The Outlander XLS has a ton of great features for the money and Bluetooth is among them. Bluetooth is now at the top of my must have list for any new car. Thankfully, Mitsubishi offers it as standard on the XLS - bonus points for that.
As much as I love the feature, the pairing process is clunky in the Mitsu...
While there's a comprehensive in-car computer/nav/music server, the phone must be paired via voice prompts. It's not ideal, using the touch screen makes more sense.
Brian Moody, Road Test Editor
mirandarae says:
09:14 AM, 04/19/07
Yeah, it takes a bit of getting used to but as some of my co-workers and myself found out (showroom car) its great fun to set it up and to get the computer to say back inapropriate words.. ;)
SubyTrojan says:
09:48 AM, 04/19/07
Hi, Brian. I tried pairing up my phone in the LT Outlander last month and gave up after searching through the touch-screen menus for 2-3 minutes or so. No, I did not read the fantastic manual. I figured the pairing process would've been as easy as it is in most Bimmers. I thought wrong.
rasldasl says:
09:13 AM, 04/20/07
I have been researching new Lancer which has a similar interior. The Bluetooth functionality is available separately from the touchscreen NAV device, on models where the NAV device is not even offered. That is probably why the interface does not rely on the touchscreen being present.
ahightower says:
11:35 AM, 04/20/07
I've been wondering - does the car "search" for your phone automatically every time you start the car, or do you have to go through some process to manually reconnect?
dodo2 says:
10:08 AM, 04/25/07
ahightower: The phone automatically reconnects when you start the car.
Brian: As a first time in-car Bluetooth user, I have to say that the pairing process is very easy and intuitive: just follow the voice prompts and you are done in 2-3 minutes. The reason Mitsu's BT interface is configurable via voice commands is that the BT option is also available in the models without Navi (touch screen). Makes sense doesn't it? I wonder how would you think it could be done easier than this? Using buttons on the dashboard? THAT would be "clunky". Mitsu's setup is as good as it could be so qualifying it as "clunky" is plain silly.
briancam says:
12:31 PM, 04/25/07
No, it's clunky. Some phone features come up on the touch screen while others (like pairing) come via voice prompts. The phone icon on the touch screen is what threw me - I still say it's counterintuitive.
dodo2 says:
02:36 PM, 04/25/07
Most likely Mitsu designed the system to accomdate the BT phone connectivity on both Navi and non-Navi models. The basic functionality is included in the BT interface and the additional features (the ones you are talking about) are available via Navi. What other features are available via Navi anyways? I could probably read the manual, but since I don't have the Navi, I skip that section.
I guess other manufacturers have all the phone functionality built into the "Communication System" because the BT interface is only available on those models (if they offer one at all).
Thumbs up to Mitsu for offering the BT interface as a stand-alone option in the mid-trim (LS) and standard in the top-trim (XLS), without requiring the Navi, even with the trade off (?!) of splitting the functionality between the BT interface and Navi system. Once you get the reason behind it and see the benefits, you could call it "clunky". I just call it "smart".
dylanapollo says:
03:03 PM, 09/ 5/08
My first post on this site.
I have the 2007 Mitsubishi outlander XLS and just got the Bluetooth phones to try it out. I'm pretty happy with it so far. I don't have the Navi package so I'm pretty glad that I can set it up via voice. Now I do understand that it would be cool to use the Navi console to do so as well. Actually I'm surprised you can't. The voice recognition is pretty good I guess. I have a heavy southern accent while my wife not so much. The system recognizes both of us (most of the time so far) without retraining. I do wish there was a command tree cheat sheet included in the manual. I think that would be helpful. Just my two cents.