The third-row seats are pretty compact, with not much kick room under the second-row seats or legroom at all and the headroom was tight for me at only 162cm. So unlike its five-seater sibling, legroom is not the seven-seater's strong point!!
Storage in the boot of the Outlander was quite good with five of the seven seats in use, it held 14 shopping bags from empty or all types of strollers fitted with good amounts of shopping bags beside them. Or you could get a large family dog in the boot.
When using all seven seats only four shopping bags would fit or the Mountain Buggy Nano compact stroller with two shopping bags.
The media screen in the Outlander does have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto which is fantastic! It was easy to navigate, and you can mute the sat nav voice easily by touching the mute button on the media screen easily while you are driving.
I did find the air conditioning really blowy and loud in the Outlander and even the lowest setting was far too strong to be comfortable.
The Mitsubishi Outlander has a five-star ANCAP safety rating in 2014 and has seven SRS airbags as standard.
BabyDrive Indepth - Storage
In the front, there are two large cup holders at the front of the central console big enough for disposable and reusable coffee cups.
The front door pockets are large too and would hold my large refillable water bottle and my iPad, they are not lined though so anything smaller would rattle whilst driving.
The central console box is small and the lid doubles as your armrest.
There is no glasses case in the ceiling of the Outlander
The glove box is considerately designed, there is a shelf in the top of it that would hold an iPad or the manual giving you all the rest of the generously sized glove box for your storage.
I really liked this feature as you can keep the manual out of the way as lets face it we hardly ever use them so having them taking up most of the space in the main part of the glove box is rather silly! There was plenty of room in the main section of the glove box for an iPad, wallet, keys etc.
In the back, there are map pockets on the back of both front seats, they will hold but not conceal an iPad.
I found the rear door pockets very practically shaped and they would hold two 600ml bottles. I found they would hold all combinations of child and baby drink vessels; sippy cups, bottles with straws, baby bottle and up to large refillable water bottles. This was another great feature for BabyDrive!
There is also a fold-down armrest in the central seat back with two more cup holders, well sized for reusable and disposable coffee cups.
The great storage continues into the boot as well. There is plenty of room for a large dog when you are only using five seats. Or with the boot empty you can get 14 shopping bags in it.
The Mountain Buggy Duet twin stroller fitted with four shopping bags.
The boot space and its functionality are really important. I like to have a big boot space and little side wells or areas I can divide things into. So something I don’t want to move around while I’m driving such as Tulsi’s lunch bag or her wet swimming gear can be sectioned off in a little well where it’s not going to spill or get squashed by the rest of the things in the boot.
Hooks for securing shopping bags to are also favourites of mine, I like being able to secure the bag containing more fragile things like eggs so they don’t move around on the journey.
I measure the boot space in freezer shopping bags, prams and dogs. Not because I think all there is to a mum’s life is food shopping, prams and dogs. (Although it can feel like it sometimes!!) But because these are visually measurable items we can all associate with. For me, the car company boot measurement of litres is not an amount I can easily visualise and 400L in one car may differ in usability to that in another due to the configuration or shape of the space.
Our Britax Flexx tandem stroller would fit with five shopping bags.
Our Mountain Buggy Urban Jungle stroller would fit with five shopping bags in as well.
The Mountain Buggy Nano compact stroller would fit with ten shopping bags in as well.
When you are using all seven seats the boot is tiny, it would hold four shopping bags.
Or the Mountain Buggy Nano compact stroller would fit with two shopping bags in as well. No other strollers I tested would fit.
The retractable roller blind in the Outlander is really flimsy feeling and not great quality, I had the problem that when getting it into position it scratches the sides of the walls and is hard to manoeuvre.
When using five seats the boot floor is nice and flat and carpeted so you can do an emergency nappy change!
BabyDrive Indepth - Noise
The parking sensors in the Outlander are rather loud and potentially baby waking! You can’t alter the volume of them but they can be turned on and off with a button by the driver's right knee. When you turn it on it makes a ‘do-doh’ sound just to let you know it’s activated!
Becoming a parent I soon realised there are some noises and sounds I feel are unnecessary and I could happily live without if it meant my baby stayed asleep!!
That often the distraction of my screaming, distressed baby is more dangerous when driving than not having a lane departure warning for example.
If it is the lane departure warning beeping that creates distress with my baby then which is safest?
It’s where I think we need to be able to strike a balance and choose when we can mute the warnings or swap them to a vibration in the steering wheel or flashing light perhaps?
A lot of these noises come with the increase in technology and especially linked to safety features and alerts. For me these all have their place.
Another thing I have realised is I spend my time in a lot more places where small children roam, parks, beaches, play gyms, swimming lessons, daycare centre etc. I have become more aware that when I’m reversing or manouvering in the car parks I have to tripple check for small children running around behind me or being in my blind spot when reversing. For this I LOVE reversing cameras, I just don’t like their beeping sounds!!
I have become so much more aware of safety and potential accidents or hazards since having a child and so I love the peace of mind that I get from the cameras and sensors combined with my own vision from windows and mirrors as I don’t trust cameras alone.
The lane departure warning had a rather baby waking sound that you can’t alter the volume of but you can turn it on and off with a button down by the driver's right knee and you can turn the parking sensors off there too.
Some of these safety features are also features that drive me crazy as a mum! Like the lane departure and forward collision alert or the parking sensor beeping sound.
I want all the safety technology AND to be able to mute the sound when Tulsi’s asleep!
The indicator volume could not be altered in the Outlander but I found it was not disturbing for my bub.
The Outlander media system uses Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, there is no built-in Sat-Nav in the Outlander so I just used the satnav from my phone, which made muting the sat nav voice simple and easy to do with one press on the media screen.
I find on most journeys when I use sat nav I only need directions for the last part of the journey. I know how to get to the area I am going and then it’s just the exact address I need help with. Because I need to input the address before I head off I found myself on most occasions when you can’t mute the sat nav voice having to listen to all the directions, which disturbs your concentration, any conversation in the car at the time or more importantly my sleeping baby! So being able to mute the sat nav voice until you reach the part where you actually need it is gold!
The opening of the windows of the Outlander I found quite quiet but they do close with a bit of a thud. You can lock the doors and windows from the driver's door control panel.
This model Outlander is the top-spec all-wheel-drive diesel model, which had a much-improved drive and engine noise. I could, however, feel and hear the road surface through the floor in the footwells, especially on motorways. It was a huge improvement on the petrol two-wheel-drive five-seater Outlander I reviewed last year.
BabyDrive Indepth - Car Seats
With a rear facing child seat installed in the second-row seats, legroom is tricky! The second-row seats do slide, however, even with the second-row seat in it's furthest back position, there is only 28cm of knee room in front of a rear-facing child seat and no leg room for the third-row seats.
The Outlander seven-seat model has three top tether points in the second row. They are within plastic guides but REALLY difficult to connect to because the plastic casing is the wrong way around so you can not attach the tether hooks the usual way facing inwards, they'll only fit going outwards and they are difficult to disconnect too.
There are ISOFix anchor points in both of the outer seats in the second row, they are not within plastic guides but weren't too difficult to connect to.
It' a real shame that Mitsubishi hasn't fixed the problem with the central seatbelt buckle, it sticks right up in the air above the seat on a rigid stem that you just can’t maneuver and any child seat I tried to put there I couldn't because of it and you definitely do not want to sit on! There is a similar problem in the larger Mitsubishi Pajero Sport which has its own set of family-unfriendly issues!
This meant I could only fit two child seats in the second row. I installed the Britax Graphene rear facing and the Britax Platinum Pro forward facing.
There are no top tethers or ISOFix in the third-row seats so I couldn't install child seats there. When accessing the third row, I found you have to uninstall child seats in the second row to fold the seat back forward and cimb through. The second row seats do slide to adjust the leg room. The seats are on a 60:40 split and the kerb side of the car is the 60% of the split so you'd have to bring two seat backs forward to access the third row and remove any child seats or passengers in two seats to climb into the back.
Once you are in legroom is an issue in the seven-seater model, with a rear-facing child seat installed in the second-row there was 28cm of knee room for the front passenger but no room for the third-row passengers at all. The third-row seats were pretty compact, not much kick room under the second-row seats or legroom at all and the headroom was tight too and I'm only 162cm.
The height of the ceiling meant that posting bub into their child seats from inside the car is fine.
Australia being a country of weather extremes- blazing sun and torrential rain, mean you may find it easier to put Bub into their seat from inside the car sometimes. If it’s hot you can get the air-con going, cool the car down and not stand out in the sun while you fasten them in or shelter from the rain and not get soaked yourself whilst you’re doing it. So it is important to test whether Bub can be easily installed from either direction!
Posting bub into her rear facing child seat from outside the Outlander was good too! The door openings are really big, making it nice and easy to post bub into her seat. There’s ample room to feed bub in the second row of seats if you only have one child seat installed.
BabyDrive Indepth - Drive & Comfort
The seats in the front of the Outlander are quite comfortable, however, I do feel the back rest is angled wrong and is tipping me out of my seat towards the door slightly so I couldn't sit straight. The seat base was not too long for my legs and I'm 162cm. The front seats have electric adjustment and were simple black leather, with minimal seams and detail so they would be easy to clean.
I found I could have a ponytail whilst driving the Outlander!
I had spent hours styling my hair this morning to get this ponytail just right too… said no new mum ever!!!
The outer seats in the second row are comfortable too but the middle seat is not because the seat belt buckle sticks right up in the air on a rigid stalk so you cannot bend it around your bottom or child seat base! So it really renders the central seat useless! If it wasn't for the buckle the legroom for the central seat is good and only has a very low hump in the footwell so a passenger would not have to straddle it.
For the first year of Tulsis life when we would go out as a family, if I wasn’t driving, I would travel in the back with Tulsi so it’s important to check the back seat comfort as you may be spending a lot of time there! Back seats were never something I gave any thought to before I had Tulsi but I definitely notice a good or bad back seat now!
The second-row seat base slides to help ditribute the legroom.
The steering wheel was fully adjustable in/out and up/down.
The cruise control in the Outlander I found to be quite accurate, especially driving on motorways. The controls are situated on the right of the steering wheel and are very basic but easy to use.
There are four air-conditioning vents in the front of the cab. Two large ones in front of the driver and two smaller ones in front of the front passenger. The controls are easy to access and use whilst driving, centrally located below the media screen. I found the air conditioning very blowy, even on the lowest fan setting it was too strong!
There are also two vents in the back of the central console box, which are reachable by the driver to adjust them while driving.
There is also a USB for the second-row passengers situated below the vents.
The rear windows are tinted and we didn’t find we needed to add window shades as well.
The visibility in the Outlander is excellent, especially as you can only install two child seats. The windows are large and deep so passengers get a good view out too. Rear-facing passengers can see out of the rear windows well because they are very deep. This good visibility makes the Outlander easy to park and maneuver, the side mirrors are nice and big too helping with visibility when reversing. There are handles on both sides in the back that are well positioned for hanging a child’s toy from to keep little passengers amused.
Both vanity mirrors in the front are lit and there are interior lights in the ceiling in the front, above the opening of the boot and in the central ceiling above the second row of seats. I found this positioning difficult as I could not reach the light easily at night when putting Tulsi in or out of the car and I couldn’t reach it from the driver's seat.
I often will reach back to turn on the interior light if I am driving at night time, I find my little girl gets less distressed travelling at night that way. It helps if I can reach the interior light from the driver's seat so I can turn it on and off whilst driving. I often find my daughter will need it on as we start our journey in the dark but once she falls asleep I can turn it off.
It is also useful when there are lights situated above the doors where the handles are usually positioned. These are good for when putting a baby into their child seats when visibility is poor, so you do not have to reach across them to a light situated in the ceiling centrally etc.
There is a 12V plug sockets in the boot of the Outlander, handy for the plug-in Esky when camping.
There are floor mats throughout the Outlander and they are all removable making cleaning easier.
The five-seater 2WD Outlander was terrible to drive in the wet or wind and bad on bends. I did not feel confident and had to drive really cautiously. The engine was very noisy and didn’t feel powerful enough for most hills. This top-spec AWD diesel Outlander doesn't feel the same, I think it's actualy a nice drive on motorways and on slower, undulating roads. The engine is not as noisy either but the road noise is still quite prominant and I could feel the road surface through the floor of the footwell.
The interior was much nicer in this top-spec model too, the dashboard was not full of plastic blanks and it was quite pleasant. There was still lots of shiny black plastic but it would all wipe clean easily once sticky little kids fingers had fiddled with everything!!
BabyDrive Indepth - Safety
The Mitsubishi Outlander was rated a five-star ANCAP safety rating in 2014. Scoring 35.58 out of 37 overall in crash testing, 15.88 out of 16 for the frontal offset test and full marks; 16/16 in the side impact test and 2/2 for the pole test.
The Mitsubishi Outlander is equipped with seven SRS airbags as standard. Frontal driver and front passenger airbags and a knee airbag for the driver. As well as front passenger and driver side airbags. Front and rear passengers also have curtain airbags.
There is only seatbelt removal warning for the ront driver and passenger seats, not back in the second and third rows where you would really want them as you can not see while driving.
The Mitsubishi Outlander Exceed that I tested comes with anti-lock braking system (ABS), electronic brakeforce distribution (EBD), emergency brake assist system (EBA), ultrasonic misacceleration mitigation system, emergency stop signal function (ESS),
electronic stability control (ESC), active traction control (ATC), hill start assist (HSA), automatic high beam,
adaptive cruise control (ACC),
blind spot warning (BSW),
lane departure warning (LDW),
lane keep assist (LKA),
automatic dusk sensing headlamps,
rear cross traffic alert and front and rear parking sensors.
Some of these safety features are also features that drive me crazy as a mum! Like the lane departure and forward collision alert or the parking sensor beeping sound.
I want all the safety technology AND to be able to mute the sound when Tulsi’s asleep!
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