Mitsi ute a wannabe SUV
exclusively 4WD in VRX specification.
Can you seriously drive a ute on-road instead of an SUV? Plenty of people do. Enthusiasts for these types of posh pickups often refer to them as car-like, usually while wearing rose-tinted spectacles. Let’s be honest: there’s no way a pickup-platform can provide the refinement, ride and handling of a proper passenger car.
But there is a great deal of satisfaction in tooling around town in a rugged-feeling ute and there’s no question that the onroad manners of these things have improved out of sight in the last decade. Comfort and convenience equipment is impressive, too: in the VRX you’re sitting on leather, power- everything and getting direct smartphone connectivity (including mapping with traffic information) through the centreconsole screen.
Triton is still one of the secondtier utes in sales terms: way below Ford Ranger and Toyota Hilux, in the fray with Holden Colorado and Nissan Navara. The 2.4-litre turbo-diesel is strong, although it’s stuck with a five-speed automatic in this age of six-cog gearboxes. But Triton holds its own in cabin comfort/space and especially urban ride, while offering distinctly car-like (that phrase again) cabin architecture. The interior materials are workaday, but the design is more cohesive and attractive than the Outlander.
You want polish? That’s the Outlander. From poor NVH (noise, vibration, harshness) beginnings it has evolved into an exceptionally refined and quiet machine, but it’s not exactly engaging. In petrol form it has a continuously variable transmission, which is excellent for light urban running but starts to panic when pressed hard.
However, the Outlander has driver-assistance and safety equipment you can only dream about in the world of Triton. A recent upgrade has added that phone-projection head unit and an electric parking brake, but the Outlander VRX also has a 360-degree parking camera, blind spot warning, rear cross traffic alert and lane change assist, along Base price: $51,990. Powertrain and performance: 2.4-litre turbo-diesel four, 135kW/ 437Nm, 5-speed automatic, RWD, Combined economy 7.5 litres per 100km. Vital statistics: 5280mm long, 1780mm high, 3000mm wheelbase, tray 1520mm and 1470mm wide or 1085mm between wheel arches, 17-inch alloy wheels with 245/65 tyres. We like: Well-equipped without being cheesy, great connectivity, settled ride. We don’t like: Not the most glamorous one-tonner around, five-speed gearbox.
with forward collision mitigation, lane departure warning, adaptive cruise control and automatic high beam for the headlights.
If you like your SUV with stubble then the Triton VRX is still the one that will make you smile most: a pickup truck feels rough compared with a crossovertype wagon, but the driving experience is a lot more engaging and it’s definitely fun (if not fast). But as an on-road vehicle, the Triton package does also seem a bit old-hat next to the hi-tech safety gear of the Outlander VRX. Both have five-star Ancap (Australasian New Car Assessment Programme) crashtest ratings, though.
The answer might be yet another Mitsubishi VRX with the toughness of a Triton, a slick powertrain, seven seats and Outlander-like active safety gear. That’d be the Pajero Sport, then. But that’s at least another $10k (notwithstanding another ‘‘special promotional price’’ of $61,990 that’s running as I write this) and another story.