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2003 Mitsubishi Outlander, Compact, 5-door Sport Utility Vehicle
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No need to sweat slipping and sliding, since the icy stuff remains in banks lining the road and the asphalt seems as dry as the high desert air. Besides, our little wagon totes an all-wheel-drive (AWD) system with viscous coupling differential in the center spot to divide the engine's muscle equally between front and rear wheels.
So all four tires bite the blacktop with steady and predictable traction applied as we take one curve after the next through foothills of the Cascades.
The AWD system is optional on this crossover wagon, which also stocks a feisty four-cylinder engine tied to a four-speed automatic tranny rigged with a clutch-less shift controller that works like a manual stick.
What's a crossover vehicle?
It's one that fits into more than one niche in terms of form, function and style.
In the case of this wagon, the unibody platform comes from a car -- Mitsubishi's compact-class Lancer sedan -- but the format resembles a sport-utility vehicle with a boxy cabin containing room for five riders plus a load of cargo in the rear bay.
The idea of a crossover vehicle combines the easy-to-drive manners of a sedan with the cargo capacity and cabin flexibility inherent in a sport-ute plus the thrifty fuel efficiency of a four-pack engine.
It's part sedan, part SUV and part economy car that's both practical and easy to use.
Mitsubishi tags this one as the Outlander and it comes ashore as the latest model in Mitsubishi's 2003 line.
Outlander divides into the two trim editions of LS and XLS, each stocking the same four-cylinder engine and available with either two-wheel-drive (2WD) or the full-time AWD mode.
The package size -- with 103-inch wheelbase and length stretching to 179 inches -- puts it squarely in the compact class. That makes it small enough to navigate easy through a crowded parking lot yet still large enough in the cabin to provide space for five passengers plus a load of cargo.
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