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I’ll let you in on a little secret: for the past few weeks I’ve been contemplating giving up on my Wagon Lifestyle and buying — gasp — an SUV. But not just any SUV, mind you, but something compact, off-road ready, and a little bit weird. Something like a Land Rover Defender 90, or a two-door G-Wagen or a Land Cruiser 70. Maybe even a K5 Blazer. Except have you have you seen prices for all of those things lately? Sheesh. Even something basic will run you close to $20,000.
But this sweet two-door Mitsubishi Pajero from Japanese Classics will run you less than $10,000 and, quite frankly I’ve been eying it up for some time. Weeks, in fact. This is weird, because Japanese Classics tends to sell its cars very quickly, but for whatever reason people do not want their pristine, blue, two-door off-roader with a turbo-diesel engine. Which is not only very sad but it’s dangerous for me. Each day it goes unsold I grow more inclined to buy it. Which is exactly why you should buy it.
To convince you, here’s a shortlist of all the things this Pajero has going for it: 1) This is a JDM model that was never sold in the US (we only got the four-door Montero). 2) It’s only got some 56,000 miles on the clock, meaning this bad boy is just getting broken in. 3) It has a 2.5-liter turbodiesel engine putting out 104 horsepower and 177 lb-ft or torque — modest, but plenty for this compact little off-roader. 4) It has a big sticker running down the side clarifying that your turbo is intercooled (how on Earth would the people otherwise know?). 5) It’s got patterned cloth seats, which are actually the best kinds of seats. Fight me.
This is to say nothing of the fact that this thing is legitimately a solid off-road platform, what with its brush guard, fog lights, dash-mounted clinometer gauges and a Super Select 4WD system with four different driving modes (read more about it here). If I go on any further about this Pajero’s radness, I’m going to wake up tomorrow morning liberated from ten grand with a massive hangover. Which is why I’m calling on you, dear reader, to save me and give this Mitsubishi the home it deserves. Please.
