One of the main reasons behind trading off my Dodge Dart to a Mitsubishi RVR was "workplace versatility."
A deciding factor in this decision was an odd email that was circulated this last winter, banning contractors and employees from a certain location with front wheel drive vehicles (yeah, I wasn't impressed to see that, nor could believe the follow-up explanation I got for their logic on that announcement). Another factor was this big boulder that didn't clear the under body of my previous vehicle.
Up to this point, I hadn't the opportunity (or location available) to try out the All Wheel Control system or gauge the lighting in very dark, off-road conditions. With just under a month of ownership, it had been mostly in-town on pavement driving (other than the test drive, but that is another story).
One thing that annoyed me earlier on with the Dodge Dart was the inability to dim right down or flat out turn off the dashlights. Pictured above, the instrument cluster is dimmed as far as it can go and the infotainment screen has been turned "off", but you wouldn't be able to really tell by the standby glow it produced.
Now, here is the Mitsubishi RVR.
At a causal glance, there doesn't appear to be much of a difference, however, the instrument cluster produces a softer white and without a factory infotainment system, the "easy on the eyes" glow from the stereo/HVAC controls is a lot more bearable.
With internal/external lighting looking good, it was time to test out traction, power and road manners on an unpaved surface. Granted, this isn't a trial run for the Paris-Dakar Rally, nor am I in the legendary league of Tommi Mäkinen, but this short road offers a sample of future routes I might need to travel, without unreasonable or illogical restrictions.
While I do have camera mounts that would have made viewing the video a lot easier to tolerate (especially in the very bumpy sections), this was very much an impromptu opportunity and seized it with what I had at the time. The buzzing sound, if you heard it, was the rear license plate. Since it was only mounted at the top, the bottom part was free to create that slightly annoying sound.
With the one hand, I held my phone to capture this first person view. the other was steering the RVR without issue. Of course going downhill is the easy part, nothing more than an exercise in direction directing and braking, uphill almost required my second hand, since the bumps and ruts played with the front wheels.
One feature of the RVR I particularly like is the clean underbody. There is nothing hanging down to take away from the advertised ground clearance (my Limited Edition model claims 215 mm or 8.5 inches).
Until now, I have never even heard of the Nexen brand, but I will keep an eye on how this set of Korean tires that came with my Mitsubishi hold up over time. I was pleasantly surprised how the Nexens and MacPherson Struts kept the ride up and down the hill rather....civil.
It might not have been the worst road I could find, but that wasn't the real point of all of this. I wanted a first time look at just how "soft-road" capable the RVR could be on a path that I could have taken my former Dodge Dart on and down, if I had not made the decision to let it go.
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