The new Mitsubishi RVR (Outlander Sport stateside) has an awful lot of things to like about it: 8.5" ground clearance,
low-bean xenons, huge see-through roof, Rockford Fosgate killer stereo, right size and maneuverability, great seats, Bluetooth, AWD, heated front seats, automatic climate control, Sirius satellite radio . . . the list goes on.
Unfortunately, it has two fatal flaws and when combined they totally kill the car. I drove several and try as i might I could not get past that absolutely horrible CVT and noisy underpowered engine. Either by itself is terrible, together they are terminal. The CVT is slow and noisy, likewise the engine. The 0-60 mph time is a whopping 12 seconds, slowest in its class, and while you are enduring it there is the ever-present drone of the CVT. Whatever slight mileage improvement you get from this monster of a transmission is more than offset by its technical shortcomings. Personally, I think it is cheaper to build which is why it's appearing in more cars. And the engine is just too underpowered for the size of the car, especially in AWD which is a necessity in much of this country, especially in winter. And climbing hills, don't even try . . . !
Mitsubishi could have hit this one out of the ball park. Instead, they lobbed it out to between 1st and 2nd base and the game was already over before it began.
Too bad. Really too bad.