Mitsubishi Pajero SFX

The Pajero has the best ride and handling, its off-road ability can put a mountain goat to shame and it’s got a rugged charm about it

Published on Dec 09, 2009 08:00:00 AM

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The Pajero is powered by an indirect-injection 2.8-litre turbo-diesel making a mere 117bhp and 30kgm. Refinement at idle is pretty good and motor is very smooth when cruising, except that it gets a bit boomy. The longitudinally mounted four cylinder engine disguises its relative lack of power and torque quite well by being very short geared. The Pajero scoots forward on a tap of the throttle, however its short gearing in favour of driveability makes it run out of steam pretty fast.

Maybe slightly taller gearing could have given the car a better balance between performance on the highway and pulling power in the city.at slow speeds, there’s no lag and the engine responds well to any throttle input and pulls well till around 3500rpm – you might even call it peppy. In fact, if you work the slick gearshift to keep the engine in its strong mid-range, you’ll be rewarded with good progress.

The flipside of the short gears is that the engine sounds stressed at higher speeds. 120kph corresponds to a high 3300rpm – you’ll hear it and feel it and this is a huge dent in the Pajero’s armour.In the SUV segment range matters a lot and the Pajero has an unusually large tank capacity of 92 litres which gives it a cruising range of 840km. Its short gearing penalises the fuel efficiency and it manages to deliver 7.5kpl in the city and 10.5kpl on the highway