Subaru Outback vs Mitsubishi Outlander Video

Posted by Nathan Adlen on September 7th, 2010

There is something about the history of Subaru and Mitsubishi that makes for fun reading. They have been very competitive with each other for decades with vehicles like the Mitsubishi Evo and the Subaru WRX. Throughout the world, brand loyal fans cling to either automaker with as much ferocity as American Chevy and Ford fans do.

Many people do not know that some components (like turbochargers and electronics) have been shared by the brands and that they respect each other with the type of professional courtesy rarely seen on this side of the hemisphere. We have personally spoken to Subaru and Mitsubishi employees, both locally and direct from Japan and they are some of the most passionate, brand loving people you will ever meet. They’re mighty smart too.

This brings us to two very different, yet similar vehicles… the Subaru Outback and the Mitsubishi Outlander. In my estimation, they compete for a very similar demographic with very different interpretations on all wheel drive (AWD) family hauling. Both vehicles price around the same approximate $30,000-ish mark and both have fairly close performance numbers.

We slightly prefer the Mitsubishi and Roman prefers the Subaru.

Some quick differences:

Subaru Outback: Subarus are incredibly durable and we witnessed this first hand when we beat the living daylights out of an Outback on a dedicated rally stage. It shrugged off continued hammering by some of the most aggressive driving styles out there. Out tester was a 256 horsepower 3.6-liter H-6 with a five-speed automatic and leather. It looks like a rolling utility boot.

Mitsubishi Outlander GT: The Mitsubishi Outlander GT is closer to a proper crossover rather than a tall wagon like the Outback. I’ve driven every type of Outlander and (as a parent of young ones) I truly appreciate its utilitarian abilities. It handles better than many crossovers and even gives the driver a fun ride. It has a 230 hp 3.0-liter V6 and a six-speed automatic and leather. It looks like the Lancer hatchback’s Rubenesque cousin.

We may not be the brightest and we thought that it would be a hoot to take these vehicles off road; no, not on a dirt path, but on an off road section on the Rocky Mountains that requires most 4X4s to lock up their transfer cases. We ventured about halfway up the course and opted to minimize our stupidity index by returning back to civilization… before we did REAL damage.

Still, we drove these vehicles above and beyond their intended usage and were impressed by both.

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