The Mitsubishi Outlander Sport was introduced for the 2011 model year, and despite a harsh review here on Cars.com, it's sold well. Though it shares the Outlander name, the Sport is smaller than the regular Outlander, which has been around since 2003.

Last year, I warned shoppers to avoid the Outlander Sport because of its maddeningly loud yet underpowered engine and a troublesome continuously variable automatic transmission.

For 2012, Mitsubishi said it addressed these two issues specifically and delivered me a test unit to evaluate against its predecessor. Unfortunately, the test car came with a manual transmission, not the CVT that Mitsubishi updated. I could focus only on the engine, so that's what this review addresses.

Thanks to its revisions, the 2012 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport is slightly improved, but it's still not at the level of many competitors.

• Performance
• Interior & Cargo
• Safety
• Outlander Sport in the Market