Mitsubishi Pajero Sport is the new generation of Pajero launched in 2012. The rugged SUV competes with Toyota Fortuner, Hyundai Sante Fe, Ford Endeavour and other humongous SUVs in India, although, Mitsubishi unlike Toyota is not that active in luring customers through the means of pricing, marketing and dealerships across the country. Mitsubishi has tagged this SUV a notch too higher and this would definitely not wash with Indian customers. 2012 Mitsubishi Pajero is pitched for South East Asian, South American, Latin American, South African and Russian markets.
Mitsubishi India which works in collaboration with Hindustan Motors launched Pajero in India back in 2002. Over the year, Pajero has proved its worth by winning the world’s toughest driving contest: the Dakar Rally. The new Pajero Sport has undergone a sea change from the previous Pajero. The new Pajero is basically built on Triton pick-up truck platform. Its competitor Toyota Fortuner is based on Hilux pickup platform. The SUV Pajero SFX assembles in India (Chennai) through completely knocked down units from Thailand. However, the Pajero Sport is brought as CBU. The pick-up truck derived body on ladder frame, high ground clearance, high riding double wishbone with coil springs and a stabilizer bar suspension set-up at front and three-link set-up with coil springs and stabilizer bar suspension at rear and the gap between the rear wheel arches and the tyres give it a raw SUV look.
Pajero Sport has Mitsubishi's old family grille flanked by a set of attractive clear-lens headlamps with projector beams with self-levelling. The SUV looks supreme with its tight haunches and distinctive wheel arches enclosing 17 inch wheels. Rear of Pajero Sport is dominated by Alfa Romeo-esque tail lamps. Chrome door handles complement the lushness of Pajero Sport. Even the new front chrome grille with slashed bars or either side of the Mitsubishi logo looks amazing. Round fog lamps look like two eyes and skid plate looks like the smiley face. Ground clearance of 215 mm is more than desired and gives a macho look to the SUV. Side silver step helps in easy ingress and exit from of high held Pajero Sport.
Safety gets due advantage in the new generation SUV. While driver and passenger side airbags are much expected features, Pajero is also stuffed with Anti Lock-Braking system, EBD with brake boosters, rear parking sensors, rear wash wiper and defogger. Interiors are refurbished and made similar to Outlander. The steering gets integrated audio controls and cruise controls. Electrically adjustable leather seats, rear aircon and a touch screen navigation interface are well appreciated in the Mitsubishi’s new SUV. The black and beige dual-tone colour scheme along with beige leather upholstery looks deluxe and everything including the finish of plastics is upmarket. Three rows of seat can make space for 7 passengers. An MP3 player with USB slot with a multi-trip function display that shows altimeter, barometer, outside temperature, fuel information and audio information. AC with automatic climate control for front passengers and manually controls for blower is given in the SUV for the rear passengers.
The sole variant of Pajero Sport doesn’t uses a full time four-wheel-drive like Fortuner, it is equipped with the Super Select 4WD system similar to that on the existing Pajero which allows shifting between rear-wheel-drive and four-wheel-drive at speeds of up to 100kmph. There is an option of locking the centre differential by which all four wheels move with similar speed and thus torque is sent the most to that wheel which has most traction. 36 degree approach angle, 23 degree break-over and 25 degree departure angles.
The 2012 Mitsubishi Sport runs on a 4D56 2.5-litre in-line four-cylinder common-rail turbodiesel engine. The rugged engine churns out 175 bhp of power at 4000 rpm and 400 Nm of torque at 2000-2500 rpm. The engine in this off-roader is mated to a 5 speed manual transmission. Mitsubishi has certainly missed on an automatic variant. The giant competitor-Fortuner, not just comes with auto gearbox but also charges less amount to customers. So, it is going to be a tough journey for Mitsubishi to sell it Pajero in a price sensitive country like India. If at all it comes with an automatic variant and reduces the price in future it can manage to grab a few customers for itself.
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