My family meets the Pajero
We’re water people. We know a lot about boats but not all that much about cars. And until a few weeks ago, the only off-road driving we’d ever done was parking on our front lawn.
So what are we doing on a 4WD website?
Well, Mitsubishi were looking for a family like us – 4WD novices. They said we’d like you to take the new model Pajero away for a week on a holiday. Then write about what you think of it – the car and the experience.
The car would be the top of the range Exceed, which has leather, a DVD player and a full communications system.
We said yes of course.
So here it is. It’s not a review of the car – that’s a job for motoring writers. And it’s not a story about serious offroading, because we’re beginners. It’s the diary of a family holiday in a luxury 4WD.
We picked the second week of the Easter school holidays for the trip. We thought we’d try beach driving first and do some surfing and fishing. Then head inland to explore some 4WD trails and try some river kayaking and fishing. And take the most scenic routes along the way.
Before we set off, I did an excellent one-day course run by Phil Poulter of 4WD Offroad Driver Training at Mittagong. A course like this really is worth doing - to understand your car’s offroad systems and how they’re helping you. Our Pajero wasn’t ready yet so Mitsubishi provided a GLS version for the day.
Then we bought maps and a tyre pressure gauge, and borrowed a compressor pump. We wrote down National Parks phone numbers - for weather updates and checking access to trails. And we checked out accommodation in each area. We had too much stuff to take to make it a camping trip too.
Ok, over to the diary.
Saturday. Day 1.
Dylan and I go and pick up the Pajero and he jumps in. By the time I’ve looked over the car and got in he’s turned the Satellite Navigation on, lowered the DVD screen from the roof and found the wireless headphones. He discovers the reversing camera when we back out of the car space.
I’ve already driven a GLS on the training day so it doesn’t take long to settle in. You can feel the car’s power on hills or overtaking – there’s a new 3.2 litre turbo-diesel in this series and it’s quite responsive. Once again I’m surprised that the steering isn’t heavier. After a while you don’t feel like you’re driving a big car – apart from the higher driving position.
When we get home Jillian takes it for a drive, then Rohan checks out the high tech stuff in the cabin. It includes the Multi Communication System, the DVD, a Bluetooth setup and the Rockford sound system. Everything is touch-screen. We appoint him Technology Officer for the trip.
We pack a kayak, a surfboard, 2 body boards, 3 fishing rods, all the other surfing and fishing gear, our bags, car food for Dylan and a 10 litre water container. It all fits.
We’re on the road at noon, heading north. The road is dry so we stay in 2WD mode for the slightly better fuel economy.
Our destination is Lake Macquarie, where my brother and his family live. Tomorrow we’ll head to nearby Nine Mile Beach. Friends have told us about it – an unspoiled beach with great surfing and fishing, and you need a 4WD. Looking forward to it.
Sunday. Day 2.
It’s raining. There’s a howling southerly blowing and we can see whitecaps on the lake. It’s cold.
We’re water people, we remind ourselves. We don’t care.
At the approach to Nine Mile Beach we let the tyres down to 20 psi for the soft sand here. My brother and his gang have brought their 4WD ute and their quad bike. He heads into the dunes with the ute, but it gets bogged and the rear wheels dig in. He’s just had new tyres fitted and it looks like they don’t suit sand.
Dilemma. On the training course Phil Poulter said don’t try 4WD recovery unless you’re experienced. And we don’t have a snatch strap – just a strong rope. We wait for a while but there’s no-one else around. We decide to try it with caution and everyone standing clear.
We tie the rope to the two recovery points on the back of the Pajero. I take up the tension slowly - after a few seconds the ute starts to move, and then it’s out. The boys are impressed. But I know it wasn’t a proper snatch recovery.
The towing capacity of this new model is 3 tonnes, which I gather is a lot. It certainly pulled the ute out easily.
We leave the ute and distribute people between the Pajero and the quad bike. Ok, now for our first beach drive.
This is where the car’s “intelligence” takes over. I’m not an expert so I won’t try to explain the technology. Mitsubishi call it MATT and it embraces various systems, including Active Traction Control. What the driver has to do is select one of four options, depending on the road conditions or the terrain.
I choose the 4WD Low Range option – apparently the low-down torque it gives you is best for climbing and downhill control. We build up a bit of speed before we get to the first dune, then climb it slowly but surely. Up on top the dunes flatten out, and we head for the beach.
Driving on soft sand is surreal the first time. The quietness, the drifting motion, the lack of a firm connection to the ground. But once you’re confident in what the car is doing, it’s exhilarating.
We take a passage through ridges and scrub then emerge into the clear. It’s a beautiful beachscape with a mixture of dunes and flat stretches. The ocean is dark and wild, and the wind is almost a gale now. We drive along the beach on the firmer sand, and only see one other car. It’s low tide and the beach would normally be wider, but the waves are breaking in close and surging. We get blasted by spray a few times.
After a while we stop and Rohan takes his board down to the water, but the waves are dumping hard and we don’t like the look of the rips. Too risky to surf. It’s not exactly beach fishing weather either.
It’s a shame on both counts, but we’re having a whole new experience driving on the beach. And today we’ve got this spectacular piece of Australia’s coast to ourselves.
But boys will be boys, so later on we invent a new beach sport. It starts when we find a long, narrow lagoon that has formed in the beach. We attach a towline to the quad bike and get the surfboard and bodyboards out. The boys have total fun for a few hours.
By late afternoon the tide is coming in and they’re getting cold in their wetsuits. It’s warm inside the car, where Jillian has set up office and, we suspect, has been running the engine and the heater. “It’s a car, mum, not a hotel,” says Rohan.
As well as warm air there’s about half a tonne of sand in the car. We return it to the beach where it belongs and head for home. The boys get hot showers, the car gets a hose down. What will the weather bring us tomorrow?
