Introduction: The Mitsubishi Endeavor was introduced as a brand new model in 2004. It is Mitsubishi's first medium sized cross-over SUV. The Endeavor is built on the PS platform consisting of the Mitsubishi Galant and Eclipse. This vehicle was designed to target a then growing market in the United States of SUVs. Over the years sales of this vehicle has been rather slow but Mitsubishi did give the Endeavor a face lift for the 2010 model year meaning they still intend to continue making this vehicle.
The Mitsubishi Endeavor is one of the vehicles I didn't know what to think about. I barely seen any by that point and while I was curious to drive a Mitsubishi I wondered whether this vehicle fit my idea that the SUV is a rather wasteful idea.
Performance: The Mitsubishi Endeavor is equipped with a large 3.8L V6 that produces 215 hp and 250 lb.ft of torque. The version I drove had a mild improvement to the engine making it produce 225hp. The engine was a smooth unit and powered this big vehicle rather comfortably. It in fact accelerates from 0-100 km/h in about 7.8 seconds, which is a good number for such a vehicle. Fuel economy is really the only item that this engine might suffer with.
My Score: 8/10 - The engine is pretty good, smooth and moved the vehicle pretty well. Not much to say other than it may consume more fuel than expected.
Handling: The Endeavor is a pretty decent handling vehicle all things considered. You will realize the weight of this SUV when you push the vehicle hard into the corner but you can corner without the sense you're going to under steer. The wheel is weighted very well for this vehicle and as a result its easy to drive. So long as you understand its nowhere near as light as a car, the Endeavor handles pretty good.
My Score: 7/10 - As a larger SUV it corners pretty well, it will only fail if you attempt to corner like you would on a smaller car.
Interior: This is the big weak spot with frankly every Mitsubishi today. What I thought was neat about sitting inside the Endeavor it seemed bigger and wider inside than it looks from the outside. My biggest problem with the interior is the cheap ugly plastic in the Endeavor. The best items in the interior however is the amount of space, the screen for the radio and the seats are rather comfortable. The build quality of these vehicles are pretty good, these are built in the United States. What a shame with the interior since its not a bad one, its just not easy to present it.
My Score: 6/10 - A good interior...it just uses some ugly cheap materials making it unattractive.
Styling: While I never noticed many of these SUVs after actually seeing one, they're quite distinct. Its not a particularly daring styling effort but there was effort in making it look like no other SUV from all angles. I liked the way it looked.
My Score: 8/10 - Not a daring look but styled so its distinct from any other SUV.
Value for the money: This is a bit of trouble, the Endeavor is a very expensive SUV for the money. A 2009 Endeavor costs about $36,000 which puts it over the Toyota Highlander and almost equal in price to the real SUV Toyota 4-Runner. You don't even get 4WD with that $36,000 either its still FWD. The unattractive interior does not show its price tag, the only way you could tell the money was spent elsewhere you had to have test driven the Endeavor. Had Mitsubishi spent more money on the interior they would have a good case for why this SUV costs so much.
My Score: 3/10 - A good SUV but its way too expensive with its low rent interior to present itself as a good alternative to Toyota.
Overall: 32/50 - A very nice medium sized SUV, would have been so much better with a better quality interior
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