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2017 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport | Affordable outlier

The $10,000 new car, truck or SUV is long dead, and the $15,000 price point is nearly so. To purchase a new vehicle and enjoy everything buying "new" implies (warranty, reasonably new tech, a long life and affordable financing), you have to spend $20,000, probably more like $25,000. We'll take a look at spending that $20K at a Mitsubishi store. If you've forgotten Mitsubishi, don't blame yourself. A generation ago, Mitsubishi's American arm had a financial meltdown, precipitated by a consumer financing plan offering zero interest and zero payments for way-too-many-months. When it was time to make payments customers simply returned the cars, leaving Mitsubishi holding a very expensive inventory worth substantially less than what was owed. Later, of course, the economy had its own meltdown, from which most of America's automotive industry rebounded. But Mitsubishi, with a sparse lineup and little marketing, is still working on that. A recent infusion of Nissan capital will help, as should Nissan's managerial oversight. Despite Mitsubishi's aging lineup, the Outlander Sport stands out - Mitsubishi continued to build it while other manufacturers were belatedly awakening to the subcompact crossover segment. And while its platform is old and its menu of standard and optional equipment dated, if you're on a tight budget you might find it attractive. Dimensionally, the Outlander Sport is a plus-size relative to Mazda's CX-3 and Honda's HR-V. For a detailed comparison of all three entries, visit Autoblog's comparison tool here. The CX-3 boasts the shortest wheelbase (101.2 inches), while the Honda sits at 102.8 inches and the compact Outlander Sport stretches to 105.1. In overall length the Mitsu is close to both the CX-3 (168 inches for the Mazda, 171.5 for the Outlander Sport and 169.1 inches for the HR-V). Finally, the Outlander Sport's 3,000-pound weight is within a belt notch of the Mazda's 2,900 and the Honda's 2,900 (front-wheel drive/manual). The Mitsubishi sheetmetal and stance is reminiscent of Audi's Q5, and while the similarity is coincidental, it's fun to have an upmarket look in a $20,000 car. Of course, once the Outlander Sport is turned on, that upmarket vibe is gone. For your $20K you'll get a 2.0-liter engine offering 148 horsepower, just north of Mazda's 146 and Honda' s 141.

nuTonomy beats Uber to launch first self-driving taxi

In the cutthroat world of technology, if you're not first, you're last. With this in mind, it shouldn't come as a surprise to see tech companies and automakers clawing to be first in line to release self-driving cars. Uber recently partnered with Volvo in a $300-million project that should result in a self-driving fleet as early as next month. But amazingly, a 3-year-old company called nuTonomy has beat Uber to the punch by launching the world's first self-driving taxi in Singapore. Cambridge, MA,-based nuTonomy has been privately testing self-driving vehicles in Singapore since April and is now allowing select residents in the city's one-north business district to be driven around in its self-driving taxis for free. Customers will be able to summon one of nuTonomy's self-driving taxis through the company's app and will be picked up in a Renault Zoe or Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric car modified for autonomous driving. While the taxi will drive itself, an engineer from nuTonomy will ride in the vehicle to ensure that the car is operating properly and will take over if needed. There's no word on how many self-driving taxis nuTonomy put on the road, but the trials take the company one step closer to launching its fully autonomous fleet by 2018. The Wall Street Journal's Jake Watts managed to get a ride in one of nuTonomy's self-driving taxis and, while it went well, he claims human cabdrivers may not go extinct any time soon. According to Watts, the self-driving Mitsubishi lacked Tesla's polish and was overly cautious. The car did a fine job of avoiding jaywalkers, parked cars, and pedestrians on the short drive, but hesitated often, which could gives riders motion sickness, Watts said. nuTonomy CEO Karl Iagnemma will be speaking at Autoblog's UPSHIFT 2016 conference on transportation technology on October 6 in Detroit. Related Video: News Source: The Wall Street Journal, nuTonomyImage Credit: nuTonomy Green Mitsubishi Renault Technology Emerging Technologies Autonomous Vehicles Electric Uber driverless singapore nutonomy

Your 2013 Pikes Peak Hill Climb primer: "Donuts at 14,000 feet."

The teams have all set up their pits and paddocks for today's run of the 91st Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, and there's nothing left to do but take a shot at the title. At 8 am Mountain time (9 am EST / 7 am PST), the first of a field of 83 bikes and 63 cars - whittled from an original field of 157 - will race 12.42 miles through 156 turns from the start gate at 9,390 feet to the summit finish at 14,110 feet. The summit is where we'll be all day, having arrived on the media bus at around 5 am and not allowed to come down until the race is finished. If it's anything like last year that could mean a 14-hour day on the top munching on donuts at the summit café, begging for hits of pure oxygen and trying to stay hydrated and warm...
Here are the event with Hyundai, we enjoyed dinner with Rhys Millen got his take on what's happened and what's about to happen. Millen said the issue that caused his engine swap last week was minor, a head gasket (a production part) that was causing a bit of hesitation and a slight drop in top speed. He said it's the first time they've stressed the engines this hard, pushing boost pressures up to 19 psi at altitude, which equates to 25 psi at sea level. Offering testament to the strength of the engines, though, he said that Paul Dallenbach's engine did the entire 2012 drift season as well as Pikes Peak, and it's the engine being used again for the hill climb this year.
We also chatted with Dallenbach, who has come back from that beastly crash last year in the Unlimited category to lead almost every practice day this year in the Time Attack class. Telling us he's happier behind the wheel this year than he has been in 20 years, he asked us, "Know what my dashboard says when I turn the car on? 'Donuts at 14,000 feet.'"