Friday, November 5, 2010

Test Drive: Mitsubishi L200 Sportero

I've always been a fan of Mitsubishi cars & trucks, up until recent style changes. After the CK4 lancer-era of mitsu's, the change to more unorthodox exterior design put me off. It seemed like Mitsubishi gave up on conventional styling and ran with a more space-age, futuristic look. It may have appealed to younger buyers who don't have the exposure to older-generation cars with classic looks, but IMO it didn't do much to revive Mitsubishi's slumping car-sales in the late 90's / early 2000's.

Which brings me back to the 2009-2010 Mitsubishi L200 Sportero (a.k.a. Triton). Space-age design is obviously bred into this generation of Mitsubishi's venerable pickup truck. Gone are the boxy, rugged and masculine looks of the 1990's era workhorse, replaced by an aggressive looking front which channels the spirit of the Evolution Lancer and a very modern interior (probably more modern that it should be). The curvy, egg-shaped design is a bit unsettling but settles down by the time you get to the tray.

This time, I didn't get to test-drive a brand-new L200 from the dealership, instead I test-drove a friend's relatively new (early 2010) Mitsubishi L200 around the Savannah and up to the lookout on Lady Young road.







Vehicle: Mitsubishi L200 Sportero (sold by Diamond Motors, Port of Spain)
Specs:
- 3.2L D1D Common Rail Diesel with Variable Geometry Turbocharger
- 4x4 Automatic Transmission with Super-Select 4wd
- Hybrid LSD
- Leather Interior (black/dark grey)
- Fully Powered with power-sunroof and power rear-windshield divided window (that slides up & down, allowing access to the tray from inside the cabin).
- Center Console display center with compass/inclinometer/thermometer/etc.

Despite the unorthodox styling, the Mitsubishi L200 exhibits an animalistic aura of power. Simply by looking at it you'd know that this is not a truck for pussy's. It has the potential to be a big beastly, man's-man truck, once properly accessorized and kitted out. True mitsubishi fans would know that under that Star-Trek skin, lurks the DNA of a rally-bred animal, conceived from the deserts of Baja and the Sahara, to the cold mountains of England and the dark looming forests of Finland.



First Impression

 Walking around the truck, you can't help but notice that this is a curvy vehicle. There are almost no straight lines on this truck, except on the top of the tray, the grill, and the tops of the headlights. That's about all the straight lines I could find. It took me a couple of minutes to take in this concept and I had to remind myself very briefly that you shouldn't just a book by its cover. "Remember, this is a Rally-bred machine" I had to repeat to myself. After walking around the truck once or twice, I found that despite the curvy lines, the L200 is indeed a large truck. Easily taller and wider than the older generations of L200; though not quite as long (at least to the eye).
The cabin is surprisingly roomy, large enough to fit a whole crew of your friends for a friday afternoon or saturday night lime (i.e. 5  small/medium-sized adults or perhaps 4 XL-sized-t-shirt-wearing friends). Mitsubishi wisely adhered to the trend of making SUV-flavoured pickups, the interior reminded me of an SUV (I know I say this a lot) so comfort was a very important factor in their initial design.
Looking at the tray though, one can see where the catch lies. A decent amount of tray-space was given over to the cabin, hence though the cabin may be roomy, there's much less cargo capacity in this tray than even the previous generation L200's (not a bad thing if you don't carry anything bigger than a washing machine or fridge).


In The Cabin



Comfort and modern design with room to spare. That's all I can say.




Ok just kidding, there's a few words I can say here. The designer's swoopy-line fetish spills over into the cabin as well. Even the steering-wheel and the armrests on the doors couldn't get away from the curse of the ellipse. Having said that, this is one comfortable truck. I swear, I've said it before and I'll say it again here - you'd think you're in an SUV.
Driver's seating position is quite commanding over the hood and overlooking the road. I wasn't wrong when I said Mitsubishi made a man's truck - you feel very macho when you sit in the driver's seat. Steering wheel adjusts up & down, all the controls are within easy reach and though the vehicle I tested was automatic, you feel ready to race and to do a Scandinavian flick out of the driveway of your garage. Driver & front passenger seats were well bolstered in the lumbar regions.
After doing my customary seat adjustment, I jumped into the back seat to find out what life in the backseat is like. Once settled, I said to myself, "Now THIS is a comfortable back-seat!". The seatbacks were at a reclined angle, unlike most pickups with more upright seatbacks. Lumbar support was there, and even the seatrests had a slight incline to it. I'd have sworn I was sitting in a recliner. If I didn't know better, I'd have thought this truck has the most legroom in its class. It definitely has TONS more legroom than the Ranger & BT-50 (no knees digging into the backseat here, even if you were driving around a set of professional basketball players, for whatever reason), with a bit more legroom than the Hilux (yes, I said it) and just a little bit less than the Navara. Mitsubishi knew that a large portion of the lifestyle-truck market would be younger folks with families or loads of friends, so they made a truck with an appropriately sized cabin.

The dashboard & instrument cluster were surprisingly logical, once you started to use the buttons and switches. The analogue dials have a sporty feel, while that digital center console was definitely very cool. Other trucks like the Ranger Thunder/Wildtrack have an analogue center console info-center too, but I liked the L200's digital infocenter. Two airbags protect you and your front passenger, while visibility is very good to excellent through the front windows.



Around The Outside




The front fascia of this truck screams "aggression". You won't want to see this in your rear-view mirror, as it tailgates you. The large nostrils of the grill and angry eyes of the headlights are quite eye-catching, however I feel that the designers let their curvy line fetish run a bit too long into the rest of the body. Everything is fine up until the tray and back-end of the cabin. The back end swoops down from the roof, probably meant to be "dramatic" by the designer but ends up as "mixed up & confusing"  in the final execution. Perhaps with a more squared-off rear-cabin, the truck's look might be more agreeable. And I still can't get over how small the tray is. I thought that the tray in my Nissan D22 Frontier was small - this Mitsubishi's tray somehow looks smaller. I'm sure the engineers can boast that it's wider than the ranger or BT-50 or even the Dmax, but come-on Mitsubishi, how am I going to carry long items like a ladder, a few planks of wood or even a dirtbike?
 Thankfully, Mitsubishi did listen to their buyers and brought out a slightly facelifted 2011 L200 with a much longer tray (as long as the Ranger now). However it still hasn't come down to Trinidad yet, nor did they fix the stupid swoopy-line in the rear-cabin. I can't help it, that swoop in the tray is upsetting - it's like going out on a first date with a beautiful girl and then noticing one of her eyes is slanted a bit too much.

The one advantage of the acute-angled rear-cabin is that the rear-doors now have a bit more space for rear-passengers to swing their legs out while exiting, very similar to a car.

Whenever I'm driving behind one of these trucks, I get puzzled by the rear tailight design. I know it's supposed to look "sporty" and "modern" and even a bit "enveloping", but I think they're unnecessarily ostentatious. And the stock rear bumper is wayyyy to small to do any serious work, but at least it's easy to bolt on a towing-rack & hook. And thank goodness there's not much chrome on this truck, I wouldn't want to be driving a "man's truck" and still feel somehow like a cheap pimp.
The stock 16-inch wheels definitely would have to go, and probably be replaced with a 17-inch or maybe 20-inch allow rims with aggressive 265/70/17 all-terrain tyres. I've seen too many L200's on the road with chrome 22's and even some poor misguided jackass with 28-inch rims and almost no tyre profile. IMO those imbeciles just wasted almost $265,000 TT of a good truck.



Performance and Ride


Now this is where things get interesting. On paper, the 3.2D1D engine reads as:
- 3.2L displacement, Inline 4 DOHC 4M41 diesel with Variable Vane Geometry Turbocharger
- 162HP, 356Nm torque / 259lb/ft torque



This truck is a powerhouse. Not a speed-demon, not a rocketship, not a smooth cruiser. It's full of power, and you know it once you step on the accelerator. The L200 is a bit slow off the line (what diesel pickup isn't) but at around 1800 - 1900 RPM, the boost kicks in and you get a surge of power. It's not a donkey-kick like the Ranger, nor is it a explosive torrent like in the Navara, but it's strong and commanding. It's like the L200 says "ok boss, let's GO!" as soon as you tell it to move. The Hilux is smooth like a well-trained waiter, the Ranger/BT-50 TDCi is strong like a faithful horse, the Navara is explosive and angry (I guess like Zorro's horse, Tornado...), but the L200 is like opening your garden hose when the main waterline has full pressure. You simply want to go, and never stop going. The engine sounds a bit rattly though, so you never really forget that you're driving a torquey diesel. I wish it could have been a bit quieter like the Hilux D4-D or the Ranger/BT-50 TDCi engines. The soundproofing inside the cabin does help a bit to quiet things down, but once you open the windows, it's trucker-time.

Handling is good for such a tall-truck, most pickups these days handle like SUV's anyway. The front suspension coil-over setup suits the L200 just fine, absorbing uneven road surfaces very well. Steering is spot-on and quick, just about 3.5 turns lock-to-lock. What I loved about this truck is the absolutely minuscule turning radius - just 11.6m. When I tried it out at the lookout-point, I did a U-turn and it felt like I was driving my CK2 lancer all over again. This thing can navigate tight corners in Port of Spain like a go-kart, and parallel parking (with all the steering-wheel lock) is a breeze. It felt very refreshing, after driving larger trucks like the Navara.


Verdict

 Mitsubishi has made a truck that essentially stands reasonably well in their tradition of sturdy trucks. The L200 is comfortable, easy to drive, powerful, and the looks will eventually grow on you. I hated the styling at first, I felt it looked like a bedroom slipper from far away. But once you get to know the truck, and find out what kind of well-bred, animalistic muscles flexes under the skin, the L200 Sportero becomes a desirable truck for young folks. Just don't try to carry anything larger than a washing machine or couple of goats in the tray.


Prices:
- 3.2L 4M41 D1-D VGT turbodiesel, Auto/4WD super-select/leather seats/fully powered/sunroof/powered rear-windshield glass/foglights/sidesteps = $265,000 TTD
- 3.2L 4M41 D1-D VGT turbodiesel, Auto/4WD super-select/leather seats/fully powered/sunroof/foglights/sidesteps = $245,000 TTD
- 2.5 4D56 D1-D VGT turbodiesel, Auto/4WD super-select/leather seats/fully powered/foglights/sidesteps = $230,000 TTD

6 comments:

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  3. Like the 3.2 but accessories are a bit hard to come by Like the Carryboy tray cover and the front bush bar and Chrome kit. Would like to see ads like----- Yes we have all the accessories for the Sportero--- and I am sure that they will sell real fast. There are people who add a booster to the engine but it is hard to find such people. . Enjoy the driving

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