Love It or Leave It: Mitsubishi Outlander Sport

I’m back with another love it or leave it and this time we are talking about the 2015 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport. I loved the last Outlander that I was able to test drive courtesy of Drive STI, last year. The one I drove last year was the Outlander GT and this one is the Sport model. The most notable difference, to me, is the Outlander Sport model seats 5 as opposed to 7.

It’s pretty slick looking, and probably my favorite crossover. I loved the last Outlander I drove, but the third row seating was completely unnecessary for my family of 3. I don’t like driving huge vehicles, because let’s face it – I can’t park to save my life. So I loved the size of this one on the outside, and how spacious it was on the inside.

My kids had plenty of leg room and could easily climb in and out of the car by themselves. Not having to pick them up to stick them in a car is really important to me, because they’re over 50lbs each and mama has a bad back. The Outlander Sport is the highest rated crossover for safety. It has the LATCH child-restraint system, which is a necessity for me with two toddlers in the back seat. Even though the kids drive me insane on a daily basis, I still want to protect their big ol’ heads at all costs.

Luckily, this super safe and gas efficient (30+mpg/highway) crossover starts at just under $20,000. If you want all the bells and whistles (which I obviously do) it’s going to cost you a bit more.

I love the ease of the connectivity in this vehicle, but that was totally expected because it’s equipped with the FUSE hands-free link system. The sound system was banging. The whole family sang along to Frozen’s “Let It Go” about 200 times, and the audio was high enough to drown out our terrible vocals. My kids never get to listen to the Frozen soundtrack in the car because I wasn’t stupid enough to purchase it I can’t play Spotify through the car I currently drive. I easily connected via bluetooth and directly with the USB port in the Outlander, when my phone was close to death.

Most shocking about my whole test drive, is that the Outlander Sport has a 4-cylinder engine. I detest 4 cylinder engines, because of how glacially slow the vehicle picks up speed. I never had an issue with the speed or power of the Outlander Sport. I didn’t even know it was a 4 cylinder until I began writing this post. For those of you that care to hear to actual specs – it has a 2.0L MIVEC DOHC 16-valve 4-cylinder engine.  Whatever that means.

This vehicle came loaded with a ton of awesome features like heated leather seats, touch display audio system, rearview camera, a fancy start button, and my favorite feature – the giant panoramic glass roof. It made for some seriously amazing selfie lighting (see below). 😉 Also, clearly I’m voting LOVE IT on this one.

I can’t end this post without mentioning that I wanted to murder everyone in my path after buckling my kids into their seats because the seatbelt thing was UNDER their carseats. Dear Mitsubishi, please move those things like one inch closer towards the center of the back seat. It’ll aid in maintaining the sanity of parents everywhere.

I filmed a vlog during my time with the Outlander and talked about some of the other features I loved and didn’t love. Check it out below.

Shout out to Drive STI for partnering up with me and letting me drive these cars.