Endeavor looks best from the rear. The back end is simple, smooth and classy, angular on a two-dimensional level, with the tailgate shaped into a subtle stretched hexagon by small taillights. Its elegance creates a small mystery as to how it fits into this in-your-face geomechanical theme. Elegant describes the Limited with body-colored bumpers, at least. The LS has black "garnish" on the bumpers, and the XLS has gratuitous chrome bumper caps.
Because the independent rear suspension is mounted low in order to provide more cargo space, the control arms are oddly visible and catch your eye from the rear. It gives the Endeavor an air of mechanical seriousness, if not a suggestion of fragility from low ground clearance.
Finally, the roof rails are wide oblong tubular aluminum, neither easy to reach nor especially functional, at least not without the crossbars that come standard on the XLS and Limited. These thick aluminum rails may look rugged on the Nissan Xterra, but not on the Endeavor, whose point is that it's not supposed to be the truck-based Montero Sport.
Endeavor offers a roomy cabin. Front legroom is good (41.4 inches), comparable to other mid-sized SUVs. The XLS driver's seat with standard adjustable lumbar support is comfortable and well bolstered. The premium fabric is nice, and appears quite durable. Big mirrors offer a good view rearward.
Rear legroom is very good, with 38.5 inches. That's more than you'll find in the middle seat of the Pilot (37.0) or Highlander (36.4). The rear seat is quite comfortable, and has a center armrest with two cupholders.
Getting in and out is easy. Ingress and egress is especially good, with wide door openings. The step-in is low, which is one of the advantages to a car-based unibody frame, as opposed to the truck-based body-on-frame.
The 60/40 rear seats fold totally flat with the touch of a finger. Cargo capacity behind the front seat is 76.4 cubic feet for Endeavor, which is a little less than the Highlander and Pilot. The cargo area has enough length and width to fit a 4x8 sheet of plywood, although it would rest on the small wheel humps. There are no less than 10 hooks on the floor and side panels so things can be secured with bungee cords or nets, and one power outlet. The temporary spare tire is mounted under the cargo floorboard, which is easy to raise; a full-sized spare is optional.
That word "geomechanical" pops up again in Mitsubishi's description of the Endeavor interior design. What they say looks like a cascading waterfall, the vertical center of the instrument panel, we would describe as looking more like the top half of a robot, including a small rectangular LCD screen as eyes and protruding vents as shoulders. The panel background is finished in faux titanium, and the top of the dashboard is a rubbery-feeling matt black plastic.
Functionally it's fine. The big knobs and dials are easy to push and turn. The instrument cluster is a unit of three gauges that are easy to read, lit at night in a moody ice blue. There's a new climate control system efficiently combining heat and air conditioning with one blower. The compass that appears in the LCD window on XLS and Limited models is confusing, though.
The small LCD screen displays a menu of programmable functions, including the timing of interior lights and intermittent wipers.
A big glove box offers storage space along with the cushioned armrest console between the front seats with a removable tray, ideal for cell phones, that increases its capacity. With the tray in place, however, you have to lift two lids to get to the deeper storage area. There are two 12-volt outlets within the console, and another one accessible from the rear seat.
A hard drive of about 30 miles took us down a narrow, bumpy, twisty road to an isolated surfing and windsurfing spot called Jalama Beach on the central California coast. The all-wheel-drive Mitsubishi Endeavor XLS felt steady. We cornered hard and the rack-and-pinion steering was responsive. It turns in nicely for corners. There's some body lean but it's very stable. It's free of the tippy feeling that used to plague SUVs. You have to drive it pretty hard before understeer sets in. Endeavor uses an independent suspension and 17-inch wheels with Bridgestone Terranza 235/65R17 road tires.
We drove the Endeavor over all kinds of surfaces, and it has a nice ride. It's smoother than most truck-based SUVs and comparable to that of some of the car-based SUVs. The only crack in the Endeavor's ride appeared in the sharp ridges, those pitches upward that you feel in the pit of your stomach.
The unibody chassis appears to be very strong. Mitsubishi says virtually every inch of it is either reinforced, corrugated, triangulated or doubled up. The longitudinal rails are octagonally shaped for strength, with no welded beads, and there are five lateral crossmembers.
