What do you get if you cross the Mitsubishi Outlander Exceed with the Berry family? Find out in this latest instalment of the seven-seater’s long term family test.
Part 2: March, 2022
It’s now been a month since the arrival of our baby. I’m talking about our newborn daughter, not the Mitsubishi Outlander, although, yes, our long-term test car also arrived recently – we were given the keys towards the end of February.
So now we have two kids with a seven-year age gap and the Outlander is getting a workout.
School drop offs are never just school drop offs, they’re a daily test of my parenting competence that I only seem to just pass every day. They’re a morning frenzy of lunch box packing, excursion form remembering, sock/hat/shoe/soul searching.
The Outlander has one job to do, and that is to not get in the way. And it has absolutely shone, making the trip to school the easiest and most calming part of a these always difficult mornings.
Proximity unlocking means no keys to dig out of bags or pockets, and these days my son has his own convenience feature and that’s being able to open his door, climb into his booster seat and buckle himself into the harness. The Outlander’s tall, wide doorways and a low step up, makes access easy for even him.
School is 7 minutes and 34 seconds away if we get all green lights. That gives us time to listen to two songs. My son picks the same two every day. The Outlander’s phone connectivity hooks up automatically and instantly, the moment we start the car and about 1.5 seconds later we’re asking Siri to play the first song.
Parking rangers lie in wait outside the school and finding a legitimate space is always tricky, it’s like a game of musical chairs with other mums and dads in Toyota RAV4s, Mazda CX-5s and Volkswagen Tiguans.
The Outlander isn’t all that big at 4.7m long, and I’ve never had trouble parking it or reversing into spaces. The steering is accurate and light, the pedals feel good under my feet and visibility out the rear windows is excellent.
That’s the just the school drop off. There’s also swimming lessons and ninja classes straight after school, which means getting changed in the car. Just so we’re clear it’s my son getting changed not me – I can already swim and ninja. But, the tinted glass in the back is super dark and together with the sunshades make a private changing place.
A month-old baby can’t open a door, which is why we’ve moved the rearward facing baby seat behind the driver’s seat and the booster seat to the kerb side. See, our seven-year-old is now leaping out of the car the moment it stops and it’s safer for him to be on the footpath and means my stress levels have lowered considerably.
Installing the child seats into the Outlander was easy. There are two ISOFIX points but I’ve been using the top tethers which hook onto the second row seat backs.
I’m getting more confident at putting our little bub into her baby seat, but it still takes me ages of fussing to make sure the straps aren’t twisted or aren’t too tight or too loose. The ride height of the Outlander has saved my back, because I’m ridiculously tall at 191cm but I don’t need to bend over to make sure she’s in properly and taking her out is easy, too.
Her pram and baby change bag are permanently stationed in the Outlander’s boot. Editor and father of three Mal Flynn gave me some advanced parenting advice and recommended that with two or more children he has another set of everything they need permanently in the boot. That way you don’t have to always haul everything from the house to the car.
The Outlander’s 478-litre boot isn’t huge, but it’s big enough for us. That’s with the third row folded down, too.
Yes, there are seven seats in our Outlander Exceed but we’ve never put them up because we need the boot space, and the area behind them when they are in place is a tiny 163 litres.
Just because we love making things extra challenging for ourselves, we’d decided to move house just before our baby was born. We needed more space with the bub coming and we had to move quickly – literally.
So this month the Outlander has also been our cargo carrier and our delivery truck, as I’ve rushed around building our nest with more furniture for the house.
I’ve used it to pick up dining chairs, bedside drawers, tall boys, cots, mattresses, gardening supplies, even bricks – don’t ask. There have also been countless trips to a well-known hardware store, sometimes twice in a day, sometimes just for their sausages.
I’ve used the Outlander to pick up dining chairs, bedside drawers, tall boys, cots, mattresses, and gardening supplies.
So it’s been a big month of driving from one side of Sydney to the other. All up we covered 1115km and with motorways thrown in the fuel economy has improved to 10.1L/100km. That was with two full tank fill ups over the month
You do have to remember that being all-wheel drive and with the mainly city driving that we do in our family, the Outlander’s fuel consumption will of course be higher than it might be for you if your driving is on a lot of motorways and open roads.
Do you need all-wheel drive? If you live in the country and you spend time on dirt and gravel roads I’d recommend it strongly. For urban dwellers like ourselves it’s not vital, but I’d still get it if I was buying the Outlander for my family. I see all-wheel drive as a safety feature and the traction Mitsubishi’s system offers, especially in the wet, is excellent.
The rain hasn’t stopped here in Sydney for more than a month and we live in a hilly area, but the Outlander has never lost traction even in the same places other test cars struggle to stop their wheels slipping.
As far as wear and tear goes, I’m happy to report that the Outlander is still all in one piece. And despite all the muddy shoes, grubby fingers, wet umbrellas and daily life dirt the Outlander is easy to clean with surfaces that wipe down well and floor mats which can be removed and vacuumed.
We’re becoming quite attached to the Outlander now and I’m getting used to things which bothered me at the start of this test.
The continuously variable transmission (CVT) frustrated me at the beginning because it doesn’t do much for acceleration, but I’ve come to like its smooth nature which makes driving in the city easy.
The unsettled ride of the Outlander was another area that didn’t impress me at the start. See, the suspension is soft and the wheels are large with low profile tyres and when you combine those two attributes it means the SUV is ‘rolly’ in the corners but hard over bumps and potholes. Still, we have become used to this, too, and you shouldn’t think of it as a deal breaker, not with the excellent safety equipment, the practicality and technology on board.
The cabin, too, is well designed and comfortable with great seats. We’ve spent a lot of time just sitting in it waiting for the rain to stop before dashing inside. These are the sorts of things you get to know when you live with a car long term like an owner.
Acquired: February 2022
Distance travelled this month: 1115km
Odometer: 8314km
Average fuel consumption for March: 10.1L/100 (measured at the pump)
Keyword: Mitsubishi Outlander 2022 review: Exceed long-term | Part 2