I'll do something a little out of my norm: what I like about the Cross.
1. Looks. If you have good wheels to replace the factory dubs, and make it match the fenders, it looks pretty sharp.
2. S-AWC. Compared to even the Outlander's, the S-AWC on this thing performs better. I do wish it had a front LSD though. Because you really can feel the rear traction shift every so often - and when you do -- Baby Evo -- it nooice
3. Interior comfort features. Compared to Mitsubishis of past, the heated seats and steering (wish it were the full wheel though), HUD, and Bird's Eye View cams --- and even the head unit --- again compared to Mitsus of the past --- good refinements. I do miss the full pano roof on the Outlander Sport though. Loved that thing so much, I miss it dearly.
4. Stopping force. For something as heavy as this thing, the brakes do work damn well.
And finally - I really do think the powertrain is not that bad. It's clearly just horrible gearing. You can really feel the torque on-demand despite such a spineless, gutless, life-suckingly low overall gear ratio. I imagine that, if transmission limitations were not a thing to consider --- a tune on 93RON that's in the low 15's for AFR might give the car maybe another 50 or so horses, just on the fuel and tune alone? I can only imagine what swapping out to a used 16G and better piping would do.
If not for that transmission, I really think the Cross could be an interesting project. Sadly, the fact that we're talking highly electronic and ECU-integrated TCU here is a dealbreaker from the get-go.