Mitsubishi Outlander VRX 2020

Name: Mitsubishi Outlander VRX 2020
Item: Mitsubishi Outlander VRX
Rating: 5
Author: Owner Review: Community Contributor

Owner Review: Community Contributor

01 Jun 2023

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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?

2013

How much did you pay? (including all on-road costs)

17000

What were your needs when you bought this car? Has it fulfilled those needs?

This car has been awesome. A mid sized, 7 seater SUV that was easy to manage in town but grungy enough on the open road. It has towed our boat, gone up and down the ski field countless times and carried round the kids friends to sport etc. The proximity key, drop down tail gate and handsfree make this a great “mum” car. It has massive boot space so can handle all the families luggage for long trips, and being a 2.4L engine, it is relatively fuel efficient for round town and on the open road. Our car has 321000 km on the odometer and has hardly cost us a cent in repairs or maintenance.

What were your initial thoughts about the car? Tell us why it appealed to you.

Loved the practicality of 7 seats and leather upholstery with small children. Liked that we had the option of 4wd, but could be predominantly 2wd. It had plenty of features and was relatively well priced compared to other similar SUVs at the time.

What have you discovered since owning the car?

We loved the drop down tail gate for the beach and snow days - it allowed kids to get cleaned up prior to hopping into the car and meant we could fit an enormous amount of gear in the boot. The sound system was outstanding and the tiptronic gear box was great for open road driving on NZ roads. Especially up the skifield on hectic days where the automatic gear box would change constantly.

What do you like/dislike about the car?

The size - it was nippy enough round town, but big enough to load up for holidays. We have used other larger SUVs and the boot space is smaller, but they are harder to park around town because of their size.

Any other comments on the car?

The seven seats were great when the children were smaller and you could put boosters in however as they got older the sling style seat wasn’t great as they got older.

Reliability

Features/technology

Performance/economy

Value for money

Overall rating

Lastly, would you buy this vehicle again?

Yes

Why would/wouldn't you buy it again?

I absolutely would buy this vehicle again while my kids were younger. As they have gotten older, and the boat has gotten bigger, we will have to buy a vehicle with a larger engine to cope but this was a total win!!!

Owner Reviews

Mitsubishi Outlander VRX 2022

Kilometres travelled 10,000 - 25,000 km Did you buy this car new or used? New How much did you pay? (including all on-road costs) 50000 What were your needs when you bought this car? Has it fulfilled those needs? Family sized car boot for dogs and towing ability. Availability of vehicles was scarce at the time of purchase with no station wagons available which was my preference. Mitsubishi seemed to have more stock than competitors. It is family sized comfortably taking two adults, two children and two dogs with some luggage. Rated at 1600kg braked What were your initial thoughts about the car? Tell us why it appealed to you. Large, comfortable with all the bells and whistles. Interior is nice, entertainment screen good Comparatively well priced compared to other vehicles. What have you discovered since owning the car? You notice lots of little things where Mitsubishi saved money, materials and parts that don't look like they will last many years. Dubious about real life ability of towing, only towed trailer which was ok but I'm scared to try and tow a horse float with the engine power and a transmission that performs like a learner driver riding the clutch down the road. Suspension crashes over bumps and potholes making you swerve to avoid any poor road surfaces. Suspension travel is very short making one wheel come off ground when entering roads from driveways, as it's front wheel drive this causes wheel spin which activates traction control pulling power from engine making the exercise painful to other motorist wondering why you have paused half on the road in front of them The tyres have really low grip, especially in the wet where they are almost dangerous, not sure if they are some sort of eco tyre with low rolling resistance to improve fuel consumption figures on the tests? Suspension clunks and bangs while parking, Had mitsubishi look at this at first service, they said that they couldn't find anything and they drive a new one off the lot to compare and that one had the same noise. When you put it in reverse the mirrors turn in so you are looking at your door handles for some reason, At times I have had to manually point them out/down again so I could see. What do you like/dislike about the car? Way too many driver aids, some have to be turned off every time the car is started and some can't be turned off. Front wheel drive is terrible, the four wheel drive model is a must I think. (+$10k I think) Tires are rubbish/dangerous. The CVT transmission may be passable on a small city car but on a large vehicle is doesn't work well and ruins the driving experience. Why can't they just use a Automatic with actual gears? Interior is nice and entertainment package is good. Quiet and on the open road comfortable and easy drive. Reliability 5 Features/technology 2 Performance/economy 1 Value for money 3 Overall rating 1 Lastly, would you buy this vehicle again? No Why would/wouldn't you buy it again? The 4WD one may be a lot better but even then the transmission is the biggest problem and ruins the car.
Mitsubishi Outlander VRX 2017

Kilometres travelled 50,000 - 75,000 km Did you buy this car new or used? New How much did you pay? (including all on-road costs) 52000 What were your needs when you bought this car? Has it fulfilled those needs? Principally enough room in the back for 2 dogs, with all wheel drive or 4 wheel drive and all at a reasonable cost. Definitely met the basic requirements. What were your initial thoughts about the car? Tell us why it appealed to you. Lots of safety features in a reasonably priced car. The power of the diesel engine appealed, but with reasonable fuel economy. Plenty of room in it for the dogs (yes we get in it to test it out). And the the VRX had the bonus of sunroof and leather seats with seat warming, which is an extra bonus when living in Queenstown. What have you discovered since owning the car? Some of the safety features aren't as good as the would seem. The feature that stops you accidentally accelerating forward when something is in front stopped me acceleratering out of an intersection as a vehicle passed by. Due to the diesel lag, if you need to get out of an intersection quickly in traffic then the accelerator needs to be engaged as the car which you will pass behind, passes in front. The car sees that as an object in front and stops the acceleration. This pits the vehicle slightly in the intersection, but stopped so you have to reverse out. Also the self adjusting to vehicle speed in front cruise control is not great for fuel economy. Floppy paddles are best used for engine breaking down hills, especially in slippery/icy conditions. What do you like/dislike about the car? As described above the auto braking to stop accidental forward acceleration into an object is annoying. Generally love it. Reliability 5 Features/technology 5 Performance/economy 5 Value for money 5 Overall rating 5 Lastly, would you buy this vehicle again? Yes Why would/wouldn't you buy it again? We are actually buying the 2018 PHEV version (Japanese import) which came out 6 months after we bought our current Outlander.
Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV 2014

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.