It's hardly rocket science. If you are a car company blessed enough to have a trendy, even iconic, "halo" vehicle, marketing 101 says leverage that popularity to sell your lesser products.
Make reference to said status-mobile's DNA in all your advertisements if you can. Emblazon your lesser offerings with nameplates that are constant reminders, no matter how idiotic (as in Chevette trying to ride the coat-tails of the Corvette) the association. And, if the association is still too distant, go overboard and have some trademark portion of the sports car's styling built into your mum-mobile.
If you're Mitsubishi, for example, you'd finally realise (and by finally I mean that the Evo is now in its 10th generation) that your Lancer Evolution is verily the epicentre of that brand DNA everyone talks about; so you should exploit that sporty sibling at every opportunity.
So it is then that we find the company's 2010 Outlander looking suspiciously like it has had its snout grafted right from the front of the latest Evo. While you might think that such a transplant is a guarantee of good looks, I would suggest you all google both "911" and "Panamera" and tell me if the snout really does make the car.
The Outlander's transformation will probably not have such polarising effect on the populace (the Panamera, after all, does have its adherents, including, after a few strong mojitos, Yours Truly). Indeed, looking at the Outlander's new snout is one of those not-as-rare-as-they-should-be "why didn't I think of that" moments as it looks so natural. It turns what is otherwise a Honda CR-V type snooz-mobile into something with a modicum of attitude, something this mid-sized cross-over segment desperately needs.
The inside, particularly in the Outlander's top-of-the-range GT guise, gets a more substantial revision. Gone are the acres of awkward, angular plastic replaced by, well, almost as much, but far less angular, plastic. The bin atop the dash is gone, the switchgear has been dramatically simplified and, in the GT, there's even a touch of leather atop the gauge set's binnacle. Said leather also covers the GT's seats with what looks like Range Rover inspired stitching. That might by a market segment (or two) two far, but one has to admire Mitsubishi for over-reaching.
In addition, the optional Rockford Fosgate audio system now boasts 710 arrhythmia-inducing watts of sonic power rather than last year's merely deafening 650W. Perhaps there's some form of gangsta wannabee for whom this is a meaningful upgrade, but really, how loud do you really need to play Chattanooga Choo-Choo, even the Steve Lucky & The Rhumba Bums version, before it loses its original je ne sais quoi?
The only real downside to the interior revision is that much of the dashboard's plastic trim is still of the old-school rigid construction rather than the softer, more tactile stuff found in Hondas and Toyotas. The Outlander's cabin is a marked step forward for Mitsu, but it still needs a further jog to be on an even footing with the best in its segment.
In the drivetrain department, however, the Outlander is ahead of the game. Taking another page out of the Land Rover page book, the 2010 Outlander has a rotary knob in its centre console, which adjusts its Super-All Wheel Control (S-AWC) full-time all-wheel-drive system's many sensors and actuators for three separate settings - Tarmac, Snow and Lock. Additionally, the front wheels are controlled by an Active Front Differential so that if one wheel is spinning it directs some of the engine's torque to the wheel with traction. This might sound like the finest of splitting of hairs, but in testing the Outlander's hill climbing ability on a slippery snowy slope, the electronic diff (???) was as important to a rapid and controlled take-off as the lockable all-wheel-drive. It should be noted that, in North American markets at least, only the top-of-the-range Outlander gets the S-AWC system. Lesser models get a revised version of last year's "slip-and-grab" system.
The GT's 3.0-litre MIVEC V6, though mechanically similar, gets a 10 horsepower boost to 230, largely as a result of an increase in compression. The end result is a torquey engine that allows enough power and is accommodatingly smooth as well. Mated to a state of the art six-speed automatic, it may not be as powerful as a Toyota RAV4's V6 but it more than gets the job done. All Outlander V6 models also now feature a novel Idle Neutral function, which sees the transmission automatically shift to neutral when the vehicle is stopped with the brakes applied. The reduced drag, says Mitsubishi, saves about 0.5 litres of fuel per 100 kilometres of urban driving. While the top-of-the-line V6 has received most of the technical innovation, the Outlander still offers a 2.4-litre inline four engine sporting 168-hp, a continuously variable transmission and can be had in front-wheel-drive guise as well.
Finally, there's the question of how much all of this costs. While the base version's MSRP of US$25,498 (Dh93,666) might have you thinking that it would account for the lion's share of Outlander sales, Mitsubishi estimates that it will be the top-of-the-line GT, priced at a heftier-but-still-affordable $34,498 that will make up 40 per cent of Outlander sales. And, if that's not enough, you can add another four grand to the bargain by opting for the navigation and entertainment package, which includes a 40 Gig hard drive navi system (10 Gigs reserved for music storage), front and rear LCD screens (the rear one for a DVD entertainment centre) and a rearview backup camera. Mitsubishi has truly come a long way from marketing econboxes to freshly graduated college students.
motoring@thenational.ae
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Results
6.30pm: The Madjani Stakes (PA) Group 3 Dh175,000 (Dirt) 1,900m
Winner: Aatebat Al Khalediah, Fernando Jara (jockey), Ali Rashid Al Raihe (trainer).
7.05pm: Maiden (TB) Dh165,000 (D) 1,400m
Winner: Down On Da Bayou, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer.
7.40pm: Maiden (TB) Dh165,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner: Dubai Avenue, Fernando Jara, Ali Rashid Al Raihe.
8.15pm: Handicap (TB) Dh190,000 (D) 1,200m
Winner: My Catch, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson.
8.50pm: Dubai Creek Mile (TB) Listed Dh265,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner: Secret Ambition, Tadhg O’Shea, Satish Seemar.
9.25pm: Handicap (TB) Dh190,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner: Golden Goal, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson.
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Biog:
Age: 34
Favourite superhero: Batman
Favourite sport: anything extreme
Favourite person: Muhammad Ali
Major matches on Manic Monday
Andy Murray (GBR) v Benoit Paire (FRA)
Grigor Dimitrov (BGR) v Roger Federer (SUI)
Rafael Nadal (ESP) v Gilles Muller (LUX)
Adrian Mannarino (FRA) Novak Djokovic (SRB)
Salah in numbers
€39 million: Liverpool agreed a fee, including add-ons, in the region of €39m (nearly Dh176m) to sign Salah from Roma last year. The exchange rate at the time meant that cost the Reds £34.3m - a bargain given his performances since.
13: The 25-year-old player was not a complete stranger to the Premier League when he arrived at Liverpool this summer. However, during his previous stint at Chelsea, he made just 13 Premier League appearances, seven of which were off the bench, and scored only twice.
57: It was in the 57th minute of his Liverpool bow when Salah opened his account for the Reds in the 3-3 draw with Watford back in August. The Egyptian prodded the ball over the line from close range after latching onto Roberto Firmino's attempted lob.
7: Salah's best scoring streak of the season occurred between an FA Cup tie against West Brom on January 27 and a Premier League win over Newcastle on March 3. He scored for seven games running in all competitions and struck twice against Tottenham.
3: This season Salah became the first player in Premier League history to win the player of the month award three times during a term. He was voted as the division's best player in November, February and March.
40: Salah joined Roger Hunt and Ian Rush as the only players in Liverpool's history to have scored 40 times in a single season when he headed home against Bournemouth at Anfield earlier this month.
30: The goal against Bournemouth ensured the Egyptian achieved another milestone in becoming the first African player to score 30 times across one Premier League campaign.
8: As well as his fine form in England, Salah has also scored eight times in the tournament phase of this season's Champions League. Only Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo, with 15 to his credit, has found the net more often in the group stages and knockout rounds of Europe's premier club competition.
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The specs
Engine: 3.8-litre, twin-turbo V8
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 582bhp
Torque: 730Nm
Price: Dh649,000
On sale: now
Western Region Asia Cup T20 Qualifier
Sun Feb 23 – Thu Feb 27, Al Amerat, Oman
The two finalists advance to the Asia qualifier in Malaysia in August
Group A
Bahrain, Maldives, Oman, Qatar
Group B
UAE, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia
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SPECS
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