Mitsubishi Outlander vs Ford Ranger

What's the difference?

Mitsubishi has leaned into its strengths with this Outlander update, spending its money in subtle areas to upgrade what was already a widely appealing mid-size SUV.

The local tuning has made a notable difference to the refinement and comfort of this version, while subtle updates to the software and interior trim help to refine things even further.

If you’ve had an Outlander before, you’ll love this one, although it doesn’t help the brand to challenge new players on the value front. This leaves you with the decision of whether to pick a brand with the reputation and network of Mitsubishi, or roll the dice on a far more affordable new player.

For what it’s worth, it’s genuinely tough to pick a sweet spot here. I think the best picks are at either end of the spectrum, with the ES being outstanding value, and the Exceed being particularly plush.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel, accommodation and meals provided.

Our time with the new Ranger was limited in terms of distance driven and the number of variants we could sample. We were also unable to test the vehicle with a trailer attached, so we’re unsure as to how well the new, lower-powered engine will cope with towing duties.

We do know the new engine is being welcomed by owners and fleets who held concerns over the technical layout of the previous 2.0-litre powerplant, but only time will tell if the reduced performance is seen as being balanced by the technical upgrades.

We can also tell you there’s nothing inherently wrong with the new 2.0L in the context of normal driving on normal roads and its refinement is still an improvement on a lot of its competitors’ offerings.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with meals provided.

Blink and you’ll miss the changes. Actually, squint and you still might miss them. Aside from the eye-catching new 20-inch wheels on the Exceed and Exceed tourer grades and the new ‘Moonstone Grey’ paint colour, it’s hard to tell the new Outlander apart from its predecessor.

Look closer and there’s new lower garnish designs front and rear, a tweaked grille and a smoked appearance for the rear tail-light clusters.

It’s very subtle stuff, but Mitsubishi has chosen to spend its time and money on upgrades on unseen areas.

For example, the bonnet is now steel rather than aluminium, which helps with noise insulation (and also has the side-effect of removing the high-speed ‘fluttering’ effect the aluminium bonnet had on the previous version), there’s additional sound insulation throughout the car, and cladding in the transmission tunnel to make the cabin a quieter place.

Back on the topic of appearance, though, the dash and console has also been tweaked a little. For example, the new screen looks a bit more contemporary, with a much smaller bezel and more attractive software. The console has been rearranged to move the bottle holders to one side of the electronic gear shifter, which makes for a larger centre console.

High-grade leather seat trims also now have alternate patterns, but the range follows the same trims, from cloth on the ES and LS, while the Aspire gets a microsuede and synthetic leather blend, while the Exceed and Exceed Tourer get the ‘high-grade semi-aniline’ leather trim.

Here’s a classic case of leaving well enough alone. Having figured out for sure that the Ranger’s looks weren’t costing it any sales whatsoever, Ford wisely decided to spend the facelift money where it counted most; under the bonnet.

If you have sharp eyes, you might pick the dark highlights replacing the chrome finish on some models, the new wheel designs and a couple of new hero colours for specific variants.

Beyond that, those big, bold, bluff looks continue with more than the odd nod to the US-market pick-ups that seem to inspire so many ute buyers in this country.

Inside it’s the same story, with those fabulous interior door handles that are so easy to use continuing and everything else remaining very, very Ranger-ish.

The previous Outlander was already known for having a spacious and versatile cabin, and this continues for the new car with a few small tweaks.

The width and satisfying seat positioning continue, and seats in all grades are generous and comfortable, but particularly the leather seats on the Exceed and Exceed Tourer grade we tested.

Adjustability is good in all positions, and the digital instrument cluster has an attractive dual-dial layout and functional display options. While not the best in class, it’s far better than many rivals.

The touchscreen’s new software is meant to be faster, but I found it a bit laggy still, although the integration of Google’s API into the navigation suite is an excellent tweak, making it relevant and useful for much longer.

The tweaks to the centre console make the area more space efficient and useful, but the new cupholders seem strangely shallow, potentially causing large bottles to tip. The tweaked centre console box is nice and large, and the wireless charger is nice and accessible, although its surface is not quite rubbery enough to stop your phone from leaving the charging area in the corners.

The back seat is noticeably stadium – you sit a fair bit higher than in the first row, which eats into headroom in cars equipped with a sunroof for adults. However, width is good, as is the seat comfort.

The rear doors open nice and wide, which should make fitting a child seat easy enough, and the floor is surprisingly flat, too, which makes the middle position more useful.

The third row, which I sampled in an Aspire grade, is both hard to get into and tight once you’re in there. The second row can slide forward on a rail, offering just enough room for me, at 182cm tall, to fit back there, with my knees hard up against the seat in front, and my head nearly touching the roof.

It is for this reason Mitsubishi calls seven-seat versions ‘5+2’. Good for kids, maybe, but not adults for any extended period of time.

The boot is enormous with two rows in use (485 litres in five-seat versions, or 478 litres in seven-seaters), and for this update, the space now has a wider aperture that should make loading objects easier. Space with seven seats up is 163L. Five-seaters get a full-size spare under the floor, while seven-seaters get a space saver.

Braked towing capacity is a middling 1600kg for petrol-powered variants. The brand says not many Outlander buyers are focused on towing as a key capability for the mid-sizer.

Despite the lower-tech new engine and its power losses compared with its predecessor, the 2.0-litre Ranger in dual-cab 4X4 form retains its full 3.5-tonne towing capacity.

Sticking with towing, if you option up the Touring Pack, the Ranger gets Ford’s 'Trailer Reversing Guidance' which uses cameras and the rotary drive-mode dial to allow the driver to take the hassle out of trailer reversing. Up to a point, anyway. But there’s also a great check-list menu on the info-screen to detect failed trailer lighting and other problems. The Touring Pack is now standard on many versions but still optional of cheaper variants.

Which ever version you buy, any dual-cab 4X4 Ranger styleside has a tub measuring 1547mm long, 1584 wide, 1224mm between the wheel arches (to accept a standard pallet) and a loading height of 816mm. The tub also features inner tie-down rails, a light, a tailgate-lift assist ram and cupholders moulded into the tailgate’s inner side.

Payloads for the various Ranger models are determined by kerb mass, which means the lightest variant, the XL can carry 1135kg, while the heaviest, the Platinum, is restricted to 981kg. Still a decent figure, to be honest.

Inside, the Ranger’s cabin ranges from the starkly utilitarian in the XL (vinyl floor mats and cloth seats to name just a couple of features) to extremely plush in the case of the Platinum with its four USB ports, wireless phone charging and even a row of six switch blanks ready for aftermarket accessories.

The front seating is definitely superior to the rear seat in the Ranger, and the latter features a fairly flat cushion and a backrest.

Lesser versions of the Ranger also get a conventional park-brake compared with the electronic one on more expensive models. We’ll take the manual version any day.

The Ranger line-up is vast, so we’ve stuck with the dual-cab 4X4 versions in the range for the purposes of this review, mainly because that’s what people are buying in the greatest numbers.

The line-up kicks off with the XL dual-cab at $51,400 in 2.0-litre form ($57,990 for the V6 version), before working through the Black Edition 2.0-litre at $53,000 drive-away ($60,000), XLT at $67,990, the Wolftrak at $73,000 drive-away, Tremor at $75,090, Wildtrak at an identical $75,090 and finally the Ranger Platinum at $80,890. We’ve left the Raptor and Super Duty variants out of this as they’re completely separate vehicles despite sharing basic architecture.

Within that line-up, of course, there are some new models making a debut, some old ones disappearing and other familiar names making a return. The variant saying goodbye is the Sport, which is being replaced by the Wolftrak with a slightly more off-road focus. It includes the 'Touring Pack' that features the 360-degree camera.

The Tremor which was a special edition, has now joined the fleet permanently, and it gets all-terrain tyres and a 26mm lift to its ride height. The Tremor is now also available for a limited time with the V6 engine.

The main changes to the across-the-board specification include the 12-inch screen, a 400-watt inverter and dual-zone climate-control. Other notable additions include matrix LED headlights and a Bang & Olufsen stereo system for the Wildtrak variant.

Across the fleet, all versions that come standard with the 2.0 litre turbo-diesel can be optioned with the V6 turbo-diesel, and the Ranger now also has a standard 12 inch info-screen, a trailer alarm and front and rear parking sensors.

The petrol-powered Outlander soldiers on with a drab non-turbo, non-hybrid 2.5-litre four-cylinder engine, mated to a continuously variable automatic transmission.

The brand calls this combination “proven” and it’s hard to argue given it hasn’t cropped up with any major reliability issues in the pre-facelift car.

Still, it produces a middling 135kW/244Nm, not as punchy as many turbo options, and nowhere near as efficient as hybrid alternatives.

Those seeking a more powerful fuel-sipping option may want to wait for the PHEV version arriving later this year.

While the V6 turbo-diesel remains unchanged with its 184kW and mighty 600Nm of torque. It remains paired with the 10-speed automatic transmission and the availability of a '4-Auto' setting for the drive system which allows for the use of all-wheel drive on dry bitumen.

The big change to the V6’s status is that it’s now available across the entire dual-cab 4X4 range, right down to the XL version with its rubber floor mats and steel wheels.

Now, if you were cynical, you might suggest Ford has made the V6 more widely available, because the four-cylinder engine option (once the only one available on lesser versions like the XL) has lost a bit of mojo in the transition to Ranger 2026.5.

The thought of a carmaker going backwards on specification and output for an engine goes against the grain somewhat, but in this case, the move to a simpler, potentially more robust engine design makes some sense in the context of long-term ownership costs.

Opinions are divided on how many of the previous 2.0-litre engines posed problems for their buyers, but the fact remains that the wet timing belt (where the rubber belt runs in an oil bath) design had a less-than-perfect track record here and abroad. And even if failures were only a small percentage of units sold, when that failure happens to you, it’s a 100 per cent failure rate…

So, Ford has re-engineered the 2.0-litre unit to use an utterly conventional timing chain, designed new pistons, a different fuel-injection system and reduced the turbocharger count from two to one. The theory is the more robust timing chain will reduce problems, while the single-turbo installation will save money at a production level. In the process, however, both power and torque outputs have fallen. In this case, the bi-turbo engine’s 154kW and 500Nm have fallen to 125kW and 405Nm respectively in the new engine.

Payloads and towing capacity have not been affected (the Ranger can still tow 3500kg) but there’s speculation that 125kW won’t drag a huge trailer around with the same ease as the old engine, even with the 10-speed automatic that’s fitted. Hence the V6 being made available across the board. Allegedly.

The counterpoint is that Ford has dropped the final-dive ratio of the 2.0-litre Rangers which should help with in-gear flexibility and acceleration.

The 2.0-litre-engined Rangers also lack the 4-Auto setting and operate in two-wheel drive mode exclusively on bitumen.

As a result of its relatively old-school sounding powertrain, fuel consumption isn’t at the forefront of the petrol-powered Outlander, with official consumption ranging between 7.5L/100km for the lightest five-seat ES 2WD version, to 8.1L/100km in the heaviest, top-spec Exceed Tourer AWD.

C02 emissions are also on the high side, which the brand will no doubt be off-setting with the new PHEV version which will offer even more emissions-free driving range than before.

One benefit of this long-serving engine, though, is it can be fed entry-level 91RON unleaded, better for the back pocket. The petrol-powered Outlander has a 55-litre fuel tank.

Ford claims a combined cycle (urban/extra-urban) fuel economy figure of 6.8 litres per 100km for the new 2.0-litre engine. We didn’t get too close to that, but that’s hardly surprising given real-world figures almost never match the official test figure. Rather, we managed 8.2L/100km in mainly relaxed country driving and about 9.5L/100km with a little peak hour traffic thrown into the mix. Either way, the Ranger should be pretty frugal.

The real question mark crops up when you hook a bobcat and tandem trailer to the tow-bar. We’ll have to wait and see how that affects economy on the 'little' Ranger engine.

Meantime, those real-world figures, combined with the Ford’s 80-litre fuel tank, mean a typical range of something like 800 to 900km between visits to the service-station.

And while you might be thinking a newly-developed, modern turbo-diesel would need AdBlue, the 2.0-litre as fitted to the Ranger line-up does not.

The Australian team had a significant amount of input on the driving dynamics of this new Outlander, but does it make a big difference behind the wheel?

We were granted the chance to drive the old one alongside the new version to find out, and the changes are significant.

Overall, the character of the car hasn’t been fundamentally altered. This is still a somewhat plush and soft-around-the-edges family SUV, but redeveloped new suspension parts and even very minor, nerdy modifications like the thickness of sway bars have added up to a much more pleasant vehicle to spend an extended amount of time in.

The first thing you’ll notice is the retuned steering. Mitsubishi’s engineers tell us the tweaked feedback was all down to the software in the rack, and it’s a big difference, upping the firmness of the steering at low speeds, keeping the vehicle on track with more confidence while heading straight, and also removing a slight twitchiness with sudden adjustments.

Next is the cabin ambiance. The new Outlander is a relatively quiet place to be thanks to the extra insulation throughout. It combines with the new steering to give the car much more of a sense of heft than before. The engine is reduced to a distant thrum, and the road is damped away for the most part. Mitsubishi says the 20-inch wheels are a particular hit with buyers, which to me is a shame because I’m willing to bet it’s particularly comfy on the lower-grade tyres.

Elsewhere, the Outlander has a softer initial response to bumps thanks to retuned shocks, and the reduced width of the front sway bar makes for less ‘head toss’ for front seat occupants.

Does it make a significant difference? Yes. The new Outlander is all-round better balanced and better suited to our road conditions. It might not have the sophistication of more expensive options, and it still might be a tad off what the also balanced-and-comfortable RAV4 offers, although it will be interesting to get one back to see how it compares to rivals in a like-for-like test.

Just expect a much more comfort-oriented option than some rivals. These changes don’t make the Outlander as fun to drive as a Mazda CX-5 or a Skoda Kodiaq. For example, while the 2.5-litre engine and CVT combo provides a surprisingly urgent initial response, it's a dull, rubbery power application from there on.

Since Ford has made no changes to suspension, steering, tyre specifications or braking hardware, it’s no surprise to find that the new version feels very familiar.

The V6 variants remain something of a revelation after some of the competitors’ four-cylinder engines, and the sophistication and refinement comes through immediately with the V6 slurring away at its upshifts and generally feeling like a high-end solution to a dual-cab propulsion problem.

But of course, we knew that, didn’t we? Exactly, so the big questions surround the new 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel with its new specification and downgraded outputs. Specifically, can 125kW and 405Nm cut it in this cut-throat market?

The initial answer appears to be yes. In fact, when you consider that not every dual-cab owner tows three-and-a-half tonnes with one, you can see why a smaller, more frugal engine might do the job. And there’s always the optional V6 if the job demands it, right?

Acceleration is nothing like the V6’s of course, but the new four-cylinder rolls along at highway speeds without a problem and can still accelerate to overtake. That’s largely a function of having 10 gears and a lower final-drive ratio, but the latter doesn’t seem to have made the engine feel manic or short-geared in any way.

Normal overtaking ranges, say, 70km/h to 100km/h feature lots of mid-range and it’s only when you wring the new engine out that it starts to feel a little puny at the top end. But it never fails to impress with its refined feel and fairly low noise levels and, if nothing else, it proves that smaller capacity four-cylinder engines have an inherent advantage in being smoother and silkier to rev than some of the big bangers out there.

Perhaps if you jumped straight from the outgoing bi-turbo variant into the new single-turbo Ranger, you might notice a decent fall-off in performance, but if you’d never driven a bi-turbo, you’ll never dismiss the new engine as anything other than completely adequate.

The caveat to all that is when we get to hitch a big load to the new Ranger and see what a couple or three tonnes does to that apparent adequacy.

The Ranger’s safety systems are among the better ones in the dual-cab market, in terms of their number and depth, but also their calibration and transparency.

All Rangers now have front and rear parking sensors and an alarm system that alerts the driver if the Ranger’s trailer is disconnected. There are also driver aids including adaptive cruise-control, traffic sign recognition, blind-spot monitoring, autonomous emergency braking, trailer-sway control, lane keeping assistance and pre-collision warning.

There are nine airbags including full-length side-curtain airbags for both rows of seats.

A little disappointingly for such a towing-biased vehicle, tyre pressure monitoring isn’t available until you get to the XLT trim level. It should be standard across the range on a vehicle like this.

The Ranger was locally crash tested by ANCAP back in 2022 where all dual-cab variants scored the maximum five stars.

Mitsubishi continues to offer its near-industry-leading 10-year/200,000km warranty, conditional on the car being serviced at a Mitsubishi dealer. Otherwise, it reverts to a five-year/100,000km promise.

The 10 years of warranty is joined by 10 years of capped-price servicing required at 12 month or 15,000km intervals.

Prices are tame, varying between $320 and $680 per visit, for a total yearly average of $434. It’s not the cheapest yearly average out there, but most brands also don’t have capped price servicing extended this far, so it seems like a good deal regardless.

Ford’s standard factory warranty for the Ranger is five years/unlimited kilometres.

There’s also the option of pre-paid servicing, available when you purchase the vehicle brand-new. By locking in the servicing cost, you can pay for the first four scheduled services up to 60,000km or four years, whichever comes first. That’s worked out in accordance with the vehicle’s 12 month/15,000km service intervals.

The Ford Australia website also has a service-cost calculator function where you can input your vehicle’s details and a fixed-price service cost will be worked out for you.

Ford Australia also has a huge dealer network, so parts and servicing should not represent a problem anywhere in the country.