So, it's nice out and I'm fooling around in the garage. The next thing I know, the Mitsubishi Outlander has teeth! I thought it would give it a more aggressive look, kind of like the semi trucks with their teethy winter radiator covers. But I'm not sure if I like it or not. However, I do find it amusing.

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Whatever happened to bumpers that could withstand a bump? Isn't there still federal regulations requiring bumpers to withstand a 5-MPH hit?
Our Outlander Sport got hit from behind Sept. 10, 2012, and, as you can see in the picture, got a hole punched in it. A pickup truck was stopped behind it at a stop sign when the pickup driver dropped something and while leaning over to retrieve it released his brake. It rolled into the back of our Mitsubishi.
The Mitsubishi goes into the shop tomorrow for repairs, to be completely covered by the dude's insurance, including a rental car while the Mitsubishi is being fixed. The repairs are going to cost over $1,100, the result of a little bumper-thumper.
I'm thinking maybe today's bumpers no longer hold up to those 5 MPH hits like they should. Maybe manufacturers should go back to steel bumpers. I think in our situation it would've held up much better.

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My car of choice for long road trips is the 2001 Toyota Celica. But this time I took the 2011 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport to see how it does on a long trip, mainly because my wife had hurt her ribs and it was hard for her to get in and out of the low-sitting Celica.
So, we drove to western Montana (an annual excursion) in the Mitsubishi this time.
This is my synopsis of how the Outlander did in comparison to past trips in the Celica. And the biggest surprise was the gas mileage.
The Celica is much more fun to drive because it handles so well. And while I thought the four-wheel-drive might come in handy in some areas of Montana, in the end we never went anywhere that the Celica couldn't have handled. And driving over the mountain passes is a blast in the Celica, but became a chore in the Outlander.
The disadvantage of the Outlander's height affecting its handling was only a small part of why it isn't so much fun going over the passes. The biggest reason was because the cruise control was grossly inefficient over the passes.
In driving the Outlander on the Interstate highway, I usually put it on cruise control. And on the way west I found my gas mileage varied from 18 MPG to 24 MPG. But when I quit using the cruise control, the gas mileage improved to 26 MPG in the mountains because I managed the speed so that the RPMs never went over 3100 even if it meant losing 5-10 MPH while going up the hills. With the cruise control on, the RPMs often went up to 4500.
We did hit some head-winds on the way out, which I'm sure was a factor, since like many SUVs this car has a large profile to push through the winds. But the cruise control didn't start accelerating the car until it had already started upgrade and was losing momentum. The trick to efficiently driving over hills is to avoid losing any momentum.
On the trip home, we had a strong tail wind and I did not use the cruise control unless the terrain was flat. We got 25-31 MPG. That's an amazing difference in my mind.
The car is rated at 28 MPG on the highway. I've never owned a car before that exceeded it's manufacturer's MPG rating. And this car did it on more than one tank of gas!
My conclusion is that this car is very well made for efficient operations by a 4x4, but it's cruise control design sucks. And while it is more comfortable for long drives than many other cars I've owned, it still does not live up to the bar set by my Celica (which doesn't lose hardly any gas mileage when the cruise control is on).
The Celica is still my first choice for long trips, but I wouldn't mind taking the Outlander again, either, now that I know when not to use the cruise control

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OK, so I keep hearing on "Top Gear" how the host Jeremy hates flappy paddle shifters. Or is it floppy paddle shifters? I don't know, I've never had them before. The owner's manual calls them paddle shifters.
Anyway, our new Mitsubishi has them, so I had to try them.
My verdict? I guess I haven't played enough video games; I don't like them so much, either.
But to be honest, my biggest problem is I shift by sound, not by sight. The Mazda was somewhat noisey. In fact, that was the only complaint Consumer Reports had about the car: it had too much engine noise. That's bad?
The Misubishi is quiet. If I have the radio on at a very low volume (what fun is that?) I can't hear the engine at all. How am I supposed to know when to shift? Look at the tach? Aren't we supposed to keep our eyes on the road?
Well, it is an automatic, it just has a setting for manual, clutchless shifting. The problem is, going to that setting puts you in first gear, so I haven't figured how to go from automatic to manual on the fly so I can down shift on downhill grades. Maybe that's possible, maybe not.
Of course, the best answer would've been getting a manual transmission to begin with, but shifting gets old in daily city traffic. I like being able to do that just occasionally. So, I'll go to the Studebaker if I want real manual shifting.
In the meantime, I think I'll just keep the Ditsi Mitsi in automatic mode. At least for now. The time will come, though, that I'll just have to try that paddle shifting again, sooner or later.

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