2011 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport

It's very hard these days to find a flaw in a newly released car so significant it would prevent one of our editors from recommending the car to buyers. While a suspension may be too stiff for some of us, it won't turn off everyone. The ergonomics may be convoluted and confusing, but that won't stop a lot of shoppers, either.

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The horrendous engine that bellows from behind the dashboard of the all-new Mitsubishi Outlander Sport, on the other hand, is bad enough to strike this crossover off of any recommendation list.

If not for the drivetrain's poor performance, the Outlander Sport would be a terrific vehicle with good handling, a surprising amount of interior room and sharp looks. I just wouldn't want to drive it anywhere.

Performance

The Outlander Sport — a smaller, completely different crossover than the automaker's Outlander — finds its biggest problems in its 148-horsepower, 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine and optional continuously variable automatic transmission. The Outlander Sport boasts impressive gas mileage figures of up to 25/31 mpg city/highway, but the pursuit of high mileage results in an engine that's a mighty loud miser.

Accelerate hard from a stop, and the Outlander Sport lurches briefly before the engine burbles up to speed. With a CVT, there aren't any natural shift points, so that burbling just gets louder. At certain points in this buildup, the tone sets off a rattle in the dashboard. It wasn't a pleasant symphony of automotive sounds, to be sure.

I don't mind that the engine — even when coaxed with the CVT's shift paddles — moved the crossover slowly. You can be slow in this segment, you just can't sound like a World War II Jeep crossing Normandy.

The braking response, ride quality and handling of the little crossover are all pretty terrific. While the ride is a little firm, it bests the Hyundai Tucson and Kia Sportage in terms of comfort, and it handles nimbly.

I hit parking lot after parking lot during holiday shopping trips while testing the Outlander Sport, and if there's a better vehicle for such a task I don't know what it is. The crossover's nimble feeling and commanding ride height are the things a lot of shoppers in this segment really want.

Road and wind noise are fairly muted — at least as far as I could tell when the engine wasn't roaring at me. I was not able to test the manual transmission which is only available on the base model.

Exterior

The Outlander Sport is the second Mitsubishi designed with the automaker's new corporate grille in mind. The rest of the lineup, including the larger Outlander, got a version of the grille slapped on after the Lancer compact car's redesign made a splash with customers.

On the Outlander Sport, the grille looks natural and properly sized, and it complements the crossover's masculine design — and masculinity isn't typically seen in a segment often referred to as “cute-utes.”

Our SE tester had stylish 18-inch alloy wheels, and even the rocker panels had a curve to them.

It's clear Mitsubishi spent a lot of time on this little crossover's design, and it's striking enough to bring folks into the dealership.