Test drive Mitsubishi Pajero (Montero, Shogun) LWB 2000 - 2003 SUV

Mitsubishi Pajero 3.2 Di-D

BEST THE ENEMY OF THE GOOD. In six months, we are so accustomed to our Pajero that we involuntarily began to compare with it all the cars that were on the test in the editorial office. Not only SUVs, but also cars.

Very often, even too much, the comparison was in favor of Pajero. Dynamics - at the level of a good car. The same can be said about the comfort of the salon, controllability. The capacity - even cannot be compared with the largest station wagon. And especially the degree of freedom that the driver Pajero experiences. If you want, you fly on your highway and understand that those are 150 km/h, that on the speedometer is not the limit. If you want, you turn off the track to the forest path, and you are quite an inconspicuous rut, remotely reminiscent of the road to break away from civilization. Invite six people to the cottage and attached barbecue with delivery - please. To spend a salary by buying a TV for yourself, and my wife was a washing machine, not caring for delivery, please. In short, owning such a car is pleasure. But, unfortunately, you have to pay for pleasure.
Contain the jeep is not cheap. The jeep of a prestigious brand, and Mitsubishi undoubtedly refers to this - is doubly not cheap. If you compare the costs of the BMW 530 for six months (also not a consumer goods), then Pajero cost us $ 2 thousand more. Insurer, rubber, accessories and gaming, which any owner of the SUV begins to spend money on sooner or later, is more expensive. Many one-time costs (kangurin, thresholds) automatically increase the initial price of the car by $ 1-1.5 thousand. But it is not possible to return this money when selling a used jeep.
 
Everything is more expensive for the SUV - you also have to be prepared for this. Dear SUVs attract, like flies, beggars at intersections, boys at gas stations, carriers of sagging goods in traffic jams. Railways on the tracks automatically double for drivers of jeeps the price of their goods. So for the total costs you can safely add $ 100-150, elongated in our various road situations.
But active communication with representatives of the valiant traffic police did not work. Over the past six months, we were stopped only three times in order to verify documents, several times they defiantly turned away, fixing a slight violation of traffic rules. Mitsubishi Pajero does not attract special attention of the striped wand knights.
Six months of active operation - the period for which the first scars appear on almost any car. God saved us from serious breakdowns and damage to us, but some marks on the body remained.
 
The first trouble happened to us on an off -road highway in the Zvenigorod career. We got out of the back of a deep sand rut. The car crawled reluctantly, with slippers, despite the reduced gear and the lock on. At some point, the wheels caught on hard soil, and Pajero jumped back. We rested with a bumper on the sand dump and deformed a plastic lining on the bumper a little. A more thorough inspection showed that the bumper pulled the rear lamp along and a small chip the size of a coin appeared on its plastic edging. A trifle, but the complete restoration of pristine beauty would require about $ 350. It's a shame, since a serious SUV should work in a more aggressive environment than a sandy quarry, and it is sometimes difficult to protect yourself from contact with the surrounding landscape. In this case, Pajero will inevitably suffer rather flimsy plastic bumpers and not only the rear lights, as in our case, but also the front fog. It is strange that, having made an SUV, engineers and designers did not think over more serious protection for vulnerable lower details.
Very carefully one should be treated with numerous plastic streams that are scattered over the cabin. For example, the backs of the back of the rear seats are very easily cut down if you touch them with a large -sized load. Then look for them all over the cabin to plant back.
But these are all the little things that, as a picture of all life, flashed before our eyes at the time of parting. The little things that were not so much annoyed by us as a cheerful variety in a short life together with Mitsubishi Pajero 3.2 Di-D.
 
Text Nikolay Kachurin, photo Alexey Ilyin
 
Costs (March 1 - August 20)
Diesel fuel $ 568
Complete annual insurance $ 6155
Civil liability for $ 20 thousand $ 273
Kangurin $ 950
Thresholds $ 350
Rear curtain $ 75
Casing of spots $ 135
Nokian's studded wheels $ 1150
Moika, cleaning of the cabin $ 85
Washing liquid $ 27
Maintenance of 15,000 km $ 150
Total $ 9918

 

Source: "Autopilot"