As a former owner, I think the Outlander should’ve gone full Evo. The sales numbers say otherwise.

In 2007, Mitsubishi sold 23,285 Outlanders. I was one of those customers, with my wife and I bringing home a loaded XLS V-6, black with tan leather and the booming Rockford Fosgate sound system. I think it was around $25,000 out the door (remember when nobody paid sticker price?), including HID headlights, a split rear hatch with a real tailgate, and three rows of seats. Best of all, the Outlander XLS snuck in some enthusiast hardware to slightly diminish the crushing shame of trading in our manual BMW E36 M3 convertible for a practical crossover. Its all-wheel-drive system had a knob on the console that allowed you to bias torque to the rear axle. The steering wheel was flanked by huge column-mounted magnesium shift paddles that controlled a six-speed automatic. The roof was aluminum, to lower the center of gravity. Its 3.0-liter V-6 was maligned for making only 220 horsepower (often by my colleagues, to my face), but it could tow 3500 pounds and at least sounded racier than a four-banger.

Of course, the Outlander had its drawbacks. Those third-row seats looked like they were mocked up in a design studio out of cardboard and chicken wire and then mistakenly got put into production just like that. The interior seemed fine until your gaze strayed to the lower dash and door panels, where the plastic evoked melted-down carnival trinkets. And yeah, it could've used more power. But it had some personality, that Outlander. Get it in the snow, and you could kick out the rear end with the throttle. Try that in a Nissan Rogue.

Or, should I say, a 2022 Outlander. Which is really a badge-engineered Rogue. In nonhybrid guise, the latest Outlander gets a 181-hp naturally aspirated four-cylinder and a CVT. The fold-down tailgate is gone. So is the V-6. The tow rating is down to 2000 pounds. When the 2010 Outlander GT debuted at the Team O'Neil Rally School in New Hampshire—the better to show off its electronically controlled front differential—I thought Mitsubishi was moving toward a Lancer Evolution in a crossover package. As it turns out, the GT was as far in that direction as it ever went. From that point on, the mission was normcore to the max.

The new Outlander has a much nicer interior than mine did, and Mitsubishi has held the line admirably on pricing, which starts at $28,500. Fuel economy is much improved, from my Outlander's 19-mpg EPA combined rating to 26 mpg for a 2022 AWD model. And evidently, those attributes are more important than rally-friendly torque distribution and magnesium paddle shifters. Last year, amid the supply-chain disruptions that rocked the industry, Mitsubishi sold 36,133 Outlanders—almost 50 percent more sales than the 2007 model that I loved enough to buy.

Thus reminding me, for the millionth time, that enthusiast priorities do not align with the interests of mainstream car buyers. Most people just want a car that's nice and affordable and doesn't annoy them. A little personality is fine, as long as it's not distracting. The 2022 Outlander has that psychotropic reptilian front end to let the world know that you care enough about your car to want to be able to find it in a crowded parking lot. But other than that, it's soothing and reasonable. And I am allergic to thoroughly reasonable cars. I still want an Outlander Evo, but such a thing would not sell 33,000 copies a year. Probably more like 3300. Which doesn't exactly help Mitsubishi kick down the door to the American market. You know, Toyota has to sell a lot of Camrys and RAV4s to justify freaky fun side projects like the GR Corolla.

If there's hope for the Mitsubishi we once knew, the one that built Evos and Eclipse GSXs and 3000GTs, it might arrive in the form of electrification. To that end, Mitsubishi is ramping up production for a November rollout of the 2023 Outlander PHEV, and based on our first drive I'm delighted to say that it looks like kind of a freak: dual electric motors making 248 horsepower and 332 pound-feet of torque, along with DC fast-charging and a rear torque bias. I hope Mitsu sells all of them it can build.

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