considering a purchase but have questions
 

Hello!!

So, I just sold my 2011 Outback 2.5 to get rid of some debt in preperation for a new home purchase. So, with that in mind, I need a lower car payment and teh Outlander caught my attention. I LOVE the CVT in the Outback. quick response off the line and it always seems to have power. I drove the flat 6 and it was not worth the money, the CVT and 2.5 worked so well.

Well, I drove the 2012 Sport and regular and they seemed to be pretty good but not quite as responsive as teh Subaru. I live in the NW and ski at least once a month if not twice. So, AWD is a MUST. I heard that the Mitsu is pretty good on AWD but I am worried about having power going up the mountain. could anyone give me some feedback on hills and power?

I like that Mitsu gives a lot of option for around 21k, where Subaru chrages out the wazzu for even bluetooth. That is annoying! But, the Subaru was solid. The forester that I drove seemed like the Outlander Sport.

Anyway, sorry to ramble on but I need to buy soon and any advise would be great!

Any thoughts on moutain passes wilth snow?

The AWD system will probably be at the very worst exactly the same (open diff FWD biased).
Mitsu purposely makes the throttle less responsive, you can do a wiring mod to enable sport mode to remove the throttle lag. I would get the V6 Outlander if you want to do mountain driving...although my mountain pass driving is a steep 8.5% grades at 110 km/h and thats in 4th gear at about 3,000 RPM...so I would guess the Sport would not be able to easily keep up without really stressing the engine.

yeah, I had no issues in my Outback and my friends Impreza but I guess every car is different. I am trying to stay around 20K so the v6 might be too much money.

I agree with ivanz. the AWD is pretty good. My wife used to have to go through some hills area in the winter and I felt pretty good about her getting to work okay...as opposed to our previous car, an '00 Grand Am. We have the V6 and that thing has plenty of power to do whatever we want to do.

I've seen some youtube videos where someone in an outlander has a wheel in the air and it looks like the thing is immobile. Never understood why they don't give some brake so the one wheel isn't free-spinning...sending power to the one on the ground.

take a look at some of the older models. We picked ours up in '09 with 30k miles on it for $16.5k out the door. of course that was during the recession, so buying was easy. 07+ is the same generation. there was some freshening up in '10.

heh, just for giggles...this is a nice one!
Cars for Sale: 2010 Mitsubishi Outlander 4WD XLS in Kansas City, MO 64114: Sport Utility Details - 325699336 - AutoTrader.com

I drove teh 6 and like it but i think I low balled them too much. The dealer had a 2011 still on the lot (the sticker was faded and it had some door dings). I offered him $22500 for it. They didn't bite. The sticker was $29K. :) I would have paid 24 probably but I didn't like the sales team. Very aggressive.

well, I bought a 2012 new sport SE for $20k. Man, this car does have a ton of options for themoney but I can tell you that the engine and CVT are not on par with the Subaru and Nissan.

When going up a hill, mine seems to learch or serge a little. anyone else having that happen? Can they reflash the ECU for better CVT performance?

Mitsu uses the exact same transmissions as Nissan, they jointly own Jatco. Both the Juke and Outlander Sport, for example, share the Jatco JF011E. Subaru also uses Jatco for CVTs.