Mitsubishi Pajero Sport

The Pajero nameplate has been with us for 30 years, and while the hero SUV from Mitsubishi bearing the name may have been retired, the nameplate lives on with the Mitsubishi Pajero Sport.

The Pajero Sport is a little smaller than the SUV it effectively replaces, but that doesn’t mean it is any less a vehicle for all that. In fact, the Pajero Sport is something of a showcase of Mitsubishi’s technical development.

With the retiring of the Pajero, a revitalised Pajero Sport took on its mantle, but in the first generation lacked what consumers were demanding of a hero product.

Until now, where we have a new Pajero Sport, which takes on contemporary design cues, new technology and a high specification level, all while retaining a price which consumers are used to seeing from the Triple Diamond brand.

The Pajero Sport’s

2.4- litre turbocharged engine makes for comfortable cruising for long distance touring and yet is responsive enough to deal with day-to- day driving.

It is however the suspension which makes this transition so easy. At higher speeds, the suspension appears to ‘ torque down’ the body and chassis, making for a very stable ride.

Around town, the suspension ‘ frees up,’ making the generously large Pajero Sport nimble and able to negotiate tighter turns in smaller spaces.

The work Mitsubishi’s engineers have done to the suspension is impressive and best demonstrated by the tow test we subjected the Pajero Sport to.

While these are usually feats of demonstrable strength (the Pajero Sport can pull 3100kg on a braked trailer), in the case of the Pajero Sport, it proved to be more a demonstration of refinement in handling, the front independent wishbone with coil spring and stabiliser/rear three-link torque arm with coil spring and stabiliser combination proving an effective one.

Refinement of course, translates easily to comfort and the Pajero Sport delivers in this too. Being a full sized seven-seater, the expectation was the rear seats would be ‘ token’ seats at best. This is not the case and furthermore, even with the rearmost seats up, there is a better than acceptable amount of cargo space.

Pajero Sport’s sophistication extends of course, to creature comforts with air conditioning in the third and second row separate or the dual zone climate control up front, which also has heating for the front driver and passenger seats – leather of course, along with the others.

Pride of place in the cabin is the eightinch touchscreen which serves as the command centre of infotainment and app interconnectivity.

Mitsubishi has ensured compatibility with Apple Carplay and Android Auto devices while also supporting voice command and Bluetooth connectivity via steering wheel controls.

Electronically speaking, the Pajero

Sport lacks little. As a five-star ANCAP rated vehicle, it features adaptive cruise control, speed limiter, blind spot warning, forward collision and ultra-mis-acceleration mitigation systems, smart brake and brake assist, hill start assist and hill descent control.

Also, the Pajero Sport looks back to help you, with rear cross traffic alert – something every family friendly SUV should have – and a reversing camera with dynamic guidance system – especially useful for hitching up trailers or seeing what’s behind you off-road.

Oops, nearly forgot to mention that the Pajero Sport comes with Mitsubishi’s proven dial-up Super Select all-wheel- drive.

This is something of a hangover from the Pajero heydays of being a Paris/dakar rally winner and works especially well with a ladder frame chassis, which is what the Pajero Sport is built on.

All told, the Pajero Sport is well worthy of the mantle of Mitsubishi’s hero SUV.