Test drive Mitsubishi Outlander (Airtrek) 2003 - 2007 SUV

Who is new

The weak clears the road to the stronger. This is the harsh truth of the automobile market. And although the 136-horsepower Outlander is still a beginner, it is rapidly catching up with Mitsubishi Outlander 2.4.
Giving us a new Outlander, the representative of the company repeated as a spell: this is not a jeep, this is not a jeep! Obviously, this was a hint that we were not fond of during the test and crippled the car about Russian reality.
After half an hour, 200 rubles were requested from us on the sink to refresh the appearance of Mitsubishi. We look as a price list: cars - 150 rubles. Jeeps and minibuses - 200 rubles. Obviously, we were hinted that we still have a jeep. They did not enter into petty discussions, in a couple of days the dough can be understood what kind of beast it is.
However, we are already familiar: for the first time we met Outlander in Spain almost a year ago. To be honest, the first impression was not lubricated, frankly, a decent configuration for such a car: a 2.0 liter engine with a capacity of 136 hp. And a mechanical gearbox. Experience suggests that potential buyers of universals of increased cross -country ability prefer the machine in combination with a more powerful motor. In Spain, such a car was shown to us from afar and explained: this is a pre -production option. True, we allowed a couple of circles around the hotel, but we did not feel the difference in a second time. But not even a year has passed since we are already going around Moscow on the adult Outlander, equipped with the adaptive automatic transmission InVECS-II and a solid engine with a volume of 2.4 liters and a capacity of 160 horses. By the way, the buyer has a machine gun and extra 24 hp. It will cost almost $ 4 thousand - the base Mitsubishi Outlander 2.0 Comfort costs $ 27,990, and our Outlander 2.4 Sport - $ 32,000. So, is such an arithmetic of the candle?
Do not steal. The only way to save when buying a 160-horsepower Outlander is to abandon the automatic box. Then the car will cost $ 1.3 thousand cheaper. Otherwise, the equipment of the machines is identical: from an electronic immobilizer to a bright metal lining of the threshold of the rear (fifth) door, as a long specification reads. But from version 2.0 Comfort, the equipment of a 2.4-liter car favorably differs in a richer exterior (moldings, roof rails and other beautiful and useful little things), interior (wood inserts), as well as the presence of side airbags in front and automatic Climate control.
 
When buying an automatic version, you will lose not only a thousand with a small dollars, but also from a dozen kilometers of maximum speed: the mechanic with a 160-horsepower engine accelerates up to 200 km/h, while the machine gun is up to 190 km/h. For extremes, these are, of course, an irreparable loss. For a normal consumer - nothing. Since we simply do not have roads with such speed characteristics.
 
In all other things, the Mitsubishi assault rifle is frankly good. Outlander accelerates quickly and confidently: both from the place and to the quarry. In the sense of both the traffic light, and at the time of overtaking on the highway, say, from 100 km/h to 150 km/h. In addition, the automatic transmission on this car is adaptive: it quickly lies to the driver’s manner and can transfer the gears up and down a little faster or, conversely, slower, depending on the temperament of the rider.
 
The most temperamental can generally switch to a manual flight control mode - an automatic machine for Outlander sectral type. Moreover, there is no protection from a fool on it - electronics does not know how to transfer transmissions depending on the operating mode of the engine. The usefulness of such a solution, perhaps, is only that an experienced driver when moving, say, off -road, prefers to choose a program on his own, without trusting automation.

Do not kill. All the practicality of such a car as Mitsubishi Outlander is much easier and faster to evaluate on Russian roads - here is his place. During the Spanish test drive, we were offered to ride a rural primer, abundantly flooded with two-day rains. The photographs looked very impressive in the streams of water and dirt flying from under the wheels, but nothing more. In fact, all the same could be done on an ordinary sedan. The fact that in Spain is off -road, we have an ordinary country road.
 
But in a couple of days of Outlander operation in Moscow and the Near Moscow, they believed in the extraordinary capabilities of this car.
Recall that the usual Outlander station wagon is distinguished by a constant all -wheel drive (50:50) and clearance (195 mm), which makes many parquet jeeps. In Spain, this tuning seems to be not needed. We have another matter. A high body allows you to easily and at ease to park on a high border or go around traffic jams along the tram tracks. The car overcame snow heaps in the yards equally easily and moved along a suburban rut punched by trucks. We agree, this is not a jeep-trial and all these exercises can be done in a passenger car. However, risking to fly into a ditch or tear off the whole bottom. Do you need it?
 
A constant all-wheel drive allows you to relax at the wheel even on bad winter roads, when the ice is suddenly replaced by snow porridge and just as suddenly-a incomprehensible substance of dirty brown color, slippery as glass. Even if Outlander breaks down into a skid, then it is caught elementary. What we were convinced of, twisting on a frozen parking lot: it was possible to lose control of the car only in a super -extremal situation - a sharp gas with a completely turned steying steering. And then Outlander rode sideways somehow reluctantly, he had to constantly provoke him. In general, in ordinary life they do not drive like that.
Do not wish. From the point of view of ordinary Russian consumer, Outlander is still a jeep. Because the possibilities of a 160-horsepower version that has just appeared is slightly higher than the possibilities of an ordinary station wagon. Outlander significantly expands the horizons of its owner, for example, in comparison with Galant Wagon. And the driver sits higher, and passengers are more spacious, and there are more places for baggage. Mitsubishi is also not much inferior to the parquet SUVs: their owners rarely use a reduced transmission (if it is at all), and the most common obstacle that they have to overcome is a curb near their Townhouse. But in the maintenance of Outlander is much cheaper than the same powerful Pajero with a handful box acidified from the city idleness.
 
And if sellers do not want to position Outlander as an alternate, even with a parquet addition, then out of justified caution. And then the owners will begin to jump on it in the hills near Moscow, and then make a claim to the manufacturer. I could not stand it, they say, a machine of Russian knives ...
By the way, classmates for Outlander without hesitation were listed by the representatives of Mitsubishi. Nevertheless, they are cunning, calling Outlander simply with a station wagon.
Text Nikolay Kachurin, photo Alexey Ilyin

Mitsubishi Outlander
The engine is gasoline 4-cylinder
Working volume (cubic cub) 2351
Power (L.S. at about./Min.) 160 at 5750
Moment (nm at about./Min.) 216 at 4000
The permanent drive is complete
Gearbox 4-speed automatic, sectral type
Length/width/height (mm) 4545/1750/1620
Wheel base (mm) 2625
The volume of the fuel tank (L) 59
Equipped mass (kg) 1700
Maximum speed (km/h) 191
Acceleration to 100 km/h (c) 11.2
Fuel consumption (city/highway, l/100 km) 13.8/8.0
The price in Moscow from $ 32 thousand.

 

Source: "Autopilot"