Both frame and sport: is it worth buying a Mitsubishi Pajero Sport II
Born as a simpler and cheaper alternative to the flagship Pajero, the SUV on the frame of the L200 pickup even got the same name – Pajero, but with the prefix Sport. What is sports in the frame all-wheel drive, how does it attract the audience, and is it worth thinking about buying this instead of the new “budget sedan”? Our colleagues from Avito Auto say that this Mitsubishi reluctantly loses in value, and without 800 thousand you can even not be approached. Well, to choose a good copy, it is better to cook at least a million. Let’s find out how Pajero Sport justifies this money.In our market, Sport has indeed become even more popular than the usual Pajero – this has been facilitated by a lower price and a good set of consumer qualities that are offered for it. After all, the SUV was not cheated by either the equipment or the Super Select all-wheel drive system, and for some people the presence of a classic frame was another advantage of the Sport over its older brother. However, Pajero Sport has enough shortcomings: for example, the equipment list, which is decent by the standards of Mitsubishi, lags behind many more “advanced” competitors, and the quality of interior decoration materials is reminiscent of the relationship with the L200 truck. From the sport in it, of course, is also one name – neither the dynamics nor the maximum speed, even in petrol cars, are not among the strengths. There are completely absurd nuances: for example, all owners unanimously say that they get a top-end multimedia system with a color screen in a car for 2 million, but lose the opportunity to see the air temperature outside the window and fuel consumption due to the lack of a banal onboard computer – it is, to put it mildly, strange. But the spacious interior and good off-road capabilities when choosing is still more important.
Mentioning the latter brings us to the first checkpoint when buying a used Pajero Sport. If you find any Porsche Cayenne without a trace of off-road operation is still possible, then Pajero Sport is unlikely. So here, firstly, it is necessary to cut off cars specifically prepared for off-road – equipped with winches, snorkel, mud tires, a body lift and other things, and also to see how responsibly the owner treated car care after driving off-road. If the care was literal – that is, the owner closed the car and left, leaving the dirt to live on the bottom and in the cavities, then the frame certainly would not say thanks even to the seven-year-old car. Of course, it will not be possible to find leaky specimens, but serious corrosion is the need for large-scale investments in stripping and anticorrosive, and the risk of “paper” problems in the event of a frame number damage. And regular trips to the dirt with long slip and loads are not good for one of the engines, but we’ll talk about this a bit later.
Not too fond of harsh attitude and body. The paintwork is rather soft and easily scratched, so that the cars that constantly travel “through the forest to the cottage” are either polished to the limit or ejected with branches. Chrome is also short-lived in Japanese and can “peel off.” But the most annoying thing is rust: of course, there is no talk of a massive and deep defeat of the body, but the pitting corrosion upset the owners even in the first years after the purchase. So the repainted hood or tinted areas can not be surprised – if there is no putty under the paint, it may well be a harmless cosmetic repair.
But the suspension is experiencing severe operation is quite tolerable. In many ways, this is due to its simplicity – there are no air bellows and electronics here and there was not, only double wishbones at the front and a continuous bridge at the back. Of course, the bridge here, unlike the kindred L200, is suspended not on the springs, but on the springs, but this affects the ride comfort only, and not reliability. If in everyday life not to depict rally-raids, then the suspension will live 100-120 thousand, and in the repair will not ruin.
Transmission – this is something for which many and bought Mitsubishi in general and Pajero Sport in particular. We are talking, of course, about the Super Select system – all-wheel drive could be simple plug-in, without a center differential, but it was Super Select that earned a reputation for being efficient and completely reliable. It combines the ability to drive exclusively on the rear-wheel drive, and if necessary, use the front axle on the go and go further on full.
The key to success is a switchable center differential with a symmetrical distribution of torque and the possibility of locking, as well as a two-stage razdatka with a reduction row. The final touch is the optional locking of the rear cross-axle differential “off the button”, with which the Pajero Sport with a 215 mm ground clearance becomes a really serious off-road unit. The main thing – that the previous owners did not spare money for maintenance with the replacement of oil, and also did not forget that the injection of the cardan shafts.
