2018 Mitsubishi ASX vs 2017

What's the difference?

The Mitsubishi ASX is Australia's best-selling small SUV.

Think about that for a moment. Mitsubishi's smallest SUV is getting on for eight years old now, with only a handful of minor updates and style tweaks to keep it fresh along the way, and it's based on a car (the Lancer) so old that Moses might have sat his P-plate test in one.

And yet it's out-performing a host of newer, smarter options with absolute ease. So we spent a week behind the wheel of the top-spec ASX XLS diesel to figure out why.

Tim Robson road tests and reviews the new Mitsubishi ASX with specs, fuel consumption and verdict.

The Mitsubishi ASX small SUV has been a mainstay of the local Mitsubishi lineup since 2010, and the range underwent a minor update in late 2016 for the 2017 model year.

The five-seat, four-door SUV competes in the same segment of the new car market as the Mazda CX-3 and Honda HR-V, with the three cars representing the most popular vehicles in the burgeoning sector.

With the recent purchase of Mitsubishi by the Nissan Renault Alliance, the ASX is likely to soldier on in largely the same form until at least 2019, when it’s likely to be replaced by a vehicle that will share a platform and engines across all three brands.