[satpalsharma]

Disclaimer: I’m not a very technical person when it comes to automobiles but will share whatever as a end user I feel about things. I know this is quite subjective and may tend to differ with the views out there but I’ll try to be honest in whatever I feel and share it with you guys.

BACKGROUND
I own an Indica v2 which is loyal to me for last 8 years. Yes, it’s that long. I never really looked into changing the car since I was content with what I had and it was serving me well. On and off I used to sit in other cars which my friends or colleagues have and I always faced the space constraint to some extent. Btw.. my height is 6’5” and you can understand the space constraint I’m talking about. Surprisingly Indica is spacious enough for me, which I still wonder, that the other cars didn’t match. So there was this other psychological factor playing role on the back of my mind and pushing me towards the content feeling I had with my Indica.



Whenever somebody tried to ask me about whether I’m thinking of changing the car or not.. my usual answer was that I don’t fit in most of the cars out there as comfortably as I’m with my Indica. Giving the same reason over a period of time made me think that why shouldn’t I go out and check what all other options are available to me anyways. In order for the upgrade to Indica, I was thinking of checking out SUVs & Sedans.

HEIGHT DOES MATTER
So sometime late last year just out of curiosity I started looking at what vehicles are there in which I can actually fit. So only thing I started checking is the spacious enough car, rest of the things like price, features etc. will follow when I actually have a list of shortlisted vehicles and make my mind to buy one. Whenever me any my wife are out on road and we see a car showroom, we stop by just to check what they have in store and what are the choices available.

So all we requested when we visited a showroom is to see the leg room in the vehicle. On sedan side we tried Honda City, Hyundai Verna & Elantra, Chevrolet Cruze, Volkswagen Vento, Jetta & Passat, Renault Fluence and many others, all were cramped up on space. Only cars good enough, space wise, were Nissan Sunny, Skoda Laura & Superb. Then on the SUV side tried Tata Safari, Renault Duster, Toyota Fortuner, even tried BMW x1 for the heck of it and surprisingly they’re not good enough space wise, yes even fortuner which looks big and bulky from outside was not good enough, I mean it seems my Indica has more space than these popular SUVs. The SUVs which seems good space wise were Chevrolet Captiva, Hyundai Santa Fe, Renault Koleos and BMW X3.

So whenever I’m driving my good old Indica and see all these vehicles on road, I always laugh at the back of my mind and I’m still amazed with the space I’ve in my car. With some cars shortlisted, we now started thinking which one to go for.. We’re looking for a vehicle for long term use, I mean I drove Indica for 8 years.. so practically I’m not a car changer as such not at the moment for sure. Other things started factoring in, like the price segment, the looks, the popularity, how much you see one on the road, brand value, etc. So the dilemma continues, first whether we really need a switch and second which one to switch for. When we’re upgrading from Indica and that too after long 8 years, it should be well worth the upgrade.. I mean not just another car, should be something unique, something special.


MITSUBISHI
Everyone has heard of Pajero and since my childhood I’ve seen that iconic Pajero boxy design with Pajero written on the side (I kind of not really over enthusiastic about that boxy design, although iconic, it looks kind of old for my taste - my wife really likes it btw).

One fine day we’re out on the road, just passed the Mitsubishi Showroom (Madhapur, Hyderabad) and had a glimpse of a car inside it, suddenly stopped the car, reversed it and started to park it, thinking oh is this the Mitsubishi store, we never knew of its presence here (I think it opened recently) and let’s see what they’ve in store.

One funny incident happened that I’ll surely remember for the rest of my life. While parking the car outside the showroom, a guard came running asking me to take my car away, maybe thinking that these guys coming in an Indica must not be coming to the showroom, they might just be looking for parking space outside. I told him that we wanted to go to the showroom and then he agreed with a weird look on this face.

FIRST ENCOUNTER
And there it was standing tall looking right at us and we were so surprised about this model which we never saw on road or in advertisements anywhere else. And then we're introduced with the new Pajero Sport. We started looking the vehicle all around, I just sat in there and suddenly felt like this is meant for me. You know sometime in life moment comes where you suddenly feel the desire to own something and other things don’t matter much at that time.

Everything felt so good about it, the space, the interiors, the overall looks, the brand and then the dealer started telling us more details about it and we’re just in that awe moment that everything else seems to fade in the background and we’re just looking at the car. Could it be a possible candidate for our upgrade.. or should I say super upgrade.

TEST DRIVE
So now the moment comes where we’ve to go on a test drive. Notice that we didn’t have any test drive earlier for any car, as funny or stupid it may sound but it is what it is. Since we’re kind of inclined towards Pajero Sport now so we asked the dealer to arrange the test drive and he did arrange one quickly. We took a quick round in the city. I can’t express the feeling at first, it all looked so strange, maybe driving Indica for 8 years and suddenly jumping on the SUV, the sitting position, the view of the road, you can see the roof of the vehicles passing by, I just felt like the king of the road. It was a nice different experience. But by the time we came back to the showroom and got down from the vehicle our whole body was moving as if we just came out of the boat or train. May be because of the shakiness or body roll which generally exist in the SUVs. We came back home and starting working on the logistics. That roll which we experienced when we got down from the vehicle gets us a little concerned thinking whether it’ll be a permanent thing or just a temporary one since I’m used to driving Indica for so many years and all of a sudden drove an SUV. We wanted to be sure so we asked for another test drive. This time we first sat in the back seats for few kilometers to experience what passengers might feel and then we got in front. Later on, tested it on highway, drove in some city traffic and back to the showroom. This time it felt great, we didn’t feel that shakiness we’re feeling after the first test drive. So all looked good.


DECISION TO BUY
In the meantime we also visited Toyota’s dealership to check out Fortuner once again but I actually didn’t fit in that car comfortably so we didn’t even got for the test drive for that. And then there were so many other options, some we didn’t like for brand value & others for the looks.

Since now our heart is already inclined towards Pajero Sport so we didn’t research much about other cars after that and decided to go ahead with it. From logistic side everything else fell in place and we finally had it in our possession, our super upgrade - Pajero Sport.





MODEL & PRICE
Pajero Sport comes in one model, so there was never a dilemma of choosing one from various variants. Here's the on-road price I got from the dealer.




EXPERIENCE SO FAR
On a day to day basis I usually drive in a dense city traffic and on weekends plans to go out on a longer trip, so over the past couple of months I’ve driven on both the city roads and the highways.

So here’s some experience pointers I noticed over 2000 kms of driving.

Ride Quality
I’ve heard before that SUVs shake more while driving which people often don’t like. I myself felt this in Mahindra Xylo which we hired as a taxi some time back and it was dreadful, we’re jumping like anything. And as I told earlier the first test drive I took for Pajero Sport had us rolling but the second one was better, so I had some fear on the back of my mind about the ride quality.

That said, driving this vehicle is the best part of it. The experience feels so superior and so comfortable. I do feel that there’s that shakiness when you go over potholes or speed breakers but that adds to the comfortableness instead of that body roll feeling I was worried about. I kind of liked that feeling and overall experience feels more stable & solid. In my indica also the car shakes on potholes but the movement is very stiff so may be because of that you don’t move much but in Pajero Sport its very soft which I actually like and which kind of gives a luxury feel.

Seating Capacity
Recently all our team at office went to lunch, total of 8 people thinking how many cars to take then realized let’s go in the new Pajero Sport. I agreed but told them that its a 7 seater so we might need to stuff ourselves in. To my wonder, 3 people sat in the last row, 3 in the middle, and the rest 2 including me in the front. From what they told me they’re very comfortable during that ride even the 3 guys sitting in the last row, I still think the guys in the last row were just being kind but their expressions looked honest.

Super Select 4WD
Shift on the fly feature is very handy, I mostly drive on 2WD on city roads but tend to shift to 4WD sometimes. These past few days its raining heavily in Hyderabad and one day while driving in the night, in heavy rain, I shifted the drive to 4WD and man what a experience it was. Suddenly it came alive and felt more powerful, more grounded, more stable and with lots of energy.. some credit to the weather though.. but it just had my confidence boost few notches above driving in that weather.

During that earlier ride with 8 people sitting, the guy sitting in front with me asked me about why this car has two gear levers and I happily described the super select feature and while on the move shifted to 4WD and accelerated a bit and suddenly he also felt the power and told me it’s fine.. it’s fine.. let’s move back to 2WD and this with 8 people sitting in Pajero Sport.

Fuel Efficiency
Recently I made a long trip clubbed with city driving where I got an average of 10.9 kmpl, this is combined city & highway average.

I think the mileage, apart from other factors, depends a lot on the stretch you're driving daily. My daily commute is through a dense city traffic where I usually get around 9 kmpl average. On the dashboard instrument, for the same stretch, I notice minimum of 7.2 kmpl during busy hours & the max 10.8 kmpl when the stretch is free. So I think, at the moment, it would be right to say an average of 9 kmpl in the city and around 12 kmpl on highways.

Service Workshop
I had my first service(1k) done sometime back and the overall experience was good enough. Nothing much was there that needs to be done, they just checked the oil levels, did general checkup, washing etc. I asked couple of questions regarding clutch being a little heavy & about the black smoke I noticed to which there were only generic answers.. like the clutch comes like this only.. & since its a diesel vehicle that's why you see the smoke sometimes. I noticed some of the technicians working on some other vehicles there.. with the look of it they all seemed to be knowledgeable and that they know what they're doing.

I think Pajero Sport is built on solid engineering and I don't have to think about service & repair problems.. but in case the need arise.. I'm happy to have this service workshop nearby.

Quick Summary
What I like

• Overall Build Quality
• Quality of the Interiors
• Driving feels superior, comfortable and very stable
• Easy to use even in dense city traffic - navigate around slow moving vehicles, turning radius, etc.
• Super Select 4WD - Switch between 2WD & 4WD on the fly
• Sound Quality of the Music System
• Exclusivity - Less number of Pajero Sport on roads
• Mitsubishi and Pajero Brand

What can be added/improved

• An Integrated touchscreen 2din system for Music, Navigation & Reverse Camera (they’ve added this in their latest anniversary edition).
• Cruise Control
• Automatic Variant
• Clutch feels a little hard
• Black smoke that comes out on acceleration
• Initial Turbo Lag

I’ll leave you with few shots we took over past couple of months..





Here are some interior shots..



Thanks for your time and let me know if you want to know anything specific.

[maglev]

Congratulations!! the Pajero is a substantial upgrade compared to the Indica

Could you post a few pictures of the interior, thanks!

[byomjeet]

CONGRATULATIONS. Its a big leap really. Pajero is a good vehicle. I love the other Pajero but somehow I was not liking Pajero Sport. But from your pics, I have started liking it.

[getsurya]

Since now our heart is already inclined towards Pajero Sport so we didn’t research much about other cars after that and decided to go ahead with it. From logistic side everything else fell in place and we finally had it in our possession, our super upgrade - Pajero Sport.

Hi Satpal,

Congratulations for your super ride in white! The pictures are good teasers and am sure you are planning to upload many more with all kinds of details which this forum is interested, for sure.

If you can please share the OTR price break up, it would be great.

You have very rightly called it the super upgrade- from an Indica

Happy Motoring and try to connect up with TBHP Hyd folks, quite a lot happens there

[Satshan]

Truly, a super upgrade Satpalsharma! Many Congratulations on the buy.

The front looks bold and aggressive. How much did it cost you on-road and are there any variants? How much mileage do you get? (City & Highway). Await some interior pics as well. Wish you happy motoring with this lovely beast!

[BusyBoyKK]

Satpal,

I was admiring a Prajero Sport on the way from KPHB to Hi Tech on the new fly over. Was thinking about it and here is your thread. Please do post interior and detailed pictures.

Now I know, 6.5 is taller than a Pajero.

[ajmat]

Moving back to forum. Thanks for sharing

[satpalsharma]

Added more info regarding on-road price breakup, fuel efficiency and some more.. and also included interior pics to the above thread.

[n.devdath]

Originally Posted by satpalsharma

Thanks for your time and let me know if you want to know anything specific.

Congratulations on the acquisition Satpal and you have indeed purchased a vehicle which will out last you if maintained well.

I have one question. For your height, how is the comfort in the middle seat of the middle row and the roofline in the middle row? I found that one aspect wanting in the Pajero Sport.

You are also a very good photographer with an eye for detail and know how to highlight the correct aspects of a photograph. Keep it up..

[satpalsharma]

Originally Posted by n.devdath

I have one question. For your height, how is the comfort in the middle seat of the middle row and the roofline in the middle row? I found that one aspect wanting in the Pajero Sport.

For my height the middle seat is low on space. My head touched the roof when I sit there. My wife can sit fine there. I think I'm kind of okay with that because there would never be a case where my vehicle is fully loaded with all the tall people. One can easily find a normal height person to sit in that middle seat when required

[kartik.virmani]

Congrats on a wonderful upgrade my friend ! I have kept an eye out on Pajero sport for a long time now . Could you please also elaborate on the after sales experience you are having with Mitsubishi guys >
thanks in advance
Kartik

[HammerHead]

Congrats! and that's indeed a super upgrade!!
If you could hold the humble Indica in one piece even after 8 years of use, I'm sure you would take good care of your drive.

One more thing, excellent pics

[satpalsharma]

Originally Posted by kartik.virmani

Could you please also elaborate on the after sales experience you are having with Mitsubishi guys

Only time I have to interact with them till now is during my first service, which went smooth as I mentioned in the thread. I called up in the morning then went straight to the workshop and they attended me immediately. I'm happy to have a service workshop nearby (less than 5 km).. just in case I need any assistance anytime.

[arup.misra]

Congrats Satpal. That indeed is a super upgrade.

Noticed "Sonar Off" on the instrument cluster, just under the handbrake engaged indicator. What is that for?

Hope you enjoy a long companionship with her. Cheers!!!

[desertfox]

Good buy, enjoy it, but remember do not engage the 4WD on hard tarmac road and the central diff lock if the vehicle is equipped with one.

Drive in 2 H only on tarmac, hard ground and graded track, otherwise you will damage the gear cogs of your vehicle, perhaps you have damaged it already.