Mitsubishi Outlander review

No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you, the Mitsubishi Outlander really is back. And if you have no idea what we’re talking about, here’s a quick recap: back in 2021 Mitsubishi announced it was exiting the UK market, but recently it reverse-ferreted on that decision. The Outlander is back on sale along with the Mitsubishi L200 pick-up truck.

Why the change of heart? Well, here’s the thing: Mitsubishi was ahead of the curve with the last Outlander. Way back in 2013 it was introduced as a plug-in hybrid (PHEV), which was a rare beast back then. Being able to potter around town on electric power with a petrol engine to deal with any longer journeys equalled no range anxiety. It was novel and by-heck it was popular. Mitsubishi ended up selling 55,000 of them before exiting the UK stage left. It didn’t invent the plug-in hybrid, but it was arguably the brand that put PHEVs on the map.

The thing is, sales of PHEVs were expected to drop off as more people went fully electric. But it turns out people liked the PHEV option more than expected and sales have kept growing. So Mitsubishi decided to stop watching its rivals milk the spoils of its early endeavours and grab some of the action back for itself. 

There is a problem, though. These days nearly every manufacturer has some sort of PHEV in its line-up – including rarified brands such as Ferrari and Lamborghini – and the family SUV class is rife with them. But the Outlander is a PHEV with seven seats (if you stick with the entry-level trim), and there aren't many of those to choose from. 

The Skoda Kodiaq, for instance, is available with seven seats, but not if you want it as a PHEV. And that’s a common theme, because focusing on the holy trinity – SUV, seven seats, PHEV – the Outlander’s rivals are mainly limited to the Kia Sorento, MG S9 and Peugeot 5008. But is the new Mitsubishi Outlander better than those? 

What’s new?

- June 2026: The fourth generation of the Mitsubishi Outlander goes on sale in the UK

How fast is it and which engine is best?

You can’t choose the wrong engine because you don’t get a choice. The Mitsubishi Outlander comes with a 2.4-litre petrol engine supported by two electric motors – one driving the front wheels and the other driving the rears.

In total that adds up to 295bhp, which sounds handy but the Outlander isn’t crazily quick. 0-62mph takes a respectable 7.9sec, which is quicker than the MG S9, and similar to the Kia Sorento and Peugeot 5008 PHEVs.

The main thing is the Outlander offers plenty of usable performance. When you’re driving normally the engine is responsive and gathers speed effortlessly, whether you’re ambling around town or gathering pace to join a motorway.

The Outlander’s 22.7kWh (usable) capacity battery gives it an official electric-only range of 53 miles. That’s much better than the Sorento PHEV’s meagre 34 miles and also pips the 5008’s 48 miles, but falls short of the S9’s official 62 miles. Mitsubishi claims the Outlander’s total range – with a full battery and petrol tank – is over 500 miles.

If you need to tow anything, the Outlander can pull up to 1600kg. That’s not bad by PHEV standards but well down on the best petrol and diesel alternatives.

Is it agile and is the ride comfortable?

The Outlander’s steering feels artificially heavy at first but not to a level that makes it hard work around town. And having some heft around the straight-ahead does help prevent any unintentional meandering when you’re travelling quickly on straight roads. 

Get to a twisty section and the steering feels direct and accurate enough, so you can place the car easily, but there’s a noticeable amount of body lean. It’s not a barrel of laughs to hoon down your favourite road, but neither are its rivals. More importantly, the Outlander feels predictable and easy to drive when you’re bowling along at sensible speeds.

The Outlander’s ride is less jarring than the Sortento’s, dealing with most potholes ably and remaining largely settled on motorways. It’s not perfect, though. Like the S9, it fidgets over patchy town roads, and the rear end tends to spring off big crests when you’re travelling at speed on an undulating A road.

Is it quiet and how easy is it to drive smoothly?

The Outlander flits between its two power sources slickly, and it’s quiet while running on electric power alone. That’s hardly surprising, but a welcome surprise is how quiet it is most of the time when the petrol engine is running – although ‘most of the time’ is a very deliberate caveat.

You’ll hear some background rumble from the Outlander’s petrol engine when it’s charging up the battery at low speeds, and it produces a light but high-pitched whistle when the engine’s getting up to its peak performance. That said, the Outlander’s engine is never grating like the Sorento’s when it's revving hard. 

Elsewhere, there’s some suspension noise on rough roads and tyre noise on coarse surfaces, but wind noise isn’t impactful at 70mph. And while the brake pedal feels a bit wooden it’s not grabby, so you can get the Outlander stopped smoothly. 

“The Mitsubishi Outlander isn’t going to win prizes for its dynamic abilities, especially from those looking for an engaging driver’s car, but it’s perfectly capable and easy to drive at normal road speeds.” – John Howell, Deputy Reviews Editor

What does the interior look like and is it well made?

The Mitsubishi Outlander’s interior looks plush in the pictures, doesn’t it? Well, that’s because you’re looking at the top-spec Diamond trim that comes in a fancy two-tone colour scheme with diamond-stitched natural leather. 

The trouble is we don’t recommend the Diamond trim because it loses the seven-seats that make the Outlander PHEV so appealing. To retain seven-seat versatility you have to stick with Nativa trim, which is universally dark and comes with faux instead of natural leather.  

And when you get up close up and start prodding and pressing various bits of the interior, it isn’t as fancy as it appears from a distance. Yes, there are softer plastics here and there, but a multitude of cheaper-looking ones, too. 

Take the carbon-look trim that appears around the instruments and door switches. Have you ever been to one of those laughably awful waxwork museums where, for example, the David Beckham could be a Dave from Beckenham? Well, the Outlander's carbon trim is less convincing than that, and the fact it's in such obvious places is a constant reminder that all that glitters is not gold. 

Now, the Kia Sorento’s interior isn’t a work of art, either, but the MG S9’s is a lot smarter than the Outlander’s, and it’s quite a bit cheaper to buy as well.

Is the driving position comfortable and is it easy to see out?

If you’re a broader lady or gentleman, you might feel a tad pinched by the driver’s seat because it’s relatively narrow between the bolsters. But those of you who are less prosperous (as in thinner) will find it holds you in place well enough round bends and offers decent long-distance comfort. 

That’s partly down to the level of adjustability that comes as standard. The front seats are electrically operated and include powered lumbar adjustment and memory settings. The steering wheel is manually adjustable for rake and reach, but it’s a shame it doesn’t extend farther towards the driver.

Your view forwards and to the sides is good. The front windscreen pillars are relatively thin, and the low-ish window line and raised driving position boost awareness of what’s around you at junctions or if you’re grappling with a tight parking spot. 

The view out the back is more restricted due to the chunky rear pillars and partially obscured rear screen – the rear headrests get in the way. That said, both trims come with front and rear parking sensors, a 360-deg camera, and LED headlights as standard.

Are the dashboard and infotainment system easy to use?

The Outlander’s digital driver’s display is easy to read and very configurable, but the on-screen menus you scroll through to set it up are too fiddly. The driver’s display is complemented by a standard head-up display, however, which is a nice touch. 

In other news, the dashboard is festooned with physical buttons. That’s not the lead-up to a moan, by the way. Quite the opposite: Mitsubishi deserves massive respect for remembering that not all progress is good.

These days most manufactures, including those offering direct rivals such as the Peugeot 5008, vanquish any vestiges of usability from their cars by forcing you to trawl through touchscreens to turn anything on or off.

The Outlander’s physical buttons are a two-fingered salute to that sort of stupidity and provide a respite of simplicity. Want to tweak the climate controls? There’s a button for that. Want to change the drive mode? There’s a button for that, too. Are you getting the theme?

You still get a touchscreen, of course, but that’s a bit old-school for the wrong reasons. The 12.3in display is on the small side these days, and the screen’s definition – or relative lack of it – makes it feel several generations behind the crystal-clear curve of the competition. The menus aren’t that intuitive, either, but, on the plus side, the software is reasonably responsive. 

It comes with all the essential features, including wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, in-built sat nav, voice control and a wireless phone charger. 

Nativa trim has an eight-speaker Yamaha sound system, which, if we’re honest, sounds pretty average and too bass heavy. Mitsubishi made great claims about the quality of the 12-speaker Yamaha premium stereo in the Diamond trim, but we haven’t had the chance to try that one yet.

"Buttons, buttons, buttons. The relief of seeing physical buttons and not having to operate everything through a touchscreen is palpable. On that front, the Mitsubishi Outlander is top drawer." – John Howell, Deputy Reviews Editor

How much space does it have for people?

No big issues concerning space in the front of the Mitsubishi Outlander. Some of our testers are well north of six-feet tall and they had lots of head and leg room. The Outlander’s interior feels reasonably broad, too. 

Storage options aren’t as plentiful as they are in the Outlander’s rivals; you get a small glove box, reasonable-sized door bins (shame they’re not lined to stop what’s in them sliding about) and a smallish cubby under the centre armrest. The rear passengers have pockets for maps and devices stitched into the back of the front seats.

Again, our six-foot-plus testers had loads of head room in the outer rear seats, but that was downgraded to ‘enough head room’ when they shifted to the slightly raised middle seat. And there was just enough rear leg room when the front seats were positioned as far back as they’d go. There isn’t a huge rear tunnel taking up floor space and there’s a reasonable amount of foot space under the front seats, too. The rear seat squab is relatively low to the floor, though, which means the seating position isn’t ideal. 

The second-row seats also slide and recline, and if you move them forward a little it makes space for an adult to just about fit in the third row. As a reminder, the Outlander’s only a seven-seater if you stick to entry-level Nativa trim (top-spec Diamond trim is strictly a five-seater). But while technically you can eke out enough leg room to fit a tall adult in the third row, there’s nothing you can do to alleviate the lack of head room and awkward seating position. Like the MG S9, the third row only really works as occasional seating for adults, but it’s fine for smaller kids. 

If you need something roomier – and not just in the third row – the Kia Sorento is the one to look at. It’s appreciably more spacious whichever of its three rows you’re sitting in.

How much room does it have for luggage?

Mitsubishi doesn’t offer a figure for the Outlander’s boot volume, but we’ll measure it and do our usual suitcase test in due course. In five-seater mode the boot should fit a fold-up buggy easily, though. It’s reasonably wide and long, but not as high (from the boot floor to the tonneau cover) as the champion load-lugger in the class – once again that’s the Sorento. When all seven seats are in play the boot shrinks considerably, but there’s still room for a few soft bags.  

The boot floor is remarkably high off the ground but sits flush with the rear bumper. That helps if you’re sliding heavy items in or out, as does the wide-opening tailgate, which is powered on both trims. The boot floor is height adjustable, and, if you need extra carrying capacity, the second row splits and folds in a 40/20/40 configuration using handles located on the side of the boot.

“Having the option of seven seats with a PHEV is surprisingly rare, and while the Mitsubishi Outlander’s third-row seats aren’t massively spacious, I persuaded a six-foot friend to try them out and he fitted – just.” – John Howell, Deputy Reviews Editor

How much does it cost and what equipment do you get?

The entry-level Mitsubishi Outlander looks like good value against the equivalent Kia Sorento because it’s about £1500 cheaper. But it’s less appealing when you see that the Peugeot 5008 starts from around £4000 less, and the entry-level MG S9 is cheaper by a scarcely believable £13,000.

We haven’t been able to get PCP finance rates yet, but how competitive they are will depend largely on the Outlander’s predicted resale values and whether Mitsubishi is offering any tempting deals, such as 0% interest and a whacking great deposit contribution.

The Outlander’s official 53-mile battery range and low CO2 emissions earn a place in the fourth-cheapest company car tax band – the same band as the S9. The Sorento’s shorter range drops it down a band, which means it’ll cost you more in benefit-in-kind (BiK) tax.

We recommend the entry-level Navtiva trim because it’s cheaper and offers the flexibility of seven seats. It also comes with plenty of kit, too, including features we’ve already covered, such as the parking aids, LED headlights, powered tailgate, electric front seats, and various infotainment features. On top of that it comes with 20in alloy wheels, dual-zone climate control, heated steering wheel, heated front seats, and privacy glass.

Diamond trim adds ventilated and massaging front seats, ambient interior lighting, heated rear seats, and a panoramic sunroof. That’s all fine and dandy but it’s pricier and doesn’t get seven seats. 

Is it reliable, and how long is the warranty?

Mitsubishi has only just started selling new cars in the UK again, so it doesn’t feature in the latest What Car? Reliability Survey. The Outlander is backed up by a very healthy eight-year/ 100,000-mile warranty, though, and Mitsubishi retained its service centres after it stopped selling cars here in 2021, so there are currently 120 up and down the country. 

How safe is it, and is it easy to steal?

The Mitsubishi Outlander hasn’t been tested by Euro NCAP yet, but we’ll update you with its crash rating when it’s released. 

It comes with a full suite of safety assist systems, though, such as forward and rearward automatic emergency braking, lane departure assist, traffic jam assist, traffic sign recognition, and blind spot monitoring.

"The Mitsubishi Outlander price conundrum is that it's barely any cheaper than the much bigger, more practical Kia Sorento, and those searching for real value for money will likely be swayed by the incredibly cheap MG S9." – John Howell, Deputy Reviews Editor

Buy it if...

–You want a plug-in hybrid family SUV with seven seats, there aren’t many others
–You want a decent electric-only range
–You value lots of standard kit and a long warranty

Don't it if...

–You’ll be carrying seven tall adults for long distances regularly
–You want the cheapest plug-in hybrid seven-seat family SUV
–A Euro NCAP safety rating is one of your key requirements 

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