Mitsubishi Outlander vs Volkswagen T-Cross

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.

There are so many new little SUVs out there and it might be easy to think they’re all the same - a tiny cheap SUV is just a tiny cheap SUV. But I’m convinced the Volkswagen T-Cross isn’t like the others.

Yes, it’s tiny and relatively cheap, but it can do more than most of the others from the storage and space it offers to the value-for-money and its level of refinement. Then there’s the way it drives - which can’t in my books be matched by any of its rivals.  

The sweet spot in the range is the entry grade Life. At $35K drive-away the value is best and with no difference in engines between the grades there are no huge reasons to step up higher in the range unless you have the money.

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

The T-Cross is Volkswagen’s smallest SUV at 4.1m long and even though it’s closely related to the little Polo hatchback it looks more like a mini version of the Tiguan.  

It might be tiny and relatively affordable but it has Volkswagen’s premium looks and sharp styling, with creases in the panels so crisp it looks like somebody just ironed it.

This update has brought new front and rear bumper designs, and new styling to the LED running lights and tail-lights. That’s typically how car companies do exterior design updates, inside the styling changes are pretty minimal, too.

There’s new dashboard design and new media screen, but again the design and quality feels refined and high quality, which I can't say goes for a lot of this car's rivals.

The entry-grade Life misses out on the cross design tail-lights of the Style and R-Line, and gets hubcaps rather than alloy wheels like the other two grades.

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.

You really should take a look at my video to get an idea of how good space and storage is in the T-Cross. I’m tall at 189cm but I can drive with plenty of elbow room and legroom. The front seats also have really long bases which offer great under-thigh support, too.

Legroom in the back is great for the class and I can sit behind my driving position without my knees touching the seatback, while headroom is excellent, too. The second row also slides on rails to increase the boot side which is enormous for the class at 455L.

The second row doors also have large apertures making entry and exit easier.

Cabin storage is great with giant door pockets in the front and back, a wireless phone charger with four USB-C ports (two in the front and two in the second row).

There are three grades in the T-Cross line up, the entry level Life which lists for $33,990, the Style for $37,490 and at the top of the range is the R-Line for $40,990.

At the time of the launch of this updated T-Cross, Volkswagen was doing drive-away pricing of $34,990 for the Life, $39,990 for the Style and $43,990 for the R-Line.

Compared to rivals like the Mazda CX-3 and Toyota Yaris Cross, a drive-away price of $35K for the Life is excellent and $40K for the Style is also a good deal, especially when you look at the healthy standard features list.  

Coming standard on the Life are LED headlights, black roof rails and power folding mirrors, there’s a leather steering wheel, a digital driver display (which is new, too), there’s an 8.0-inch media screen, wireless phone charging, air con, digital radio, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

Stepping up into the Style grade adds 17-inch alloys wheels, matrix LED headlights - those are new - chrome-look roof rails, an LED grille strip, proximity unlocking, dual-zone climate control, sat nav, and a new, larger digital driver display. The Style also gets the fancy 'cross' LED tail-lights like the R-Line grade above it.

The R-line is a new model sitting at the top of the line-up and it comes with sporty R-Line exterior styling plus 18-inch alloy wheels and dark tinted rear windows. Inside there’s R-line interior styling, 'Drive Modes' and a Beats sound system.

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.

The T-Cross has a 1.0-litre three-cylinder engine which sounds tiny and it is, but it's turbo-charged and the 85kW/200Nm it produces is plenty of grunt to move this little SUV which at just under 1.3 tonnes is relatively light. 

All grades in the T-Cross line-up have this same engine and there’s no high-performance variant, although the R-Line has selectable drive modes. Every T-Cross is front-wheel drive with a seven-speed dual-clutch auto transmission. 

This three-cylinder is a mighty little beastie with a growly tone to it. There is some turbo lag during stop-start city driving, but it’s so eager to play that if it was a dog it’d be a Jack Russell with every intention to chase anything it sees but no idea how small it is.

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.

Smaller engines use less fuel than larger ones and the 1.0-litre three-cylinder in the T-Cross is little and Volkswagen says over a combination of open and urban roads it uses 5.6L/100km.

That’s fuel efficient but these days larger SUVs with hybrid systems are achieving the same low consumption. Toyota’s Yaris Cross is available with a hybrid system and will use about 3.8L/100km.

Volkswagen doesn’t have a hybrid version of the T-Cross, but it should, especially given these little cars will spend more time in urban environments where fuel consumption will generally be higher.

That said, most tiny SUVs don’t have hybrid systems so that makes the Yaris Cross exceptional while the T-Cross is about average.

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.

Quite possibly the best little SUV to drive for this price and size, the only drawback is that there’s a touch of lag in the time it takes the power to arrive at low speeds in stop-start traffic, but that can be remedied by putting the transmission in 'Sport' mode.

The steering is light and accurate, the visibility is excellent thanks to the big windows and raised ride height, the pedal feel under your feet is great and the brakes are responsive.

The car feels stable, planted and secure whether it's on a motorway, or a winding country road, while the little 1.0-litre engine is a champion that keeps punching with a throaty growl that matches its enthusiasm.

The seven-speed transmission is superb and changes gears fast, while the paddle shifter lets you take control to keep the revs high.

These little SUVs aren't sports cars but some are so underwhelming to drive it feels like performance was never thought about while developing the vehicle.

But the T-Cross made me grin until my face hurt on the steep winding hairpin filled roads we tested it on at its launch. 

The T-Cross was given the maximum five-star ANCAP rating in 2019. What is truly great is that on every grade you’ve got AEB, adaptive cruise control, lane keeping assistance, rear cross-traffic alert, manoeuvre braking, plus front and rear and parking sensors. 

For child seats there are three top tether anchor points and two ISOFIX points in the second row.

A space saver spare wheel can be found under the boot floor.

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.

The T-Cross is covered by Volkswagen’s five-year unlimited kilometre warranty.

Servicing is recommended every 15,000km or yearly and while there’s no capped price servicing you can buy a five-year plan for $2800, which equates to $560 per workshop visit.