MITSUBISHI'S latest SUV should please those who can't remember station wagons.
The station wagon is dead. Which is a bit sad, really. Like many of my era, I have fond memories of the ubiquitous family wagon, packed to the gills with going-away gear or fitted out in what we thought of at the time as luxurious style — a mattress in the back.
I have spent some of the more fevered, least comfortable and most dangerously dehydrating nights of my life in the back of station wagons.
But the wagon has gone the way of the panel van, the digital watch and the one-cent lolly. No one seems to buy, or even make, them any more.
Its place has been taken, sadly, by the omnipresent, omni-functional SUV.
Sales of these American-lifestyle vehicles were meant to be in decline, yet it seems like every week we're putting on rugged shoes and heading off somewhere remote to drive a new one.
The only concession to the downsizing fashion, and the passion for economy, is that they're being launched with smaller, more frugal engines these days.
This seems like a fine idea, until you picture a cruise ship being powered by the outboard engine off a tinny.
The latest example is Mitsubishi's Outlander, which the company tells us fills the gap between the family wagon that parents used to buy and the Pajero they would get if they were slightly more fond of breathing dust and fighting ants for their dinner.
If you haven't heard of the Outlander (and that's no crime), you probably have heard of its closest competitor, Toyota's RAV4. And you'll be impressed to hear that, in Japan, the Mitsubishi outsells the beloved-by-women RAV.
No doubt buyers are impressed by the Outlander's styling — which, if you cover up the badge, doesn't look a million sketch pads away from the Mercedes-Benz M-Class.
Mitsubishi's ability to build the brilliant, all-wheel-drive Lancer Evolution series also means people are willing to trust its technical know-how, which provides the Outlander's All Wheel Control system.
AWC combines the car's stability-control software with its electronically controlled four-wheel drive system to make it grip like the fingernails of a man hanging over a cliff.
An Active Select system also means the driver can also switch between front-wheel drive, an active all-wheel drive setting and locked-in four-wheel drive — all "on the fly".
The Outlander's interior is reasonable, choosing function over form, but it feels well made and nothing rattles. It's also got nine cupholders. Nine.
Unfortunately, the lumbar support in the front seats is a bit too enthusiastic. It feels as though you've just got in the car after a really short woman who sits on a cushion, and she has quickly cross-stitched it into the seat back.
It was also made clear that Outlander buyers will be doing an incredible amount of shopping. Large parts of the car have been designed around this fact.
It has a drop-down rear tray, which can hold up to 200kg of groceries. To make all this load-carrying even easier, it has one-touch "roll and tumble" seats.
That makes it sound like they've got tiny Russian gymnasts in the back who obediently let you sit on them, then, at the press of a button, perform a forward roll out of the way, so you can fit in your arm-breaking 200 kilos of shopping.
An optional third row of seats is not recommended for people who don't like caving, or playing hide and seek.
When it comes to the drive, the Outlander's steering is reasonably communicative, the brakes are fine and the ride is rather clever, managing to stay smooth even on Tasmanian dirt roads that resembled a clay pan covered in marbles the size of tennis balls.
But it's underpowered — at least with the 2.4-litre, four-cylinder engine in the base model, priced from an attractive $31,990. This produces 125kW and 226Nm, which isn't that much when you're hauling 1560kg.
Hills aren't the Outlander's friends. Keep the willing but struggling engine up and buzzing, and it will maintain a reasonable lick of pace, but forget to get a good run-up at a slope and you can find yourself sliding back down it.
The three-litre V6 in the top-spec model, which begins at $37,890, has 162kW and 276Nm — that's more like it. Prices top out at $47,990 for the VRX.
Of course, the one thing an Outlander, or any other SUV, can't offer that station wagons could is a cornering-friendly low centre of gravity.
But moving the family unit is not about driving pleasure, apparently, it's about sitting tall and feeling (at least potentially) rugged. And the Outlander does all that with aplomb.
