does have a shift simulation on board.

So as you could tell as I was accelerating up to speed there, it does kind of move through some fake gears just to give you a little bit more of a conventional feel. But as far as the overall performance of this, I think they’ve done a good job of tuning this. I put my foot down, we get a response pretty quickly, we don’t have to wait a long time, and I don’t feel much rubber bandy effect. This is, of course, also a Nissan transmission, and they have done a lot of work on this.

Yeah, and as far as how the power is routed to the ground, you have standard front-wheel drive on all models, optional all-wheel drive. And as far as fuel economy is concerned, I do want to just go ahead and talk about this because this is one area where this Outlander really goes kind of behind the competition.

The fuel economy is going to be sitting at 27 miles per gallon combined with front-wheel drive or 26 miles per gallon combined with all-wheel drive. That’s a full 5 MPG worse than the Nissan Rogue, and it is still several MPG worse than a lot of the main rivals like Toyota RAV 4 and Honda CR-V. And that’s their regular gas powertrain setups, not factoring in that they also have hybrid setups. Now granted, you do have the plug-in hybrid variant if you really want the maximum efficiency. However, that does carry quite a bit of a higher price tag, so that’s something worth considering.

Ride Quality and Comfort

Now that we’re just kind of cruising along here, I do want to talk about this vehicle’s ride quality. The Outlander has always had really good ride quality. That’s going to continue for the 2024 model year. When you hit a bump, it does a good job of soaking it up.

I think it’s very much class-competitive when it comes to ride quality. As far as the seats as well, I will say that these are very comfortable seats, at least here with the fully loaded model with semi-aniline leather. I’m very, very happy with this seat. It really feels nice to sit in.

Sound Level Reading

And we’ve mentioned it quite a few times at this point. It’s time for us to get our sound level reading going 55 mph. Now we do have it on fan speed one here, so go ahead and get it. We’ve settled in at 57.5 dB as our official Car Confections sound level reading.

One of the really great things that we’ve done for you guys who are really curious about how quiet the cabins are is we’ve actually compiled a list of all of this vehicle’s competitors, and we put that on our website, carconfections.com. So you can go ahead and go to carconfections.com.

It is very windy today. Obviously, we can’t control the weather, but it is pretty windy, so I do think that’s going to add a little bit to the sound level reading. Mason can tell us what relative to last year’s rating was. So as far as the reading, 57.5 is actually going to put it in the upper end of the segment when it comes to the sound level reading. So actually the louder end. But one thing that I do want to point out is that we did test out the Mitsubishi Outlander plug-in hybrid over the summer when it was a little bit less windy, and that was 53.2, which is actually the quietest in the segment. So I do think the wind is playing quite a bit of a role there in that, but one would expect that this regular gas model would be a little bit louder than the plug-in hybrid version.

Warranty and Pricing

New for 2024

Now I do want to talk about a 2024 change. It actually comes with your warranty. So this year, we’re actually going to get new standard complimentary maintenance. It’s going to be two years or 30,000 miles, so that’s a nice new feature that Mitsubishi is including this year. It really helps you save money on those expenses at the beginning of your ownership. So very happy to see that on this model. You’re going to continue to find a 5-year, 60,000-mile basic warranty and a 10-year, 100,000-mile powertrain warranty as well. So that really brings this vehicle in line with Hyundai when it comes to really the best warranty in the entire business.

Pricing

Now prices are up for 2024, less than $1,000 on all trim levels, so you’re still going to have a very affordable price point for this Outlander model. We’re going to start at about $28,395 for the base ES trim level. As we move up the trim structure, you will, of course, increase in price.

You’re going to pretty much land up with what we have on today’s example. So we start out at $36,745 for an SE with all-wheel drive. Once we add in those option packages like the touring model, we’re going to be landing up at $41,740 as tested today.

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