Mmm, my nose is the first thing roused. Our Mitsubishi Outlander Sport's cabin smells exactly the same as my old Lancer when it was new in 2004. Oh, the (occasionally infuriating) memories. What worries me is I'm not entirely sure the interior is a big step up from 7 years ago.
The urban drive experience seems pretty banal but kudos to Mitsubishi for at least trying to give the interior a sporting attitude. The cloth seats are decently supportive (more so than a RAV4) and who would have thought paddle shifters could look good in a small CUV (not to mention they're mounted on the column!). I was trying to pin where I had seen the steering wheel design before; it's shared with the current base Lancer. Can't say I'm completely surprised.
I like vehicles with some character in the gauge cluster and it's a bit sad that the little colorful information center has better clarity than the "infotainment" system touch-screen. The navigation/sound system is in quotations because "60 percent of the time, it works every time." I'd try to change songs with the steering wheel controls and they'd only work sometimes. I hope there's a way to boost the touch sensitivity of the screen too because I found myself double-tapping a lot, and have I mentioned that it's SLOW. When I can see it slowly boot up and gradually load playlists and folders, the entire system needs more processing power. At least the volume control never failed.
Mileage: 3240