The 2016 Mitsubishi Outlander Aims to Make Decision Making Easy

Mary Moore |

Updated: Feb 10, 2016

Flexibility with the 2016 Mitsubishi Outlander.

Life is full of important decisions – throw kids, a husband and a mortgage into the mix and those decisions become all the more difficult. Deciding on what car to buy can also be a difficult decision. How many seats will I need; well, I have two kids, so a smaller car will work. Wait! What if my kids want to bring their friends along someday? Maybe I will need something larger? A van? Maybe I don’t want to drive a large van all of the time – what about the times when it is just me in the car? Do I get a say?

It is easy to get frustrated when trying to decide on the right car for your family when your family is still growing, isn’t it? Things change – we need a car that can flexible and change with it.

The Mitsubishi Outlander helps you navigate through different climates

This week my family and I had the chance to test drive the 2016 Mitsubishi Outlander 2.4 SEL S-AWC 4 door for an entire week. We put it to the test to see how it could handle all of life’s changes as they were thrown at us. Right out of the gate we were given an opportunity to see how the car handled in different types of weather when we woke up to snow covered and icy roads. For this type of change the Outlander had easy to understand and change drive modes. When I wanted to conserve gas, I just pushed the button in the center console until AWC-ECO appeared on the dash. When the roads were snow covered I pushed it to SNOW – this told the car to engage 4 wheel drive when needed. I could also choose LOCK, which locked the four wheel drive on, or NORMAL which put it back to normal driving mode. I loved the easy control of options that made the car work harder for me and not the opposite.

Also in terms of button controls to help keep us safe on the road, the car we drove had forward collision mitigation and lane departure warnings which helped to keep me focused by beeping (and sometimes throwing a downright fit) if I started to loose driving attention and drift from the center of my lane or fail to brake when the car in front of me was stopping. These did come as upgrades to the vehicle but were so helpful for keeping my mind present when it could easily drift over to the many other decisions that needed to be made that day. These safety options also had the ability to be turned on or off with a push of a button.

Flexibility in seating with an optional third row

You may think that the only way to get seating for seven is to go for a larger vehicle – well that’s not always true. This car can go from seating for 5 to seating for 7 and back again with very minimal effort. The 2016 Mitsubishi Outlander has an optional third row which can easily pop up when extra seating is needed or fold back down to create a larger cargo area instead – plus all of this comes in a smaller SUV size.

No nonsense style and design

Sometimes a lot of options can mean frustrations getting it all to work and understanding it. I didn’t find that the case at all with the options on the 2016 Mitsubishi Outlander. Everything was pretty straight forward and minimalist when it came to maneuvering. The seats folded up and down with the manual pull of a button or lever, the car functions such as drive mode, navigation, radio control and temperature were straight forward and easily accessible without being cluttered. This car did everything that I needed it to do without hassle and looked good while doing it!

What we loved

It has space and seating like a minivan, but isn’t a minivan. This new Outlander can accommodate up to 7 people!
It has an optional third row giving me extra room for kids’ friends to tag along, but then they can also fold away for when I need storage space instead. Plus, the seats fold and pop back up without a struggle – I could do it one handed (with a grande coffee in the other hand)
It has easy to read drive mode controls to go from NORMAL to ECO to LOCK (which engages four wheel drive) or to SNOW which kicks the four wheel drive in when needed
It has pretty and stylish detailing on the inside – because even though I have food from my kids’ faces wiped on my sleeve, I still care about style
No nonsense radio, navigation, heat/ac and heated seat controls – the buttons are simple and easy to use

What you need to know

While the third row is an awesome addition, it doesn’t have much leg room. As long as you are only putting kids back there, you should be fine
It comes with a 2.4 L engine which is great for fuel economy – just not so great for taking the minivan next to me off the line
When the third row seats are in use – storage space is skimpy. Probably couldn’t get groceries with a full house
Starting price $26,995
24 MPG city / 29 MPG highway