The five-speed overdrive automatic is the only transmission available with the V8, but it's all you need. It has some specific electronic workings too complicated to explain here, but their object is to quicken the shifts and make them smoother, and apparently they work because all the shifts, up and down, felt seamless to us.
With the DuroCross you can get regular 4WD, but our XLS came with full-time all-wheel-drive, with two transfer cases that allow the front and rear axles to spin at different speeds, thus offering more versatile traction. Mitsubishi says the cases are put through rigorous tests equivalent to 150,000 miles of driving.
We would have liked to take that trailer carrying the Evo off into the mountains, and come blasting down a long hill; that's what separates the excellent truck brakes from the just-OK. The Raider uses vented 12-inch rotors with dual-piston calipers in front, and drums in the rear.
We took our AWD XLS through an off-road obstacle course, challenging the traction on a couple of steep dusty slopes, and it never blinked. We noticed how nimbly the Raider turned in the tight areas, using its power-assisted rack-and-pinion steering. We were spinning the steering wheel from full lock left to full lock right, and it never resisted. Such ease will be appreciated in parking lots.
A lot of work went into the suspension, front (coil-over shock) and rear (multi-leaf), and a nice compromise came out. However, the suspension was clearly not ready to be brutalized on the obstacle course; we could have easily hit bottom if we had half tried. But we had earlier driven about 100 smooth miles on a twisty and undulating two-lane highway, where the suspension was at home. The moral to the story is you can't have it both ways, at least not at this time with the XLS Raider. Try the DuroCross with heavier gas shocks, if you have a need for the boonies. Next Page