2007 Mitsubishi Outlander By Tom Lankard, New Car Test Drive .com

Mitsubishi is launching an all-new Outlander sport utility this fall that's bigger and more powerful than the current model. The new Outlander will also come with significantly enhanced safety features.

The 2007 Mitsubishi Outlander will come in two trim levels, the LS and the XLS. There will be only one engine available, a V6, that replaces the current four-cylinder engine. The V6 is larger, 3.0 liters versus the four-cylinder's 2.4 liters. And it's much more powerful, with 220 horsepower, up by 60 over the 2006 model's, and 204 pound-feet of torque, up by 62 pound-feet. California models will be certified PZEV (Partial-Zero Emissions Vehicle), a rating second only to electric cars in terms of cleanliness.

The Outlander will come with a six-speed automatic transmission with a Sportronic feature allowing drivers to shift using steering wheel-mounted paddle shifters.

Its 105.1-inch wheelbase (the distance between the front and rear tires) is up almost two inches; this may not sound like much, but even fractions of an inch make a difference in ride quality, so the new Outlander should in theory offer a smoother ride and more stable handling. Likewise for the approximately one inch wider track (the distance between the wheels, side to side), which combines with a lower center of gravity, which holds the promise of sharpened steering response, improved stability and reduced body roll (or lean) in turns. Overall length (bumper to bumper) grows by almost three inches, to 182.7 inches.

Smarter packaging inside the 2007 Outlander capitalizes on its larger dimensions, with rear-seat legroom up more than four inches, although with a bit of a tradeoff with front-seat legroom, which shrinks more than a half-inch. Front seats gain an extra 1.4 inches of headroom, second-row seats a mere tenth of an inch. A deodorizing headliner treated with a catalyst will absorb cigarette smoke and decompose it into water and carbon dioxide that then will be expunged by the air conditioner.

Another area that's substantially roomier is cargo space, at 69.2 cubic feet, with the second seat folded, up almost 10 cubic feet from the '06. This adds more than just space for bicycles and weekend project materials, however, as another, major change in the '07 Outlander is a stow-in-the-floor, third row of seats that will be available in the XLS model. Although closer to occasional, jump-seat type units for children or shorter stature people, they effectively boost the seating capacity to seven from five and let the new Outlander compete with the 2006 Toyota RAV4, which offers seating for seven as well as a V6 engine.

Mitsubishi is spiffing up the Outlook's interior and the on-board electronics, too. The dash and instrument cluster are cleaner, less busy, much richer looking. The interior uses fewer pieces, which bodes well for a long life without squeaks and rattles.

The optional navigation system's large, seven-inch, touch-screen LCD will do double duty as the control panel for a custom-tuned version of the latest generation Rockford-Fosgate audio system. The two systems will share a 30-gigabyte hard disk drive, about two-thirds of which will be partitioned to hold map data, the rest for audio files. Mitsubishi says the hard disk drive will quicken search and response times for the navigation system as well as providing on-board storage for as many as 2500 music files.

Standard safety features will include front seat-mounted side airbags and antilock brakes with electronic brake-force distribution plus tire pressure monitors and electronic stability control. New to the option list for 2007 will be side-curtain airbags covering the front and second row seats.

The 2007 Outlander will be built in Mizushima, Japan.