My husband and I recently had the opportunity to drive for a week a 2013 Outlander Sport from Mitsubishi. It couldn’t have come at a better time. It was before the holidays and my husband and I wanted to get bikes for Christmas. We had no way of getting it home until we found out we were going to review this crossover vehicle. It also happened that week that I got a flat tire coming home from work. So for the most part I drove this car myself.
I have to start by saying that the 2013 Outlander Sport we drove was a manual. I haven’t driven a manual in a long time, and that is by choice. I know when I was young I thought manuals were “cool” and “fun” however as an adult who isn’t even all that fond of driving in the first place I’m not too keen on them and since I purchased an automatic I have not looked back. I believe this has a little to do with my less then positive review of the car.
Don’t get me wrong every car has its positive and negatives but test driving a car with a feature you already know you are not fond of makes it harder to really enjoy the car. It is also only fair to point out that all other cars we have test drove have been fully loaded where the 2013 Outlander Sport we drove was more of your basic model. Probably more like a car I would end up purchasing for financial reasons.
One of the positive features of this car that I really loved was the rep explained to me that the 2013 Outlander Sport was equipped with 8 airbags. WOW I didn’t even know you could put that many airbags in one car. I always thought there were usually two for the driver and passenger. That definitely got my attention and I found that I was impressed with this safety feature.
I also thought for a crossover the vehicle had adequate space. I am partial to SUV’s and crossovers so it is no surprise that I prefer the larger roamer vehicles. With three children it is definitely must have. It definitely was large enough to get home our bikes when our cars would not have done so.
As I mentioned above I think the manual transmission really took the joy out of driving this car for me. I just often felt like it did not drive well, though it was probably my lack of ease with the manual. We also often experienced the feeling that a window was open like air was getting into the car some how when we were driving which impacted our overall feelings about the car.
With all that said the price of the car is probably the best selling point. Many crossovers and SUV’s are high priced and almost unrealistically unaffordable for a large family like ours. According to the sheet I was given about the car the Total MRSP of the 2013 Outlander Sport is $19,995. This is definitely cheaper then the car I currently drive. I would be curious to see the difference in price on an automatic. I think if I had driven an automatic I would have a little more positive feeling about this vehicle.
Disclaimer: We received the 2013 Outlander Sport to test drive for one week. You may read more of my disclosure here.
