Road Trip Rides - 2025 Mitsubishi Outlander
Published December 5th, 2025
Photos by Jay Kana
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The Mitsubishi Outlander is the brand's best-selling vehicle and with good reason. It's comfortable, spacious, has plenty of standard features and a smooth drive feel.
After a spontaneous road trip from Mississauga to Quebec City, Montreal and back over nearly 2,000 kilometres, let's see if the Outlander is an ideal fit for your adventures.
Key Info
Body type: Compact SUV, three rows, seven seats
Engine: 2.5-litre four-cylinder, 181 horsepower, 181lb-ft. of torque, CVT
Drive type: All-wheel drive
Fuel economy: 8.8 litres per 100/km combined
Fuel tank size: 55 litres of regular 87 octane
Total range: 625 km
Cargo space: 308 litres
Towing capacity: 2,000 pounds when properly equipped
Standard features in the Outlander include a 12.3-inch infotainment screen, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, an all-new Yamaha eight-speaker audio system, heated front seats and their advanced Super All-Wheel Control all-wheel drive system.
My tester was the top-trim GT-Premium, which saw additions of cooled leather seats, a panoramic sunroof, 12-speaker audio, wireless charging, head-up display and more.
The cabin is well laid out with plenty of storage space and USB ports, the seats are both soft and supportive and on my road trip, there was no driver fatigue.
As an added bonus, the climate control uses physical buttons opposed to poking at a screen, making it very user friendly.
One drawback is the cupholders in the centre console are shallow so sharp turns or sudden braking may cause taller bottles to topple.
In motion the Outlander, despite having lower power figures than some competitors, has a respectable amount of get up and go. There are no issues accelerating to reach highway speeds, there's power available for passing and there's minimal road/wind noise that comes into the cabin.
The CVT helps to reduce fuel consumption and the ride feel is comfortable overall in both low and high speed conditions.
New for 2026 is a new engine with more torque and a 48-volt mild hybrid system, which we'll report on when we test drive it in early 2026.
There's ample space in the rear seats, and those seat backs recline quite a bit for varying levels of comfort.
The available panoramic sunroof lets light fill the cabin for an added feeling of openness. The third row is good for smaller passengers for shorter periods of time.
For those looking to do longer road trips, the Outlander is a solid choice. The all-new Yamaha audio system is quite impressive and comes with plenty of ways to customize your listening experience.
For one of the smaller automotive brands in Canada, Mitsubishi offers a really good compact crossover that does several things right and also does them well.
3 Perks
Strong list of standard features
Good for long distance driving
Excellent audio system
3 Irks
The plug-in hybrid version is a popular alternative
Compact third row
New engine for 2026 may reduce the 2025's appeal