The 2013 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport

This is the 2013 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport SE AWC 4-Door SUV in Mercury Gray and Black:

Yes it is gorgeous. It’s also compact, an SUV that isn’t overwhelmingly big or hard to manage for someone who has been driving sedans her whole life and finds SUVs intimidating.

I drove the Mitsubishi Outlander Sport for the entire last week, and loved some of the great features such as the rear camera for driving in reserve, the touch-screen GPS system for navigation, and the individually controlled heated seats that put the control buttons seat-side for blind control (because it’s just so darned cold out). The Mitsubishi Outlander Sport actually features multiple handsfree or easy to toggle (without taking your eyes off the road) systems, important for safe driving.

It’s well priced at $28,500, and other features I love are a ginormous panoramic glass roof and keyless entry and start up. The roof doesn’t open up, and gives you an unblocked view of the sky from front to back. The button start up means you don’t have to hunt through your bags to find your keys, they just have to be somewhere on you and the car senses it, and opens up and starts at your command. A service reminder system lets you know when it’s time to service the car, and there is the option to switch from all wheel to two-wheel drive.

It features a full range of safety features, including multiple airbags (even knee airbags). The back seats fold down incredibly easily, no muscles required, and give a decent amount of room for transporting large items. It doesn’t have a power lift gate, which would be very helpful, and the vehicle we tried could have used more pickup (a 4 cylinder on a four wheel drive made it a bit of a slow go, so a six-cylinder is better, even on this more compact SUV). It averages 26 mpg, average for an SUV but a tad low for 4 cylinders.

We really enjoyed testing out the Mitsubishi Outlander Sport 2013. It has some great features we really loved, and while there were a couple things we’d have preferred different, overall it’s a great, affordably priced family vehicle that we would recommend.