This Mitsubishi was not nearly as polarizing as our former long-term 2011 Outlander Sport, but the 2014 Outlander had to deal with much of the sentiment left over from the junior's lackluster time in the MT garage. While the 2014 model didn't wow most of the staff, it did make some headway repairing the Outlander's reputation through its dependability, redesign, and value.
Our $32,720 Outlander came with a base MSRP of $26,620 but we added the $6100 SE Touring package with navigation, power sunroof, heated leather seats, a premium sound system, and additional safety features including lane departure warning, adaptive cruise control, and a forward collision mitigation system. I could have done without the lane departure warning. I was never once glad to have it and I always turned it off after the first beep. Forward collision mitigation gave me a feeling of security during my numerous hypnotic stop-and-go commutes to work, and more than once its alerts popped me out of my driving daze. I thankfully never triggered the automatic braking.
I asked our Motor Trend archivist, Thomas Voehringer, to hit the road in the Outlander for a family vacay and he appreciated the adaptive cruise control. "You could set the cruising speed and following distance, then electronically latch onto the driver in front of you," Voehringer said. But he warned, "Choose wisely because their ability to drive consistently is immediately reflected in your ride. If they slow, you slow. If they speed up, you will speed up (until the max speed is reached)." He added: "Over thousands of miles the ACC was a better way of accelerating than using the throttle. It was smoother, and more efficient."
So two out of three for added safety isn't bad. You can't disable the lane departure warning system permanently -- you have to do it every time you restart the vehicle. A small annoyance that compounds over time.
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