Pajero / Montero (Third Generation)

By Mitsubishi's count, the first two Pajeros, including the second generation, had sold 1.26 million in about 170 countries. The threat was the crossover SUV: buyers wanted car-like manners on the road. Mitsubishi says the decision on how to answer it split the company. In the end it dropped the separate ladder frame and built a monocoque body with a frame structure welded into its floor. The new Pajero went on sale in Japan in the autumn of 1999 and reached most export markets as a 2001 model.

THE ARGUMENT THAT SPLIT MITSUBISHI

Mitsubishi's own history admits the trade-off. A monocoque is lighter, but a frame is better at the rigidity and durability that rough tracks demand. Its answer was the 'built-in frame' monocoque, and the company says that although the truck grew, it lost a lot of weight and met an internal target of body stiffness comparable to its Dakar prototypes. Wikipedia credits Mitsubishi's RISE safety structure for a cabin that held its shape well, and the fuel tank moved between the axles to help weight distribution and ground clearance.

The suspension changed just as much. Double wishbones and coil springs went in at the front, replacing torsion bars, and the rear became independent too, on a subframe. The idea came from the rally team: the Pajero Evolution had used independent rear suspension, and Wikipedia says that design set the pattern for the third generation. Rack-and-pinion steering replaced the old recirculating-ball box. Unsealed 4X4 called the Australian NM 'the first 4×4 wagon in its class with monocoque construction and a fully independent suspension system'.

SUPER SELECT II, GDI AND A NEW DIESEL

Super Select became Super Select 4WD II. The centre differential uses planetary gears and splits torque between 33:67 and 50:50 front to rear, and the modes are now switched electrically. You still get 2H, full-time 4H, and locked-centre high and low ranges. Engines were a mix of old and new: the 6G74 3.5 V6 carried over (as a GDI direct-injection engine in Japan), the 2.8 4M40 diesel stayed in some markets, and a new 3.2-litre 4M41 DI-D four arrived. Mitsubishi Japan lists the 3.2 DI and 3.5 GDI as the two engines developed for the new truck.

Australia got the NM in 2000 with a launch drive to the Lambert Centre that a freak downpour turned into a mud epic. Unsealed 4X4's Dean Mellor remembers the petrol V6s refuelling from jerry cans while the 2.8 diesels 'made it on the smell of an oily rag'. In 2002 the 3.2 DI-D replaced the 2.8 there, and it could be ordered with the five-speed automatic. A 3.8 V6 followed in 2003, and electronic traction control arrived in 2004, ahead of the Prado.

AMERICA: THE MONTERO LIMITED AND THE MOOSE TEST

The US got the long-wheelbase five-door only, as the Montero XLS and Limited, with the 3.5 V6 rated at 200 hp and 235 lb-ft. Its first year brought bad press. In May 2001 Consumer Reports put the Montero Limited through its short-course avoidance manoeuvre, and its test truck tipped up on two wheels in eight of nine runs at 36.7 mph or faster. CR rated it 'Not Acceptable', a verdict it had previously given only the Suzuki Samurai and the 1996 Isuzu Trooper and Acura SLX. Mitsubishi disputed the method, said it had no stability complaints from customers and quoted NHTSA's view that CR's test had no scientific basis.

For 2003 the Montero was facelifted and the 3.5 gave way to a 3.8-litre 6G75 rated by Bring a Trailer's listings at 215 hp and 248 lb-ft, with Mitsubishi's M-ASTC stability and traction control. Owners on Expedition Portal say the XLS was dropped after 2003, leaving only the Limited. The Montero was Mitsubishi's only American SUV with standard four-wheel drive rather than all-wheel drive, and it left the US market after the 2006 model year.

LEGACY

The third generation was replaced in Japan in October 2006, but the platform didn't die. The fourth-generation Pajero kept the monocoque-and-frame body and independent suspension, and Unsealed notes that the same basic structure was still on sale in Australia two decades after the NM. In China, GAC Changfeng built the third generation until 2011. Today it's a bargain: Bring a Trailer has sold US Monteros for under $20,000, and the Japanese 3.2 diesels are now old enough to import. It rides like a car and has the 100 Series's cabin space, according to Unsealed, though its IFS-and-IRS layout will always start an argument at the campsite.