Hands on with the Outlander GT

Posted on November 29, 2010May 5, 2015 by MD

Since the Outlander Sport wasn’t powerful enough for me, Aaron, the manager at Quality Mitsubishi though the Outlander GT with its 3.0 V-6 might be a better fit.

It’s a slightly bigger vehicle and slightly more powerful. It comes standard with a third row of seats, although I can’t say I would want to sit in them for a long road trip. For hauling, the third row seats fold flat, however, the back row doesn’t. This is an issue I currently fight with in my Explorer and have seen in many other vehicles as well. It definitely limits what you can carry in the back which can be frustrating.

Overall, the interior felt virtually identical to the Outlander Sport. The dashboard still feels enormous and the stereo is too integrated into the dash for each after market integration. The seats felt like higher quality than in the sport, but still very boxy and not as nice as what I currently have. Although the model we took out didn’t have one, a power panaromic sunroof is available.

Driving the Outlander GT was indeed more my speed than the Outlander Sport. It still had a nice tight turning radius which is helpful when parking but it was still slower than I would like from 0-40 mph. Especially compared to my Explorer Sport, but was pretty peppy between the 40-70 mph range. Passing wasn’t an issue… at least the cars I chose to pass while on the highway. But, as I said, it was still slower than what I currently drive and not quite as comfortable.

I think if you drive mostly in the city or the suburbs, the Outlander Sport is probably enough of a vehicle and will get you better gas mileage. However, if you travel on the highway at all, I think I would recommend the GT as the better model. Regardless though, the Outlanders just aren’t the vehicle for me.

Are They Open to a Sale?

Posted on November 29, 2010May 5, 2015 by MD

Selling a product is a hard job. It’s certainly not a job I would want. Sometimes though, I think sales people make it even harder for themselves. It’s drilled into their head that they can’t let anything stand in their way of making a sale and their customers feel it.

Recently, we had a door to door salesman that really started off on the wrong foot and missed all three of the areas below. We have no soliciting signs and really don’t take kindly to those who choose to ignore them therein riling up our dogs. The other day we had just arrived home when before we could even get out of the car we had a salesman who rushed over to try and talk about roofing.

Needless to say, he wasn’t very warmly welcomed. First off, our roof is in good shape so we’re not interested. Second, we don’t buy from door to door salesman, regardless of what they’re trying to sell. Third, his approach completely put us on the defensive and slammed shut and bolted a door that was already closed to him.

I’ll admit, for some people, an aggressive sales person may win out in the end, but at what cost?

It seems like it’s the rare sales person that tries to determine whether a customer is even open to a sale. I would put several factors under being open to a sale including interest, financial and approach.

Interest

Has the customer expressed any interest whatsoever in your product? Are you assuming they’re interested? Why waste time trying to sell someone a product they have zero interest in or use for? Are you trying to sell them the wrong product based on you assumptions?

For example, say you sell backyard playground equipment. You spot a woman walking near by, you approach her and before she has a chance to say no, she’s not interested, you launch into your spiel. By the time you finish she’s flustered by your approach and frustrated by you wasting her time, especially as she doesn’t have kids.

Believe it or not, I see this sales approach happen a lot. Yes, you could argue that every person you come in contact with is a potential customer either now or in the future, but if you start off on the wrong foot with them, they will remember the less than positive experience they had with you more than your product.

Financial

Can they afford your product? Are they willing to spend what your product costs? Are they even the decision maker? Are they still narrowing down their options?

Now, I’m not saying you should pass judgment on whether or not a potential customer can afford your product based on looking at them. You’d be surprised how often you can be wrong using that as a factor. But simply asking questions to determine whether your product might be a good fit for them will give you valuable insight, especially as many customers may be able to afford to spend the amount you want, but they’re not open to doing so.

Approach

Personally, I think this is one of the most important factors. Personally, I don’t like overly push salesman. If the product is good, it will sell itself. Patronizing me won’t get you a sale. Ignoring no soliciting signs probably isn’t going to start you off on the right foot. Interupting a conversation to try and sell your product probably won’t get you far although many mall cell phone salesman seem to think otherwise.

As I said, sales is a hard job, but why make it harder for yourself by not qualifying your customers with a few questions and tailoring your approach to fit the customer and the situation?

Hands on with the Outlander Sport

Posted on November 15, 2010May 5, 2015 by MD

A few weeks ago I received an intriguing email regarding the Mitsubishi Outlander Sport. Mitsubishi had rigged up a vehicle to be driven remotely and would be opening it up soon for test drives. On the one hand I thought this was completely daffy because honestly, how much can you really tell about a car if you’re not really behind the wheel driving it? On the other hand though, I thought it was a fun bit of marketing that was sure to get at least a few people talking.

Finally I got the notification that the Outlander Sport was available on the internet to be test driven. Once you clicked through and secured your place in line you were given the opportunity to practice, watch other drivers or find out more about the Outlander. The Outlander specific site is extremely robust and worth spending a few minutes on to explore.

The practice was smooth and I felt like I got a good handle on how to control it. The actual “test drive” on the other hand was another story. There was a lag between you directing the car and it actually doing what you wanted which became very frustrating… and then before I knew it my turn was over. Needless to say, I barely collected any of the “badges” to compete for the prize they will be giving away.

This was definitely one case where the concept was much better than the actuality. But, the virtual test drive worked in that I was curious to see how the actual vehicle drove.

The Outlander Sport is a smaller cross-over vehicle intended on competing with many of the smaller SUV’s on the market. It’s designed to be very fuel efficient which in the current market is definitely a selling point.

Ground clearance is definitely low, especially compared to my current ride, however, with laws being what they are now, that’s something I’m just going to have to deal with I guess. The lines are nice. It’s similar to other vehicles in its class, but I think it’s still somewhat distinctive. The Outlander Sport is slightly smaller than the other Outlander models so you lose the third row of seats, but not much else.

The hatch area is a little on the small side compared to what I’m used to. The seats don’t fold flat, but I think it’s rare to find a vehicle where they do. They do have a pass through in the left back seat though which could be quite useful.

Sitting in the vehicle, I wasn’t very comfortable. The dashboard is HUGE. I swear it was so big you could lay on it comfortably. Ok, well, maybe not quite that big, but that’s how it felt to me. The seats felt cheap and stiff. I can’t imagine doing a long road trip sitting in them. Hopefully they get more comfortable with use. The model I took out had a dual transmission which means it had the paddle shifters.

The Outlander Sport was quiet and had a nice tight turning radius – Definitely good when you need to flip a u-turn or even turn into a parking spot. The ride was very smooth and car-like. I quickly discovered however why the Outlander Sport is so eco-friendly…. It was S L O W. I would be scared to get on the highway in something that accelerated that slowly and I dread getting stuck on the on ramp behind one.

I can see the Outlander Sport being good for city travel, but definitely not the car for me.