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2022 Mitsubishi Outlander gets IIHS top rating with improved lights

The current sticking point for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's (IIHS) highest honors, the Top Safety Pick+, is headlights. The 2022 Mitsubishi Outlander, despite having strong results in almost every category, missed out on any Top Safety Pick rating because of lights rated "Poor" on all models. But Mitsubishi has now fixed them, getting the crossover the coveted award. The rating applies to Outlanders built after June 2021. The LED reflector headlights now have the top "Good" rating on all trim levels because of reduced glare for oncoming drivers. There's also some additional good news for existing owners of Outlanders. They can go to their Mitsubishi dealer, where the existing headlights will have the aim adjusted to reduce glare. The Outlander already had excellent results in crash testing and crash prevention. Every crash test yielded a "Good" rating, and in both vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-pedestrian crash prevention it got the top "Superior" rating. Even the child seat LATCH anchor access is rated "Good." The Outlander joins the ranks of a number of other small crossovers with the Top Safety Pick+ award, including its platform-mate the Nissan Rogue. Other winners include the Ford Bronco Sport, Hyundai Tucson, Mazda CX-3, Mazda CX-30, Mazda CX-5, Subaru Forester and Volvo XC40. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Ever wonder how to really pronounce Japanese automaker names?

People tend to get very set in their ways when it comes to the pronunciation of words. Just look at the endless debates over whether or not to say the final 'e' in Porsche (which you should in terms of correct German enunciation). Or the argument about whether to follow the British convention and give the 'u' in Jaguar a special delivery or to say the 'ua' diphthong as more of a 'w' sound, as usually happens in the US.
This short video doesn't answer either of those automotive questions, but it does allow a native Japanese speaker to demonstrate the accepted pronunciations for several, major automakers from the country. One benefit is that it clears up the occasional debate over whether Nissan should be said with a long or short 'i' sound. Also, listen closely to how the female host says Mazda as Matsuda, the way it's actually said in the language. Even if this doesn't change the way you enunciate these brands, at least now you know the accurate way in Japanese.

The Mitsubishi Outlander third row has actually been far worse

It's rare for a compact SUV to have a third row, and there's a good reason for that: Few humans can actually fit in such a tiny space. And sure, there are obviously kids, but they usually require some sort of child seat that's not fitting back there, either.  In other words, the use case is as tiny as the seats themselves. No wonder, then, that there are only two three-row compact SUVs: the 2022 Volkswagen Tiguan and the 2022 Mitsubishi Outlander. While I have yet to witness the Tiguan, the above photo is the result of fitting a 6-foot-3 automotive editor into the Outlander's third row. It ain't pretty. And that's with the middle row pushed all the way forward. Also note that it's just not a matter of legroom — headroom is terrible, too.  Obviously, this is an extreme and ridiculous test. In the end, the need to accommodate the third row almost certainly allows the Outlander to have more cargo space than average (and the mechanically related Nissan Rogue) even if it's presence is also likely the reason it doesn't have as much room as the CR-V, RAV4 and Tucson (more on that coming soon in a luggage test). It's basically a bonus feature, and if you can in fact use it, great! It's also exponentially better than the original Outlander third row. Specifically, the second-generation model that had a shockingly flimsy design that would've been rickety for the 1980s let alone the late 2000s. It consisted of a mesh fabric pulled over a tube steel ring. It was more like a beach chair than something that belonged in a moving vehicle.  Here are two period videos of me demonstrating it in a 2010 Outlander. In the first, I raise the seat, showing how difficult it was to do and how rickety it was once in place. The second video shows the mesh seat bottom.  Video 1: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Video 2: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.