The 2025 Mitsubishi Outlander isn’t the most exciting vehicle I’ll drive this year. It’s a normal SUV meant to get from place to place, with seven seats and a continuously variable transmission. But for me, the Outlander is one of the more important vehicles I’ll drive.
That’s because to talk about modern Mitsubishi, we have to know modern Mitsubishi. And a lot of us don’t.
[Full disclosure: Mitsubishi flew me to Los Angeles to drive the 2025 Outlander in the city and canyons. In addition to transportation and accommodations, Mitsubishi provided food and bartenders who made me some thick, sugary chocolate milk. -AK]
Why This Car Exists
The 2025 Mitsubishi Outlander is a three-row SUV that starts at $29,645. It makes 181 horsepower and 181 pound-feet of torque from a 2.5-liter, four-cylinder engine, and front-wheel drive is standard while all-wheel drive is optional. As a mainstream brand, you basically can’t exist in America if you don’t sell some form of three-row SUV.
This is why the Outlander is a big deal for Mitsubishi. The brand, known among enthusiasts for sports cars like the Lancer and Eclipse, exists in modern-day America as solely an SUV-maker. The company sells two nameplates in the United States for 2025: the Outlander and Eclipse Cross. The Mitsubishi Mirage, one of the cheapest cars in the U.S. with a starting price of less than $17,000, died in 2024.
The American-market Outlander has three main trims: the ES, SE, and SEL. The car I drove was from the top SEL trim, which has Mitsubishi’s Super All-Wheel Control (S-AWC) all-wheel-drive system.
My loaner car started at $38,795 and had a bunch of options: a $795 Moonstone Gray paint job with a black roof; a $210 tonneau cover; a $185 Welcome Package with a touch-up paint pen, carpet floor mats, and more; a $1,400 Launch Package with a body-color spoiler, black hood emblem, and Mitsubishi puddle lights; and a $3,050 Premium Package with a digital rear-view camera mirror, a head-up display, synthetic leather door inserts that match the quilted seats, and a “Yamaha Ultimate” sound system that Mitsubishi is really proud of.
With fees and every package or option Mitsubishi could seemingly imagine tacked on, the total price of the car still only came to about $46,000, which is a few grand less than the average transaction price for a vehicle right now.
Mitsubishi’s small footprint in the U.S. — and pivot from sports cars to a purely SUV lineup — means enthusiasts miss the old days. It’s a wound that leads many of us, from onlookers to automotive journalists, to write the company off even without experiencing its current offerings. The most I’ve seen Mitsubishi discussed in recent years is merger talks; Mitsubishi is part of an alliance with Nissan, which was in talks for a now-failed merger with Honda, and Mitsubishi wanted none of it. That also explains why this vehicle shares a platform with the Nissan Rogue.
The Outlander isn’t an agile, rally-inspired sports car, like Mitsubishis used to be. It’s a vehicle meant to capitalize on what most new-car buyers in America want — giant SUVs — from a brand that much of America is no longer familiar with. It’s also way better than people think.
2025 Mitsubishi Outlander: The Basics
- Price: $29,645 base ($45,930 as tested)
- Engine: 2.5-liter four-cylinder
- Transmission: Continuously variable transmission (CVT)
- Drivetrain: Front-wheel drive (FWD) or all-wheel drive (AWD)
- Power: 181 horsepower, 181 lb-ft of torque
- Fuel Economy: EPA-estimated 24 city, 30 highway, 26 combined (as tested)
- Body Style: Seven-seat, three-row SUV
What It Looks Like
Mitsubishi says the goal with the exterior of the Outlander is “impressive presence,” and it does have a big presence. The front end has a large, truck-style black grille, giving it a lot of visual weight, like a giant bookcase against a dark-colored wall in your office. It’s big, imposing, and heavy to look at.
This isn’t a bad thing. It’s a styling choice, like how a Lexus has a big front grille and a Mazda has a much smaller one. It’s up to buyers to decide how they feel about it.
The side profile on the Outlander vaguely reminds me of a current Toyota RAV4, and the only thing I find funny about its styling is that it’s ironic to have such a big grille on the front of a car with such low horsepower.
What About The Inside?
The inside of the 2025 Outlander is where it shines. My loaner SEL trim had the model’s new interior option, “Brick Brown,” which perfectly describes the color. Before I learned the name, I wrote in my notes: “Interior is a mix between toffee and brick red.” There’s not a ton of variation in interior colors among modern car companies; any “normal” car is a similar shade of black, tan, gray, brown, or red. The Outlander’s interior is different, and it gets your attention.
There’s a new, larger infotainment display in the 2025 model, which is now 12.3 inches. It’s a bright, crisp display that looks good with Apple CarPlay and is up to par with other modern infotainment systems, and it’s paired with a digital instrument cluster in front of the driver. The instrument cluster doesn’t look brand new like the infotainment screen does — it’s got a more matte display, not a shiny one, making it feel older.
The seats in my loaner car were all diamond-quilted and soft, just like the Brick Brown trim pieces on the doors, and Mitsubishi also updated the center-console area for 2025. It now comes with a larger center-console box and an additional USB-C port.
The center-console area is covered in piano black and dull silver, which don’t look bad — they’re just over-used in modern cars, making the area look less novel. Piano black is also a dust and grease magnet, and after a couple of hours in the car, the Outlander’s center-console area was covered. No one wants to dust every couple of hours.
But what Mitsubishi is most proud of inside the new Outlander is the Yamaha sound system. The 12-speaker Yamaha Ultimate is the fanciest version, and it comes with a bunch of listening modes: “Lively,” which is for dance and pop music and emphasizes beats; “Signature,” which is a more natural tone for classical music, jazz, and blues; “Powerful,” which has heavy bass for genres like rock and hip-hop; and “Relaxing,” which is “calm and unobtrusive” for when you have passengers.
There aren’t speakers in the headrests, but there are features like surround sound, speed-activated volume, and sound adjusted for your air-vent settings. Passengers can also tune the Ultimate sound system based on where people are sitting in the car, emphasizing sound for the driver, passenger, front seats, rear seats, or all seats.
I cycled through every setting and audibly picked up on the changes in speaker delivery, but I wished the settings were easier to access — you have to dig through a couple of menus, making it hard to immediately change the sound settings in a car that’s advertised for its ability to do that.
The sound was crisp and directed at me, and I could tell there was effort to make it better than a standard sound system. It’s like a good pair of headphones versus a bad one — the good headphones have all the tiny clicks and clacks, while the bad ones just blast the music in any direction. The listening modes didn’t overcompensate on bass, treble, or any one setting, but I also didn’t hear the music as clearly as Mitsubishi said I would — the company said I’d be able to hear the singer’s breaths and tell where they were standing in relation to the mic, but when I played one of my favorite songs, I couldn’t.
I imagine one reason is because Mitsubishi had a rental phone hooked up to the car for navigation, and I just played the YouTube version of the song on it. I also imagine another reason is because I’m not a speaker snob. I just yell the lyrics over the audio anyway.
How It Drives
The 2025 Outlander isn’t exciting to drive, mainly because it’s a giant three-row SUV with the same horsepower as a Mazda MX-5 Miata. But it is pleasant, and that’s more important.
Both the gas and brake pedal have a lot of travel before they hit the floor, and neither have an immediate response to input. The Outlander picks up speed slowly, the brakes don’t bite hard, and if you’re ripping through the California canyons — which we did in this car — there’s body roll, understeer, and a loss of grip mid-corner. It’s a commuter SUV, and it performs like one.
But none of that really matters. The Outlander’s CVT is smooth, there’s no wind noise on the highway, and there’s not much road noise. The Outlander is an SUV people buy for comfort and a decent price, not because they need stiff brakes or high horsepower. Other SUVs may have those party tricks, but the Outlander doesn’t need them to serve its audience.
Does the 2025 Mitsubishi Outlander Fulfill Its Purpose?
Mitsubishi isn’t a brand at the forefront of minds in modern America. A lot of people even ask if the company still makes cars (with the passing of the Mirage, I guess the answer is technically “no”). But the 2025 Mitsubishi Outlander is important, for both Mitsubishi and the market.
That’s because the Outlander gives car buyers and families another decent-quality, moderately priced SUV to drive and potentially buy. There aren’t a lot of “small” three-row SUVs like the Outlander, probably because adults can’t easily fit back there, but the Outlander’s $29,645 base price puts it on par with another: the $32,000 Kia Sorento. Those two undercut more mainstream three-row SUVs from other major automakers, like the Honda Pilot ($40,000), Toyota Highlander ($39,000), and Chevy Traverse ($38,000).
In addition to the MSRPs, I’d look at a brand like Mitsubishi as a chance to get a deal on a lease, purchase, or wait time for a car. Maybe my negotiations would work, maybe they wouldn’t — but when you’re in less demand, you’re probably more willing to make a deal. New-car buyers should have good options that fit their budget, and if a Mitsubishi Outlander gives them that, it’s a net benefit.
During my time in the Outlander, I wondered what people would think about its styling, features, and price without knowing it’s a Mitsubishi. People are quick to criticize the company and its vehicles because we all love confirmation bias. We want to be right, even if that means we ignore the virtues or pitfalls of the thing we want to be right about.
The Mitsubishi Outlander is a decent car, and it gives buyers more choice in the realms of styling, performance, and budget. It’s no Lancer Evolution, but it does serve a practical purpose — and that’s a good thing.
When I see a Mitsubishi my initial thought is ‘credit too low for a Nissan’. Unsure if merited, but that is where I am.
I suppose i can find out on my own, but do second row seats happen to be captain chairs? We have one child and a large dog, so I have come to the conclusion the way to do SUVs for us is to uninstall one second row seat to serve as a dog lounging area, and have the nominal third row for the occasional passenger. Sorento is the only one I know at this size, and now the new Santa Fe (but not the older Santa Fe).
can i get a yamaha engine to go with the speakers?
I had one of these as a rental for about a week and was surprised that I liked it. I’m aware it’s a Rogue, or at least it has the drivetrain of a Rogue. I absolutely hate the shift lever – stupidest thing in the world and totally pointless answer to a question no one asked. It’s not fast but the power was fine and it got the job done. Completely disconnected steering was the worst part, which made it somewhat fatiguing to drive. Third row is a useless, there should be a delete to make extra cargo space.
A lot of up and down comments from the usual suspects. I actually own and drive 3 Mitsubishi vehicles, a 2024 Mirage, and 2 Outlanders, a ‘22 model SE and a ‘24 model SE with the tech package and panoramic roof.
Never feeling underpowered with the “8-speed” CVT if you are used to driving a 3.5 F150 Ecoboost every day like I once had for a company vehicle you might miss a little bit of the power but the quiet ride and overall build quality is much better than any F150. And you don’t have to replace the engine every 80,000 miles…
My wife and I love our Outlanders. Zero problems so far and a lot of folks ask me what it is and where they can buy one and another thing… if you want an appliance, get yourself a RAV4 or CX5 but if you want something that isn’t so boring and mainstream, don’t sell yourself short and test drive an Outtie.
Remember that the United States is no longer the largest automotive market and worldwide, Mitsubishi is doing well especially for its size.
If you want a compact 3row SUV and don’t want to drive what everybody else is driving then pick up an Outlander.
I love the Outlander love from an experienced owner. The lack of issues is a good sign.
Once a company is down to 1-2 models do people just stop showing up to shop and go to a dealership with more to choose from?
Are you really intending to cross-shop an F150 with a Mustang?
Or did you just want to compare the Escape and Bronco Sport?
Because Mitsubishi lets you compare across three sizes of SUVs with the Outlander Sport/RVR/ASX to the Eclipse Cross to the Outlander. Seems to align to what so some of the other brands are selling these days, unless you could trucks.
So Dodge and Chrylser are doing just as well as Mitsu?
I think the best case you can make for this car is around the base model. Once you get above $35,000 you’d be better off getting a base model of something like a Highlander even if you have to stretch the budget. It’s a terrible value if you go above $40,000 because the Outlander is going to depreciate very sharply. I like it as an option for someone who wants a 3rd row and doesn’t want to overpay for a used crossover with an expired or about to expire warranty. So, basically the same thing I would have said about buying a new Mirage instead of a 4 year old Civic or Corolla. Mitsubishi has found their niche.
Good to see you again Alanis. Beau, Jason, and David know that we will riot if they let some private equity ghoul take over this site.
I realize it’s been 10+ years since I last bought a car but holy crap.
Well they didn’t use the “Alanis has ideas about cars” .png, but hey, I’ll take it.
The front end was hit with an ugly stick. Otherwise a decent vehicle with a really nice interior.
It really wouldn’t be that bad if they got rid of the chrome parenthesis.
Mitsubishi is like Chlamydia. Every couple of years it pops up to remind you its still a thing.
And both are the result of bad life choices.
I am a Mitsu lover, but I think I will stick to stuff built before 2005
This is not a Traverse or Pilot sized car. This is more in line with the Rogue that it’s based on, along with the RAV4, CR-V and Tucson. The third row is laughable, but it is there.
Loaded out at $38k? Maybe. Loaded out at $46k? Fuck all the way off.
181 hp and 181 lb ft seem on the verge of dangerously low for a vehicle this size. I can’t imagine how this thing would perform in everyday traffic with occupants in each seat. Not much reference made to how that amount of power impacted drivability. Wondering if there was a lot of flooring of the accelerator / maxing out the engine even with just one person driving? Maybe the CVT compensates enough for the lack of power? I guess if it’s on the Rogue platform it’s not as big/heavy as it appears?
See, I think we’ve gotten a bit of a number sickness when it comes to power. I had the same initial thought. I looked into it though, and the 2024 has 8.2 seconds to 60, which beats my 4-banger Fusion’s time by the best part of a second. I’ve never felt like I couldn’t get out of the way sucessfuly in that. I couldn’t find the 30-70 time for the Outlander, but I wouldn’t think it’s terrible, given the 0-60. If the 2025 is the same(and it likely is close) 181 and 181 seem fine to me. Not exciting, but not unsafe.
It is supposedly rated to tow 2000 lb too, which is not something I would necessarily try, but does speak well for its ability to get moving unloaded.
That’s a lot higher than I would have thought. This doesn’t seem to be a bad little grocery getter. I’m not the world’s biggest SUV fan, but for $30kish…
Eh, I had a Golf rated to tow more than that.
It seemed to be content enough at highway speeds towing a trailer.
yeah I feel like that 200 number is really sufficient. Not much before the 2000’s had 200hp.. but i guess things are much bigger now also.
Not dangerous. That is plenty. Gearing make a difference. I see most new cars as having too much power for the skills of most drivers. I see massive hp cars merging too slowly onto the highway because the drivers are too stupid or timid or distracted. This much power is fine.
Nope. I rented one for two weeks last month in AZ..not the 2025 model but 2024. The only good thing it could do was annoy me…every…single…time…I..drove…it. From the shifter that I kept forgetting to put into park (you press a little button, otherwise pushing the shifter forward puts you in reverse) to the built in navigation system that kept telling me I was on a dirt road when I was on roads that have been paved for 20+ years to the gutless engine to the driving dynamics that made the SUV feel 2 class sizes larger than it was, everything was annoying. Did I mention that folding down the second row seats required me to find a small black loop of webbing on the black seats. That task not only took the manual but a youtube video (there were three of us scratching our heads there). We wanted the seats folded forward, not just tilted forward for third row access. I almost forgot, the dual control hvac system sucked. I have dual control on my Ford, Toyota, and Honda so I have some idea how they should work…this one didn’t. The only saving grace was that I had recently rented an MG overseas, so this was a step up, just a very small one. Free food and booze should not always equal a good review.
You might be challenged to drive any new vehicle it seems but every vehicle takes a moment or two to familiarize and get used to.
I believe the former, but not the latter.
“The Mitsubishi Outlander is a decent car…“ isn’t acceptable when spending $30k+
Your tittle states they are “pretty good”, yet you finish the article with “… it is a decent car…”.
You contradict yourself because you don’t believe it.
a third row for about $30k is a bargain. This car, specc’d out as reviewed, is bananas.
If you want seven seats in a new car, $30K is shitbox territory these days.
This is the spiritual successor to the old Dodge Journey.
Everything stated in this post is true and makes me sad.
Just get a 4 year old Honda Pilot.
I’m not buying either one, but a new Outlander has a 10 year 100k powertrain warranty, new cars generally carry promotional and/or lower financing rates, etc.
Not everyone can or should buy a used car.
Everything is 30k+ these days, sadly.
In Canada, Mitsubishi has the best warranty, which is nice when it comes to these constantly rising car prices and declining quality control. Also, the hybrid is an absolute bargain and the one I would go for, shame that it has a Nissan CVT though.
Canada is absolutely fill of these, but on a recent trip to the US I saw next to none.
The poutine warming compartment option didn’t really capture the imagination of the American car buyer quite like our neighbors to the north.
Outlander hybrid versions use a GKN Multi-Mode E-Transmission, which is not a Nissan CVT. Unlike the Nissan CVT, it’s a transmission I would trust.
I would definitely consider the Outlander Hybrid a very strong contender in this market, and it’s the best value for money by far if you want a three row.
I wouldn’t buy any CVT vehicle unless it was priced low enough that I would be OK with it dying on the day after the warranty expires. CVTs are hot garbage, best to stay away from.
I thought it had a different transmission, just couldn’t confirm it before posting my comment. I remember looking at these and thinking because of that, the hybrid is the one I would go for. My gf’s Honda cvt has been flawless for 270,xxx klms so far, but I would feel better getting an Ecvt /anything that’s not from Nissan.