Inside, fit and finish is reasonable and our testers liked the clean, modern appearance. On closer inspection, though the attractive silver-finished elements are too obviously plastic.
Nevertheless, it’s an easy-to-use cabin; there are three simple heater dials and the stereo is an easily comprehensible Rockford Fosgate unit (standard on this top-spec Elegance). It even has a 30GB hard-drive for storing sat-nav maps and a bundle of MP3 files. That’s an impressive feature and it is complemented by a subwoofer in the boot.
The front seats are big and wide and have enough lateral support. In fact, we’d have no complaints about the driving position, if it weren’t for the steering wheel’s lack of reach adjustment – you can only change the rake.
Middle-seat passengers are less well catered for. There’s adequate legroom (the seats slide) but headroom’s tight. However, the seats do split and fold 60/40 and there’s a one-touch button in the boot that tumbles them forwards.
Despite its compact dimensions, the Outlander comes with seven seats. The ‘Hide & Seat’ third row stows into the floor of the boot. It takes some shoving and hauling to get in place and is too cramped for anything but short journeys and short people.
With all its seats in place, the Outlander’s boot has just over 200 litres volume but in five-seat form there’s 541 litres (less subwoofer). Handily, the tailgate splits near the bottom of the door, Range Rover-style, and the lower half can support 200kg.
The Outlander’s well equipped at the top end of its range. Our Elegance test car came with its impressive stereo, leather seats, six airbags and air-con, but all this costs nearly £25,000.
This sort of money also buys a mid-spec Freelander and is more expensive than Honda CR-Vs get. All are better to drive and most are better to sit in. The Mitsubishi’s seven seats and equipment count are not enough to offset the difference in ability.
