The car was not as bad as I expected, but it did have a defining fault: noise. Wind noise, road noise, and engine noise pours into the cabin at any speed. It's bad enough to the point where the turn signal click is not audible at all above 60 miles per hour or so. It was absent of any particularly annoying noises unlike the Passat I last tested, but the sheer volume of noise is astounding.
Otherwise, the car was fine. The ride was steady and uneventful, and the four-cylinder had more get-up-and-go than its 168-horsepower rating might suggest. Though the engine groaned loudly under acceleration, idle was silent and vibration-free. Overall fuel economy was about 23 miles per gallon with a mix of high speed cruising and urban errands, which is decent taking into consideration the forceful wind we encountered and the 4WD the car came with.
The theme of the interior seems to be black plastic. All the surfaces were covered in hard plastic, with the only brightness being some 2003-era silver trim. Fortunately, the interior felt spacious, which is more than I can say about the GMC Terrain. There's good headroom, the center console is narrow and low, and the windows are decently sized.
Something new I encountered on the car were the rear doors. When opened, they wobble like gelatin. Never in my life have I opened a car door and have it wobble and shake, and this wobbliness of the doors worries me.
In conclusion, I came in with low expectations that the Outlander met. Frankly, it's a good car if you have bad hearing. If you're looking for a utilitarian SUV and you don't care about noise, I say check the Outlander out since there's more than likely a stack of cash waiting on the hood of each one.
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