2018 Outlander PHEV JDM version

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Woodman411

Well-known member
Joined
May 30, 2018
Messages
226
Location
New York, USA
While I was visiting Japan, we test drove a 2018 Outlander PHEV for a day, here's a pic:

View attachment 2G3A4374_lowres.JPG

It was hard to form an opinion of it since we drove it at mostly lower speeds (between 0-80 kph). Besides the sat-nav (dealer usually gives 4 or 5 aftermarket brand options), I don't see too much difference with other market versions.
 
WAH64 said:
I feel great with ZQuiet and suspect that car seat comfort is a very individual thing. I have owned a wide range of cars and for me, Outlander seats are pretty comfortable. By a country mile the best car seats I have had were in Saab 9000s and 95s; sadly Saab are no longer with us :(

Looks decent enough imo. Did something specific irked you about it, Woodman411?
 
ScottLi said:
Looks decent enough imo. Did something specific irked you about it, Woodman411?

Well, since you asked... :)

My biggest gripe about the vehicle is the seat comfort, or lack thereof. Both front and rear passengers were critical of seat comfort after a 2 hour stint, and both sides of the family are coming from Toyota backgrounds. To be fair though, we are probably more critical of seat design than the average consumer, and it doesn't help that my wife was in a car accident years ago and has a sensitive neck and back (after experiencing many vehicles, either owned or through family/friends, over various models and years, our preference of seat design goes to BMW, VW/Audi, Ford (German designed models only), and Toyota, in that order, and have consistently found Mercedes/Honda/GM/Nissan/Chrysler/Subaru seats uncomfortable). Other than that, the aftermarket sat-nav system the dealer installed was one of the worst ones they had experienced, but that's not directly Mitsubishi's fault.

The other issue, whether deserved or not, is Mitsubishi's reputation. It's terrible, at least with my wife's family in Japan. Not just because of the scandals, but in general they never considered it a high-quality brand like Toyota or Honda (please note this is just their view and perspective, no point in discussing the merits of this). As the Outlander PHEV MY2019 gets closer to reality in the USA, my biggest challenge is convincing my wife to give Mitsubishi a try.
 
Woodman411 said:
ScottLi said:
Looks decent enough imo. Did something specific irked you about it, Woodman411?

Well, since you asked... :)

My biggest gripe about the vehicle is the seat comfort, or lack thereof. Both front and rear passengers were critical of seat comfort after a 2 hour stint, and both sides of the family are coming from Toyota backgrounds. .

I know what you mean about Toyota seats, we had an Avensis for 16 years and it had the best seats I have ever had in a car up until then. However, although I had real reservations about the Outlander seat design I have no complaints despite driving early on to the French Alps - hours of motorway driving. The lack of a clutch (the Avensis being manual) and use of cruise control similarly limiting right leg work no doubt helped but even more ordinary driving has never had me feeling uncomfortable in or out of the car. :D
 
greendwarf said:
Woodman411 said:
ScottLi said:
Looks decent enough imo. Did something specific irked you about it, Woodman411?

Well, since you asked... :)

My biggest gripe about the vehicle is the seat comfort, or lack thereof. Both front and rear passengers were critical of seat comfort after a 2 hour stint, and both sides of the family are coming from Toyota backgrounds. .

I know what you mean about Toyota seats, we had an Avensis for 16 years and it had the best seats I have ever had in a car up until then. However, although I had real reservations about the Outlander seat design I have no complaints despite driving early on to the French Alps - hours of motorway driving. The lack of a clutch (the Avensis being manual) and use of cruise control similarly limiting right leg work no doubt helped but even more ordinary driving has never had me feeling uncomfortable in or out of the car. :D

Sad/funny story - when we visited Japan this year (same visit where we test drove the Outlander phev for a day), wife's family just replaced their old Toyota Noah with a brand new Honda Freed Hybrid, and the only reason they chose it over the Toyota Sienta Hybrid was that they didn't like the exterior appearance of the Sienta. We took hours-long drives every other day traveling places in the Honda, and everyone, from rear to front passengers, including driver, were squirming from discomfort in the Honda seats. When we saw Sienta's driving by, they said it doesn't look so bad anymore :lol:
 
I suspect that car seat comfort is a very individual thing. I have owned a wide range of cars and for me, Outlander seats are pretty comfortable. By a country mile the best car seats I have had were in Saab 9000s and 95s; sadly Saab are no longer with us :(
 
WAH64 said:
I suspect that car seat comfort is a very individual thing. I have owned a wide range of cars and for me, Outlander seats are pretty comfortable. By a country mile the best car seats I have had were in Saab 9000s and 95s; sadly Saab are no longer with us :(

I don't have any experience with Saab, and yes, seat comfort is subjective. But it is telling that Mitsubishi felt like it had to revise and advertise the updated seat design for MY2019 Outlander phev.
 
Seats are a very individual thing. I have never had a Toyota so I cannot answer for them.

Note, cars in different markets have their suspension tuned differently. I generally find the same cars in USA are slightly softer than the equivalent in UK/Europe.

Although I have been driving for 45 years, in the past 20 years I have had two Volvos, these were the most comfortable. But I have also had a 2002 Nissan Primera and two Honda Civics 2007 and 2011. The seats on the Civic are more shaped than those in the Outlander but the suspension on the Civic is much firmer. It is obviously a different type of car and handles very well but the compromise is comfort.

I have seen articles recently on the collaboration between Honda and Rover back in the '80's and '90's. On a joint collaboration, Rover wanted a particular front suspension that would give a more comfortable ride, Honda vetoed it as they wanted something which was more "sporting". The ride comfort apparently suffered a little with the Honda derived suspension being firmer than Rover wanted.
 
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