Kilometres travelled
More than 100,000 km
Did you buy this car new or used?
Used
If used, what year did you buy it used?
2021
How much did you pay? (including all on-road costs)
27000
What were your needs when you bought this car? Has it fulfilled those needs?
Wanted an EV but also an SUV, in one vehicle, with 4WD, and within a budget. While some vehicles fit the bill (Tesla Model X etc), none are big enough for a growing family. The Outlander PHEV is in a class of its own in this regard because there are literally no other SUV-sized EVs on the NZ market that are suitable for our needs. We are happy for our EV trips to be short-range only and use it for this daily. Longer trips are covered by using ICE engine, but those are rarer, and as such are not a major cost associated with the car. We have taken the car on several long-range family road trips and it performs this role too, and the cost of this is no higher than the cost of doing the same with a fully-ICE car. The vehicle covers our main costs associated with travel, which is daily, short-range trips. In this way yes it does fulfill our needs.
What were your initial thoughts about the car? Tell us why it appealed to you.
We needed a car for short range trips to reduce costs of fuel, while not being so worried about the cost of longer-range ones as those are not as common for us. Initial thought was it's a good size, comfortable, has enough power and space and performance and is relatively modern having previously driven a 20-year-old vehicle. It is the right vehicle for our use case.
What have you discovered since owning the car?
Battery range drops in winter, but still makes the short-range trips we require. Found how to maximise fuel efficiency on a long-range trip. It's the only PHEV on the market that supports fast charging. Ride and handling is not great on this 1st-gen model. It doesn't bother us too much but we live rurally so the effect is probably amplified on bumpier surfaces. If you live in town it's probably not a big deal. Standard head unit bluetooth connection is a bit temperamental. This is a known problem.
What do you like/dislike about the car?
Like: It saves us an enormous amount on fuel for our daily runs. It's has good space and power for our needs Lots of safety features - Adaptive cruise control, forward collision mitigation, airbags all around, rear seat centre three-point belt instead of the usual lap belt. Twin-motor 4WD with 4WD lock mode (distributes torque equally front/rear) and Mitsubishi S-AWC system. You can bomb it off-road! But I wouldn't go too deep. It's a soft-roader not an off-roader. 400mm wading depth is quite high. I have not been that deep but I have driven in some flooded roads (with trepidation!) and it handled it fine. Dislike: Suspension is "bumpy" and it doesn't handle on-road bumps well - this may be set up for Japan as it's an imported vehicle, should be better with NZ tyres and better shocks. I actually prefer the feel off-road. Boot space compromised by the rear motor taking up space, but there is quite a lot of free space below it inside the rear bumper, not sure why Mitsubishi didn't utilise this space more effectively. EV range is getting down now, we get a maximum of 33kms out of ours - originally rated at 52kms. We are charging twice a day. This is a factor of an older vehicle. However it still handles our daily trips on EV even in winter. Cannot use pure EV mode in this model - later models have an "EV mode" button which prevents the ICE from starting unless the batter gets low. This model uses the ICE any time "on demand" i.e. if you accelerate too hard or use the heating in winter etc. However you can keep it in EV just by driving conservatively and keeping the heating and aircon turned off. The Mitsubishi MMCS head unit completely fails to live up to requirements, and the advice on forums is to replace it with a third-party Android unit. We specifically bought a car with the original unit, and have been disappointed by it. Being an earlier model there is no Apple Carplay or Android Auto (we were aware of this, and don't require them), but standard bluetooth connection is poorly implemented. You would think by 2014, head units that support bluetooth connections were common and worked well, but not in this case. Phone profile (monoaural) only works out of speakers on left side of the car, and drops calls received back to the phone instead of the car after a few seconds - but works fine on calls being made. This goes for VoIP calls as well (Teams/Skype etc). Audio profile (stereo) is difficult to connect properly, with multiple issues, constantly connecting/disconnecting and failing to display track information or controls on the screen, etc. The original unit has some features specific to the PHEV system which most users can live without, so it may be better to change it. You can get better PHEV information (battery charge mode and level, history etc) using an Android head unit with a specific app that is recommended for this model (requires a bluetooth OBDII adapter as well). This may be a better option but is an extra cost, so we have chosen to live with the issues.
Any other comments on the car?
It does what it says on the tin. It's not a great drivers' car, nor a great car to drive. It's a bit wallowy and the weight of the EV systems makes a difference to the handling and performance. But it is comfortable and convenient, saves an enormous fuel cost if your use case is mainly short trips, yet can also handle the long ones at no more cost than would be associated with a normal car (and a lot less if you learn how to drive it). It's not stunningly efficient when using fuel, but you often don't use any on short trips. It has plenty of space for family needs while taking us on some of the rougher roads that we use in our outdoors lifestyle. The twin-motor 4WD system is a boon, being able to handle rough roads and even some mud (Skippers Road in spring is the most I have driven it away from the main drag). It's reliable and has enough modernity to look decent on the road. It doesn't stand out in any way, but in some ways that is the idea - it looks and acts "fairly normal" for a family-size SUV, yet comes with all the benefits of an EV too. As stated earlier, there are no similar vehicles in the NZ market with 4WD, family-size SUV and electric drive system. It fills a gap, at least until the likes of the Rivian R1S and similar vehicles come along. But those will be at vastly greater cost.
Reliability
5
Features/technology
4
Performance/economy
4
Value for money
5
Overall rating
4
Lastly, would you buy this vehicle again?
Yes
Why would/wouldn't you buy it again?
I would buy a later model with greater range if I could afford one. The ability to charge once a day instead of twice would be useful. Later models are far more luxurious and drive much better, with better reviews etc. But cost and wait times are rather high for purchasing brand new and often you don't need to pay that much to get similar benefits. Otherwise, yes I would buy again.