The new Mitsubishi Pajero Sport 4×4 is by all intents and purposes a Triton with seven seats and a fixed back end. Mitsubishi aren’t the only ones making such bakkie-based concoctions, but Ray Leathern still finds it hard to quantify.
I have to admit right off the bat that I hate bakkies. They’re too big, too crude and unless there being used in a commercial capacity, they’re impractical and pointless as well. My best friend bought a bakkie, thinking it would be practical. But every time his parents come into town I have to help him with an airport run because he doesn’t want his dad perched on the back of his single cab. I believe bakkies have the potential to be highly dangerous as well. Often driven across varying road surfaces, at high speed, by any manner of fatigued farmers, on antiquated suspension and tall side-walled tyres, all you need do is throw in a chunky bull bar and you have two and a bit tonnes of pedestrian mangling fury.
Of course you can’t move house very effectively with a Nissan Micra, but to keep a bakkie because you’ll need it once every four years seems a little arse about face to me. So why in the world would you take this big bad bakkie, and decide to turn it into a 4×4 SUV? Because everything’s just lying around the factory? Because it’s cheap? Because if you change the name no one will know any better? Correct. Welcome to the Mitsubishi Pajero Sport.
First impressions are that it looks the part. Big, commanding, with a Dakar rally car looking front end.
Now to be fair, Mitsubishi aren’t the first ones to try pull this trick. The Nissan Pathfinder and Toyota Fortuner are both 4×4 SUVs with their roots in humble bakkie platforms. However, both of those vehicles were carefully revised and refined to give you the on-road comfort befitting an SUV. The Toyota Fortuner is one of the best cars on sale in South Africa today as a result of this fine-tuning. The Ford Everest on the other hand, based on the Ranger bakkie, isn’t. But I will give it credit for its strong diesel engine. The same can’t be said about the Pajero Sports diesel engine.
Sporting a massive 3,2-litre, turbo-charged, intercooled, common rail diesel motor might explain the use of a Pajero “Sport” badge.
Mitsubishi say this car benefits from all their Dakar rallying experience, but they fail to mention they haven’t competed for a couple of years now. If they had, the motor might make a little more than 120kW and 343Nm. And it might have had something a bit more sophisticated than a four-speed automatic to put that power down on to the road. It’s not just the lack of go that is completely bizarre for something badged with Sport, but it’s the laziness and lack of refinement in the drive train. It’s loud, uncomfortable and not especially economical.
Despite multi-link suspension with coils and a stabiliser bar at the rear, the Mitsubishi’s ride on-road is bullocking at best and it doesn’t get any better off-road. Admittedly, a feeling of build toughness, good ground clearance and low range means it can go pretty far off-road when you’re in the bundus, but it’s still tall and wayward on fast gravel because of what feels like primitive suspension.
It’s a seven-seater, which says something for its practicality, but overall interior space is’t as impressive as you’d think. The driver’s area is particularly cramped with the low-range gearbox resting up against your knee as you drive along and not much adjustment available on the seats.
In the seven-seater stakes, the Mitsubishi Pajero Sport is out-classed by the Fortuner and Pathfinder. But then again, what was I expecting? It’s not a Pajero, it’s a Triton bakkie. Get the badging right lads.
Fast facts
- Mitsubishi Pajero Sport
- Price: R426 700
- Engine: 3,2-litre, turbo charged, common rail diesel DI-D
- Power: 120kW @ 3 500rpm
- Torque: 343Nm @ 2 000rpm
- 0-100kph: 12,6 sec
- Top speed: 178km/h
- Consumption: 11,7 l/100km
(combined/claimed)