Shopping for a new vehicle? If you are in the market for a new SUV and are trying to choose between the 2019 Mitsubishi Outlander and the 2019 Buick Encore, we have compared the two here, to see how they stack up against one another in terms of cost, safety, performance, and more.
Interior and MPGs
On the inside, the Mitsubishi Outlander and the Buick Encore provide passengers similar leg- and headroom in the back and in the front seats. However, the Encore gets better gas mileage than the Outlander. The Buick Encore averages 25 miles per gallon in the city, and 30 on the highway, while the Outlander averages 24 miles per gallon in the city and 30 on the highway.
Value
The base price of the Outlander is lower than the Encore’s base price. The Mitsubishi starts at just over $24,000, and the Encore starts at just over $23,000.
However, there are many factors to consider when calculating the cost of a vehicle. While the MSRP of both of these SUVs is similar, the Mitsubishi’s Destination Charge is higher than the Buick’s, so the total price for the Outlander is a bit more.
Size and Space
This year, the Mitsubishi Outlander is wider than the Buick Encore, which could make parking the Outlander a little more difficult in tight spaces. However, some people prefer a larger SUV, so those people may be happier with the Mitsubishi Outlander. The Outlander is also slightly longer than the Encore; but even though the Outlander is a little larger on the outside, inside, both hold the same number of passengers and offer the same amount of cargo space.
The Drive
Both the Mitsubishi Outlander and the Buick Encore have similar torque, but the Outlander has less hp than the Encore. Additionally, the Outlander has a tighter turning radius than the Encore. This means the Outlander handles better and is easier to get in and out of tight spaces.
Warranties
The Mitsubishi Outlander’s warranty is more generous warranty than the Buick Encore’s. The Outlander comes with a full 5-year/60,000-mile basic warranty; it covers the entire SUV and includes 24-hour roadside assistance.
With the Buick, buyers get a 4-year/50,000-mile basic warranty.
Mitsubishi’s powertrain warranty is 4 years and 30,000 miles longer than the Buick’s. With the Outlander, any repairs needed on the engine, transmission, axles, joints or driveshafts are completely covered for 10 years or 100,000 miles. The Encore’s warranty ends after 6 years or 70,000 miles.
As for the corrosion warranty, you’ll get 7 years with the Outlander and 6 with the Encore.
Safety
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration performs 35 MPH front crash tests on all new vehicles. In these tests, the Buick Encore proved safer than the Mitsubishi Outlander.
The Encore comes with rear seat shoulder belts that have child comfort guides to better fit children—the Outlander does not. The Encore also comes standard with OnStar, while the Outlander does not have a GPS live response system.
Both of these models come standard with driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver knee airbags, and side-impact head airbags. Both also come standard with safety features like four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems, rearview cameras, collision warning systems, lane departure warning systems, blind spot warning systems, rear parking sensors, and rear cross-path warnings.
Previous 2016 Model Comparisons
Sport Utility Vehicles are usually known for their power and size. These two, however, evade that spectrum by counting on their quietness and safety as two main selling points. Today we square off the 2016 Mitsubishi Outlander and the 2016 Buick Encore.
Aiming for a pleasant and soothing drive, the Encore is equipped with Buick’s Standard QuietTuning technology, which helps “to block and absorb noise from the road, wind and other vehicles, resulting in a serene interior cabin,” according to Buick.com.
The engineers at Mitsubishi also dedicated a good deal of time in improving quietness for the 2016 Outlander, which resulted in features like sound-isolating windshield glass, sound dampening inside and out, and re-tuned suspension dampening for the new generation of the Outlander.
Big time similarities between the two models stop right there, though. And the differences start under the hood with the engines.
The Encore has a slight advantage over the Outlander in terms of fuel economy, and yet that slight advantage does not make up for the downside of the Encore’s poor performance.
In its base front-wheel drive 4-Door trim the Encore has an estimated fuel economy rating of 25 mpg in the city and 33 mpg on the highway. The downside to this is that this economy originates from a 1.4 Liter Turbocharged I4 engine that can make 138 horsepower and 148 net torque.
Mitsubishi takes the cake in this category. The fuel economy of the base two-wheel drive 4-Door ES trim of the Outlander matches the Encore’s with an estimated consumption of 25 mpg in the city and 31 mpg on the highway while packing all of the punch of a 2.4 Liter Regular Unleaded I-4 engine that can make 166 horsepower and 166 net torque.
This difference remains similar in the high-end trims of each model. The all-wheel-drive Buick Encore Premium has the fuel economy advantage, consuming an estimated 23 mpg in the city and 30 mpg on the highway. Its engine, however, is still trailing well behind its Mitsubishi counterpart as even in its most expensive trim, the Encore has the same 1.4 Liter Turbocharged I4 engine that can make 138 horsepower and 148 net torque.
The AWC 4-Door Mitsubishi Outlander GT, on the other hand, has a whole new beast under the hood for the driver to enjoy. Powered by a 3.0 Liter Premium Unleaded V-6 engine that can make 224 horsepower and 215 net torque, the Outlander still has a respectable fuel economy rating of 20 mpg in the city and 27 mpg on the highway.
One advantage of the Encore is that Buick made sure customers would have a wide variety of trims to pick and choose from. The 2016 line of the Buick Encore has ten different trims available. Mitsubishi also gave its buyers a good amount of options to choose from with seven different trims available.
The last category where the Outlander has an advantage over the Encore is, perhaps, one of the most important of them all. Pricing.
The base 2016 Mitsubishi Outlander ES is available starting at $22,995 while the base 2016 Buick Encore is available starting at $24,065. Even in the top of the two lines, the Encore is a more expensive model, with the 2016 Buick Encore Premium starting at $31,285 and the 2016 Mitsubishi Outlander GT starting at $30,995.