MY FAMILY is never happy when I come on a Monday evening with a two-door car. Imagine the looks I got last Monday when I arrived home with a two seater. No, not a sporty looking racer, but a Mitsubishi Pajero Commercial 4×4.
The Pajero has been a familiar sight on Irish roads and farms for over 25 years and over that time Mitsubishi has sold over 10,000 united here. This new version looks good thanks to a revamp, starting with those very attractive headlamps. No doubt about it the Pajero is the trusted workhorse for farmers and small builders, if there are any of the latter category left in the country at this stage.
Gavin Flood, marketing manager of Mitsubishi told me that commercial versions make up 92 per cent of Pajero sales in Ireland. And no wonder, the cargo space is massive. It would be ideal if you are moving house, indeed Gavin joked that you could nearly fit a small car in the back. The huge cargo area is accessed by a door that opens out at the back.
So it’s unlikely that you will be using the Pajero for that Sunday afternoon drive, unless you are heading half way up a mountain to check on the health of your sheep or cattle. And if you need to pull a trailer or anything heavy the Pajero is the man for you. The 3.2 litre diesel engine provides 200 brake horse power, which should be powerful enough for any task you have to undertake. And if you don’t want to the neighbours to know what you are up to, difficult I know in Ireland, the back windows are blacked out.
I regularly clean out my shed and didn’t have any junk left to fill up the cargo area of the 4×4 last week. But if you have to use the Pajero on the open road it’s reasonably comfortable and you can easily switch from four-wheel to two-wheel drive. The driving position is really high and allows you to clearly see what’s happening ahead of you in traffic. So you can have your own version of AA Roadwatch and see what the traffic is like up ahead.
It’s a high motor to climb into and you wouldn’t want to be troubled with arthritis to climb on board. So you will appreciate the grips on the door to help you climb in. You need to keep your wits about you every time you take a car out on the road. But the Pajero is such a massive 4×4 that you need to be really careful as it’s such a big vehicle you could easily do damage while reversing. The Dunlop Grandtrex tyres are massive and I wouldn’t like to have to fix a puncture on a dark night.
The only slightly annoying thing for me about the interior of Pajero was the controls for the radio; I would describe them as a bit fiddly and would have preferred a regular knob for the volume and tuning the radio rather than a
‘plus and minus’ selector. But then I’m a big radio fan where cars are concerned.
Prices start at
?¬32,262 excluding VAT, but inclusive of VRT of
?¬200 for the commercial version. If you are one of the eight per cent who buy a Pajero as a passenger vehicle you will pay around
?¬63,000 for the pleasure.