Roadtrip - Mitsubishi ASX review

Semi-auto confusion?!

With Australia Day on Sunday 26 January I decided to spend the long weekend down in Victoria with some friends and drive the scenic Great Ocean Road. 
It has been an experience on my bucket list that I have been wanting to do and with the Australian Open running at the same time along with the glorious summer weather it was the perfect Australia Day long weekend combination.

Having landed at Melbourne Tullamarine airport my first stop was to meet my friend and pick up our rental for the weekend.
Being an NRMA member has its perks, we received a free upgrade from the Hyundai i30 to the Mitsubishi ASX - the perfect compact SUV for any road trip!
My friend and I stood in the parking lock filled with shock and excitement alongside our brand new upgrade for the weekend.

Blonde moment #1: 
We signed, sealed and delivered our rental papers to reception and off on our way but funnily enough I did not realise the car had a semi-auto transmission option and had never driven one as I believe a car should be either automatic or manual. A semi-auto defeats the whole purpose of driving a manual as there is no clutch, just saying..!

You could imagine the confusion on both of our faces as we drove along the highway at 100kms in 2nd gear wondering why the engine sounded like it was struggling and about to explode. 

Having whipped out the car manual (who would've thought we needed to rely on it but we did several times throughout the trip). With a quick flick of the gear stick to the left we were back on track in drive and on our way laughing at our blonde moment and possibly many more to come.
Overall, the Mitsubishi ASX is definitely a great drive, I was quite impressed. 
The car was spacious inside with a generously sized boot for our esky, luggage, picnic baskets, hiking shoes and the whole kitchen sink. Most of all I loved the extra boost of height providing me a better view of the road ahead as I am quite short.

Pros:

• Excellent compact design - easy to park
• Smooth and easy drive
• Practical dash and telescopic steering wheel
• Excellent touch screen with easy access to audio systems, bluetooth, AUX and navigation. 
• The arm rest box between the driver and passenger seat was great as there was a usb port to charge all our devices and a hidden storage tray just above it to hold our devices.
• We only spent $70 on petrol after completing the Great Ocean Road which was a good 500km.
• The ASX has a 5 star ANCAP safety rating with 7 airbags so you definitely feel safe driving the car.

Cons:

• Driving back home from the Great Ocean Road I had to step on the accelerator a little bit more than usual to pick up the speed.
• I couldn't find the AUX port so we connected via bluetooth instead.

What I loved most of all was how the side mirrors folded in when I locked the car as well as the reversing camera/ sensors along with the ASX's compact front nose design making it easy to pull in and park.

Overall, the Mitsubishi ASX is a great compact SUV for the all city drivers and I would give it a 4/5 rating with all my pros outweighing the cons. 

I would highly recommend this car if you're thinking of upgrading to a bigger car.

Jen xoxo

At Bells Beach