How to upgrade from a softer SUV to an all-terrain 4WD
Ditching the soft SUV and going hardcore, with the family. Getting out there, beyond the WiFi, with a boat. It’s almost as depressing as owning a caravan...
Here’s a question from Valerie.
Okay, I think you’re on the right track here, Val. (I actually own a Triton GSR with the roll-top.) It’s great for that kind of thing but if you plan on carrying those kayaks on racks, I’d want to know how the racks integrate with the roll-top (like, the rear rack). Exactly how do we make that work without interfering with the rolltop?
Triton is excellent value among utes. I’d really like it to come with adaptive cruise, but hey - there’s no such thing as the perfect ute. Super Select II (the transfer case in Triton) is excellent. I really like the way 4H is available with the centre diff unlocked. It’s essentially AWD mode - kinda like the Subaru XV, which Valerie is ditching.
This means you can drive in 4H on a high traction surface, which is excellent on a steep driveway, or in the wet, or on a good dirt road. And then, if things get really slippery, you just turn the knob and lock the centre diff.
This is a brilliant differentiating feature that most competing utes cannot match. And let’s not forget Triton is $12k - or thereabouts - cheaper than a Ranger Wildtrak. And you can have quite a lot of family fun with the savings there. Mitsubishi is generally okay at customer support, too.
However, like all utes, Triton does feel somewhat tractor-like in comparison to a nice, smooth, nimble Subaru XV, and the footprint is considerably larger - longer. There’s a full 360-degree ‘surround view’ camera, however, in the GSR, and that helps with those precision reverses, and off-roading, if you plan on doing any of that.
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But utes often are not as practical as the pre-purchase fantasy might suggest. Like, for normal domestic duties, such as grocery shopping. Where exactly do the groceries go, with the kids and hubby on board? Sure you can use the footwell, providing nobody tramples the bread, and that means putting bags in the tray which is never entirely waterproof and they’ll likely slide forward making them hard to reach. And ute trays are very hard on the eggs. Unless you want them pre-scrambled.
The roll-top is great for added security, but the height limitation is absolute. Bikes can of course go in the tray, or on a towball-mounted carrier. It’s dead easy to fit a roofrack on a dual cab, and mount the kayaks on that - there’s enough roof space.
Still, despite the default Australian ute infatuation, a Pajero Sport might be better as a family all-rounder. Certainly I’d get a Pajero Sport over a Pajero, given Pajero is as old as me, from a geriatric point of view. (And that’s saying something.)
Pajero Sport is, essentially, a Triton ute, re-engineered with a wagon body, plus an eight-speed auto and a coil-sprung rear (both for added refinement). So, Pajero Sport is substantially much less ‘Massey Fergusson’ than the Triton which begat it, but still somewhat less smooth than a Mazda CX-9 or Hyundai Santa Fe.
But Pajero Sport does offer massively more tow capacity than a soft SUV. So does Triton at 3.1 tonnes maximum for Triton and Pajero Sport, versus two tonnes generally across the soft seven-seat SUV range (think Kia Sorento, Mazda CX-9, Hyundai Santa Fe, Mitsubishi Outlander).
To me, LandCruiser 200 is not that much of an upgrade, in practical terms. Valerie has already built in more than enough operational safety margin for towing with either Mitsubishi. Twenty-something per cent (worst case) is an adequate safety margin.
To me, buying a LandCruiser 200 means spending double the cash for 400 kilos of extra tow capacity which will never be needed. Complete waste of coin, in my view.
With Landcruiser, it’s a 12-year-old vehicle. And the blue singlet beard-strokers love them, but frankly, that’s not the only thing these out of touch, Toyota-loving ‘aficionados’ are stroking. To them, Toyota is the king - but to me, the kingdom is Mediocrity-en-Masse. I mean, they haven’t even bothered with an update on the old girl.
No Apple or Android phone integrations with LandCruiser (I’m pretty sure). Huge increase in price, weighs 500kg more than a Pajero Sport Exceed, it’s hard to justify objectively, not that much return in additional capability, but certainly LandCruiser has excellent resale value. And, do you want to keep feeding a 4.5-litre twin-turbo V8 diesel? Probably not.
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MAKE THE RIGHT COMPROMISE
If I were Valerie, I’d look closely at Pajero Sport Vs Triton for all-round family suitability. And I’d really think about real-world practicality with the ute. I’d also consider how you’re going to offer ‘bugger off’ advice to every tenuous friend and relative who seems to think you will actually want to lend them your new ute for every moving and/or renovation project, of which they can conceive.
I get the gravitational pull of the ute. Money where one’s mouth is: I bought one. No special favours. I just bought it. And I do like it. As your next Pry Mincer I can tell you my Triton GSR Made Australia Less Shit for me. And do I need a ute? No. I just wanted one.
Don’t forget that for 85 or 95 per cent of all the driving time, in applications such as these, the vehicle will in all probability simply be doing normal family running around. Therefore, if some compromises must be made, make them in the towing and adventuring areas.
The vehicle you buy has to be capable of the towing and adventuring you require it to do, but it should also be as close as possible to a good fit for the majority of the somewhat mundane usage to which you will routinely subject it.
Not the other way around, because the perfect heavy towing and adventuring platforms are generally a fairly crap daily driver around town, and if you go that way, it’s probably quite a poor fit overall. And that’s a bastard given the up-front expenditure and the severe cost of changing horses early in the ownership equation.
This is of course why research and careful consideration is so important, and buying on a whim is often such an emphatic ‘fail’.
The all-new Kia Tasman 4X4 dual-cab ute is finally coming to Australia in mid-2025. The covers are off, too. Here’s everything we know so far