2026 Mitsubishi Outlander Review: The Yamaha Sound System Steals the Show, but the SUV Hits Some Sour Notes

As the old joke goes, a man walks into a Yamaha store and says, “I need a piano and a boat motor.” The salesman says, “No problem.” The customer then says, “Really? Well, I also need a sound system for my brand new Mitsubishi Outlander,” and the salesman says, “You are NOT going to believe this…” As it turns out, the customer in that story was the product manager for the 2026 Mitsubishi Outlander, and Yamaha designed its first-ever in-car audio system. Then they loaned me a car to test it out. I drove the SUV for one week.

During my testing, my daughter and I exchanged songs, which was a great experience for both of us, but utterly destroyed my YouTube Music algorithm. We played everything from Drake to The Killers, to 1990s industrial metal, to dubstep, and yes, a bit of Taylor and Billie.

My goodness, this sound system is amazing, and it’s inside and throughout an SUV that is, in some ways, impressive and, in others, downright confusing. At some points, I wondered to myself, “Have the designers of this car ever…used…a car?” So after one week on the road in suburban Chicago, here are my thoughts.

Premium Materials

The outside of the 2026 Mitsubishi Outlander is attractive. There’s prominent branding across the top of the front grill, but beyond that, I like the look of the car. I reviewed the car’s Gray Metallic colorway, and the SEL trim comes with 20-inch wheels.

The SUV is a kinda-sorta a three-row SUV. The third row is okay if you are a small child that has to use a booster seat or a diminutive 15-year-old soccer player who wants to lie down on a road trip — that second one is based on a true story. As long as you’re not relegated to the third row, the car is comfortable to ride in. I reviewed the SEL trim of the car, which comes with most of the bells and whistles.

It has leather throughout the car and on the steering wheel, all sorts of safety features — lane departure, Adaptive cruise control, Lane Keep Assist, and all that. It also has ventilated and heated front seats, along with heated back seats, a wireless phone charger in front, a power panoramic sunroof, and wireless CarPlay and Android Auto, and a HUD.

The Heads-up display is a lovely feature that more cars should have. It displays your car’s speed and cruise control settings on the road in front of you, so it’s one less reason to avert your eyes, even for the split-second it takes you to glance at the instrument panel.

The Center Console

The gear shifter is one part of the car I won’t miss. For some reason, the shifter is just a lever that you pull back or push forward one click each way. Pulling it back puts the car in drive; pushing a button on the side and pushing it forward puts it in reverse.

Pressing a button on the top of the shifter puts the car in park. I could not figure out how to put the car in neutral — the parking attendant had to do it for me, and to this day, I still have no idea how he did it. It was some combination of pulling backward and pushing forward, but without the button. The 2026 Mitsubishi Outlander’s Neutral is NOT intuitive. That whole shifter was one of my least favorite parts about the car.

Another disappointment came in the driver’s display — the screen that shows the instrument cluster. The good news is that anything you do with the car shows up there. Put the car in reverse, and it pops up a message saying so; turn on the wipers, and you get the same. It’s nice because the car won’t do anything without alerting the driver. Over a week-long review period, that was fine; longer term might be a different story.

But my problem was the complete lack of useful information on any of the screens on the driver’s display. You always get the speed, gas gauge, etc., but the other info is generally not helpful. There are several options, and among them is the audio source menu that shows you what was playing. Another panel, the navigation panel, simply shows you which street you’re on and the compass direction you’re traveling. Even when you’re actively navigating, that’s all it shows. It’s incredibly frustrating.

In the 2026 Mitsubishi Outlander’s back seat, my six-foot-tall, 270-pound frame fit comfortably. The seat back in front of you has two smaller pockets near the top, good for a phone and maybe a tin of mints or something. There’s also a larger pocket below. The armrest in the back is part of the 60/40 split rear seat. In order to lower it, though, you need to pull a strap by the seat cushion and use your other hand to pull the armrest down — it’s definitely a two-handed affair.

The Speakers, Though

There are multiple reasons why you might want to buy a car, and once upon a time, I bought a Ford Probe because I liked how the speakers sounded. This was over 20 years ago, and things have changed since then, but the 2026 Mitsubishi Outlander is absolutely a car I could imagine you buying for the speakers. Dear reader, they are that good.

The car I reviewed was top of the line — and we’ll discuss how much it cost in a bit — but this car came with the premium “Dynamic Sounds Ultimate” 12-speaker package. The standard trims come with an eight-speaker system. Regardless, I can’t imagine much of a drop-off in that respect, but your mileage may vary.

Personally, I found the speaker system at its default settings to be a bit hot on the high end, with not enough bass. The car has a three-band equalizer (EQ), so I was able to tweak the speakers to my liking. The bass in this car absolutely thumps. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say  I have bruises on my leg from the subwoofers in the door.

Speaking of the door, according to Mitsubishi, Yamaha and Mitsubishi developed a new inner door skin that is sealed to reduce road noise and to allow the door cavity to be used as a speaker enclosure.

The sound is spectacular. You can hear distinct tones in music that don’t always come through in a car stereo system. Admittedly, it may be because I haven’t listened to a ton of high-end audio, but this sound system may have ruined all other sound systems for me. It’s just so crisp.

As noted, I had to back off the high end a bit and kick in the subwoofer to get where I wanted it, but even that was so lovely-sounding that it took me back to my early days of driving, when I would listen to the music in my car at very inappropriate levels. Yamaha absolutely hit a home run here, and the speakers are the part I’ll miss the most.

Mild Hybrid Is Mild

In 2026, all Mitsubishi cars will be mild hybrids. The engine is a 1.5L DOHC 4-cylinder turbo motor with an 8-speed CVT. It’s…fine. The 2026 Mitsubishi Outlander is not a car that is exciting to drive; there isn’t even a turbo mode. Your driving mode is set by a dial in the center console that has Eco, Normal, Tarmac, Gravel, Snow, and Mud. By default, the car switches to Normal every time you start it. If you’re like me, fuel efficiency is your key metric; you’ll need to manually switch to Eco every time.

As it was, I got a mere 24.6 miles per gallon in mixed highway and city driving. That’s unimpressive enough to double-check the manual to make sure it was, in fact,  a mild hybrid. Some hybrids, like my daily drive, the Toyota RAV4, go out of their way to let you know when the battery has kicked in. There’s a tone that the engine emits, and a light appears on the dashboard.

My RAV4 gets over 27 mpg, so there’s that. But the Mitsubishi gets none of that — no light, no tones. It’s as if you’re supposed to just take the company’s word that this SUV is efficient. Of course, being an SUV with third row seating, this car is naturally larger than my two-row RAV4. Still, the gas mileage wasn’t anything to write home about.

Pricing and Verdict

As reviewed, the 2026 Mitsubishi Outlander I tested was $47,035, including a $ 1,745 destination charge. That got me the top-of-the-line SEL trim with the 12-speaker sound system, 10.8-inch heads-up display, digital rearview camera, and tonneau cover for the hatch.

If you were to go with the ES (base) trim, you would miss out on the rain-sensing wipers, heated side mirrors, FAST Key Entry system, Multi-view camera system, Adaptive cruise control, and more. But that base model starts at 29,995 for two-wheel drive or 31,795 for All Wheel Drive.

What I can tell you is that had I bought this car, I would have been annoyed with it from the start. There are just too many head-shaking picadillos that I simply can’t get past. The sound system is incredible, the infotainment screen is fast and responsive, the interior is lovely, and the car just plain looks good.

At $47,000 and change for this version, this car falls below the average price for a new car in 2026, which is also a bonus. But I would prefer a vehicle with better gas mileage and fewer annoyances for my six-year loan agreement. The sound, though, is amazing, and it almost makes up for all the other annoyances.

The 2026 Mitsubishi Outlander starts at $29,995; it is available directly from the manufacturer.

Source: Manufacturer-supplied review loan

What I Like: The Yamaha Dynamic Sounds Ultimate audio system is spectacular; Attractive exterior styling, especially in Gray Metallic with 20-inch wheels; Comfortable first and second rows with a nicely finished interior; Heated and ventilated front seats, heated rear seats, wireless charging, and wireless CarPlay/Android Auto; The heads-up display is genuinely useful and well-executed; Fast, responsive infotainment screen; Plenty of safety and convenience features on the SEL trim

What Needs Improvement: The gear shifter is unintuitive, especially when trying to find Neutral; The driver display lacks genuinely useful information; Navigation info in the instrument cluster is frustratingly limited; The third row is best reserved for small children or emergency use; Rear armrest operation is awkward and requires two hands; Fuel economy was underwhelming for a mild hybrid; Eco mode has to be manually selected every time;The driving experience is competent but not especially engaging