For the most part, the 2007 Mitsubishi Outlander is a very pleasant little truck. It's got some nice power, it's easy to maneuver, and it's got some nice rugged-looking curves. Except for the *&#%$ stereo system. Observe, if you will, the extremely boring, flat controls...
But the worst culprit is the little tiny button marked "open" on the bottom left. This is so the whole thing can slide down and open so you can load a CD.
Once it's open and you put the CD in, however, you then need to push that same button again to close it. Even less practical than normal, you now have to feel along the top, and unless you crane your head in a way not practical for driving, you're stabbing at random buttons until the thing actually closes.
And yes, that's a lovely little attachment for you iPod-ers there. For those of us old-school CD listeners, this is a bad design in an otherwise well-thought-out SUV. Maybe in the next redesign, they'll think better and put the open/close button off to the side where it doesn't move with the faceplate. There's an idea.
Doug Lloyd, Senior Copy Editor, @ 11,639 miles
daveflores says:
01:03 PM, 09/10/07
Not 100% certain about this, but I think that hole isn't actually an aux line-in, but rather a serial port for Mitsubishi technicians. If the Outlander is like the Lancer (which has that same Nav unit as an option) you should have RCA line ins somewhere else for hooking up your iPod.
And while I agree that the buttons on the face are not well thought out, in my Lancer I find myself reaching for the steering-wheel controls for most of the functions you mention.
As for the missing old-fashioned volume knob: I agree that every audio unit should come with one. It's one of the things I most appreciate about the Pioneer AVIC D3 Nav unit I installed in my MR2.
stovt001 says:
01:34 PM, 09/10/07
I definitely understand what you mean about the volume knob. The faceplate on my old car didn't have a volume knob either, and it drove me crazy. Even worse, I had to mount it between the bottom of the dash and the tranny tunnel. Now that was a setup that necessitated making all my audio-related adjustments prior to driving off.
The whole open close thing is annoying too. I hate any system that requires the faceplate to be flipped away in order to load a CD.
estreka says:
03:37 PM, 09/10/07
The only flip faceplate deck I really liked was the Sony CDX-M6xx series.
roar02ram says:
04:10 PM, 09/10/07
How cheap! Toyota and Honda put a "close" button on the edge of the faceplace, near where that jack is.
dragonzsoul says:
06:10 PM, 09/10/07
daveflores,
got a picture of it installed in your MR2? my friend just got a MK1 MR2, so I'm sure he'd be interested in the picture.
i also agree about the "aux port". it doesn't make sense to have it there, the nav unit wouldn't be able to close.
ahightower says:
06:10 PM, 09/10/07
Aren't there steering wheel audio controls? I'd prefer volume knobs as well, but can't remember that last time I actually used one.
craigm3 says:
09:06 PM, 09/10/07
I just don't get it. What's so hard about the MMCS? If you want a different song, you just touch the name on the screen! Yes, you may have to touch the double arrow scroll button once, but so what? If you're worried about taking your eyes off the road, use the steering wheel controls.
As far as the "open button goes, it's the button closest to the driver. What is so hard about that? I've NEVER had a problem finding it. Reach over, find the corner, touch the button. Done.
Lastly, daveflores is right. That jack is for the techies. The composite aux jack is at the base of the center console. Not the perfect spot for the driver, but it's a nice compromise if you have the rear dvd system and want to plug in a video game or watch a movie from your iPod. I keep my cord plugged in handy when I bring my Ipod in the car. I rarely do, though, since the MMCS has the hard drive MusicServer.
The MMCS takes a couple days to get used to. After that, it becomes amazingly simple. Just my 2 cents
dodo2 says:
07:14 AM, 09/11/07
I still don't get all these blog entris continuously complaining about the MMCS. On the other hand, it seems like the actual owners like it.
funkymunky says:
08:40 AM, 09/11/07
First I'd like to clear up a few things. Daveflores is probably right about the jack. I was speculating. Thought it might be for an iPod, but in hindsight, your explanation makes way more sense.
As far as the open/close, it's our job to point out potential annoyances to consumers. Nearly everything gets easy once you do it a bunch of times (as in your own car) but the basic design of the knobs and controls should have been better thought out in the first place. That's the point. And yes, you're all right. The steering wheel volume controls are great, as is the touchscreen, although I've never had a lot of faith that touchscreens will last for the lifetime of a car. But that's just me. My personal ride is 20 years old.
daveflores says:
10:58 AM, 09/11/07
I really like the MMC in my lancer, but it has two major flaws:
(1) No pause button!!! Sure, the "off" button works pretty much like a "pause" button would, but I think they could have added an actual pause button, if even on the screen itself.
(2) Poor playlist organization. This is the biggest problem with the MMC. Ideally, it should group all songs into albums (or playlists, as the MMC calls them), and all albums into Artists, and you should be able to navigate the folders that way: Artist > Albunm> Song.
Instead, the unit lists all albums by title, and you have to use the "search" function if you want to find all albums by a given artist. It's really inconvenient and would likely get you killed if you tried it on the highway.
My work-around consisted of re-naming all Albums "Artist - Album." Thay way, I can find a particular artist by scrolling down the playlist (i.e. album) names alphabetically. It looks like this:
Aerosmith - Greatest Hits
Aerosmith - Toys in the Attic
Beatles - Sgt. Pepper
Beatles - Revolver
CSN - So Far
Etc.
This mean,s however, that the MMC is best for loading full albums, as opposed to loading a bunch of singles.
One nice thing about the MMC is that is scrolls down your list very quickly and intuitively. I'm quite happy with it now, even if I could stand to have another... oh... say 6 gigs available to me.
craigm3 says:
11:41 AM, 09/11/07
My apologies if I sounded snappy. Actually daveflores hits on the true weaknesses of the system in my eyes too - no pause and poor playlist organization. It's a little annoying when the bluetooth phone rings and I have a 10 minute conversation, only to find that the CD/Music server has kept right on playing! I'm almost embarassed to mention my workaround for the MusicServer, as it took me about a week to burn my 1,000 or so favorite songs in alphabetical order from iTunes and rip them to the hard drive. Once I finished, though, it was great.
dodo2 says:
11:45 AM, 09/11/07
Most likely Mitsu designed the MMC with the overall design of the car(s) in mind. They aimed for a compact, sleek and clean unit without a clutter of bulky knobs. I agree with you that it's a matter of personal preference.
In any case, it seems like Mitsu caters to a different market (enthusiast, modern, techy) than most Edmunds' editors belong to and there is nothing wrong with it (like the title of this blog suggests).
crashtestdingo says:
07:35 AM, 09/12/07
Inserting a CD into a slot while driving, even without having to uncover the slot, doesn't seem like a good idea to me from a safety standpoint. (Am I the only one who feels this way?) So assuming you're not trying to insert a CD while the car is moving, I don't see what the problem is with moving the display out of the way and then back again.
mpower2 says:
01:29 PM, 09/14/07
I own the outlander and really can't complain about the setup of the MMCS, it sounds great and I find the minimalistic approach to the system to be very easy to use.
How many nav systems let you watch DVDs on them? Not many, and the Mitsubishi version displays video and sound up to 5mph, which is great for when your stuck in traffic, after 5mph the display cuts out and atleast you can hear the audio from the DVD.
The MMCS also allows you to customize many of your cars options (door locks, wipers, etc).....so overall I'd say its above average.