The Pajero Is Back – And Perhaps We’re Ready for a Proper SUV Again

There are certain cars you remember with a mixture of affection and mild irritation. For me, one of those was my second-generation Mitsubishi Pajero 3.0 GLS.

We loved it. We hated it.

It was rugged, roomy and seemingly capable of going anywhere. It was also, let’s be charitable, not exactly quick. And on a hot Malaysian day, turning on the air-conditioning was less a cooling solution and more an expression of optimism. You could switch it on and, if you were lucky, by the time the cabin became remotely comfortable you had already reached your destination.

But none of that really mattered.

The Pajero was a proper 4×4, built when an SUV was expected to do more than carry the children to school and conquer a kerb outside Starbucks. And it was phenomenally successful. Mitsubishi built more than 3.29 million Pajeros across four generations, while its competition record included an extraordinary 12 Dakar Rally victories, seven of them consecutive.

Now, after disappearing from overseas markets in 2021, the Pajero is officially back.

And thank goodness Mitsubishi hasn’t simply slapped the name onto another fashionable crossover. The new Pajero retains a proper ladder-frame chassis, Super Select 4WD-II and Mitsubishi’s Super-All Wheel Control system. It is being positioned as the company’s new flagship SUV, combining genuine off-road capability with considerably more comfort and refinement than my old 3.0 GLS could ever dream of.

It even gets a modern interpretation of those wonderfully pointless-but-cool old-school off-road instruments: a digital Multi Meter displaying things such as pitch, roll, altitude, compass heading and torque distribution.

Of course, the new Pajero isn’t my Pajero. It will have more electronics in one wheel arch than my old Mitsubishi had in the entire vehicle.

And that’s probably progress.

Yet there is something reassuring about its return. At a time when the automotive industry seems determined to convince us that every SUV should be silent, connected, electrified and capable of holding a conference call while driving itself to the supermarket, the Pajero represents something rather more tangible.

A vehicle designed to go somewhere.

Perhaps the world hasn’t completely forgotten what a proper SUV is after all.

And if Mitsubishi has finally sorted the air-conditioning, I might even be tempted to buy another one.  If you are lucky enough to live in Thailand you will get the first chance to buy one.