Let's see, it's Southern California, summer, and there's a heat wave going on -- yep, it must be fire season! I was driving our Mitsubishi Outlander yesterday along the I-5 at the Tejon pass (the Grapevine) when I encountered this respectably prodigious brush fire near Frazier Park.
The freeway wasn't closed, so I kept on driving. I then thought of the 1991 Steve Martin movie L.A. Story (it's still a prescient movie on living here, by the way) and the scene where the movie's characters continue to eat at a restaurant nonchalantly while an earthquake goes on. Forest fire? Yeah, we see those all the time down here...
OK, maybe not. Incidentally, it was quite hot -- the Outlander's exterior temperature gauge was showing 110 degrees at one point. The Outlander's air-conditioning, if you care to know, is still gimpy -- I've noticed that it only blows cold air out of the left two instrument panel air vents; the air coming out of the right two vents is ambient temperature.
Oh, and if you're a Hair Nation kind of guy or gal, you'll probably remember this video clip that follows after the jump.
Brent Romans, Senior Automotive Editor
foxgtr says:
06:11 PM, 08/25/10
Sounds like you have an issue with the blend door for the A/C if it's only coming out of the one side. And I thought it was hot out here in Florida. Didn't realize that part of Cali could get like that.
saxdogg says:
06:28 PM, 08/25/10
Exactly. Why didn't someone take it back to the dealer and demand it be fixed, especially if half the vents are putting out warmer air???
Take 2 on the A/C fix!
pezzy669 says:
07:45 PM, 08/25/10
Wow this Outlander is turning out to be a real piece of work. Looking forward to further blog posts to see what else can go wrong.
Poor Mitsubishi.......they are probably trying desperately to find out how to end this loan early.
I think Edmunds should put together a general poll of what will break next.
stephen987 says:
08:24 PM, 08/25/10
I'm betting on transmission or power steering failure as the next major catastrophe.
hybris says:
08:31 PM, 08/25/10
Out of the frying pan and into the fire and out of the fire and back to the dealer we go.
fushigi says:
05:12 AM, 08/26/10
@stephen987 - What major catastrophes has it had so far? You say "next major" like it's had something major go wrong. It hasn't.
ed124c says:
08:25 AM, 08/26/10
Yeah, stephen987 is right-- everyone has probably experienced AC problems. But, so soon? And so public? That is the fun part, for us readers, and we have decided to make fun of the Mitsubishi. It's kinda like unintended acceleration. No one could prove Audi's had it, or (as of today) that Toyota has it, but it is fun to poke fun at carmakers. Probably because we love cars and everything about them-- even the glitches.
It is hard to predict what is going to go wrong next. But I am hoping for loss of some gears-- preferably low. Then we could have a big black headline that says "HOW LOW CAN WE GO?"
jriz says:
08:43 AM, 08/26/10
I see your 1980s Into the Fire reference, and raise you another.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkMuXhHd4ak&feature=related
thegraduate says:
11:18 AM, 08/26/10
Yeah, stephen987 is right-- everyone has probably experienced AC problems. But, so soon? And so public?
Not everyone, but then again, my personal experience includes the reliability kings--3 Accords ('96 with 214k, '02 with 100k, '06 with 63k) and a Hyundai Santa Fe ('07 with 35k). The day the A/C dies in the '96, it gets sold. I live in Birmingham; it's the heat AND the humidity.
feloniousmonk says:
11:48 AM, 08/26/10
I've been waiting for one of you all to figure a way to bring Dokken onto this site. Speaking of Dokken: holy cripes, was that an awful band or what?
misterfusion says:
05:39 PM, 08/26/10
"Speaking of Dokken: holy cripes, was that an awful band or what?"
But...it rhymes with "rockin'"!
FWIW, the first thing I thought of was Sarah McLachlan's "Into the Fire", from her album Solace. And I LIKE the 80's.
kevm14 says:
06:48 PM, 08/26/10
Could the system not have the adequate charge? Half cold and half ambient sounds like the charge is low and only half of the evaporator gets cold.
ivanz says:
04:10 PM, 08/29/10
There was a video from Russia where somebody was driving an Outlander with flames inches away from huge flames. I believe the temperature indicator was at 50*C+ (122*F+).
As for A/C, it sounds like one of the "doors" to those vents are jammed. There is only 1 A/C compressor on the Outlander.