Reaction to Leisure Wheels - Pajero owner's letters

In the September issue of Leisure Wheels, for which I write a regular article, of the six readers' letters published, four of them were reactions to my article saying I was disappointed with the performance of the Mitsubishi Pajero, taken on a Namibia dune holiday with my family.

The article can be found by clicking here.

Letters came from S Moller of Bloemfontein, Sad Really  of somewhere and H van Heerden of somewhere else. This is my response.

 

It still amazes me how passionate people are about their 4x4s. As soon as someone dares criticize their choice of vehicle, it is seen as a personal attack, and their defence is often aggressive and accusatory letters like these. Owner of Land Cruisers, Defenders and Pajeros are the most vocal. These people also forget that it is only the writer’s opinion. But more of that later.

S Moller of Bloemfontein… In your letter you open telling everyone that you always look forward to LW and that you ‘sneak off to bed early’ to get in a good read, and in the next suggest you might cancel your subscription because you disagree with a writer when he suggests sleeping bag and tent makers should make their bags larger so that they are easier to pack, and now reports that his experience with a particular 4x4 was disappointing? I am sorry... but this doesn’t make sense. Either LW isn’t the great read you claim it is, or you are unable to accept it when a writer’s opinion differs from your own. There is of course one more possibility: you just don’t like this particular writer. Calling this writer a ‘so-called 4x4 guru’, suggests that you consider him not to have any 4x4 acumen at all. That’s okay. I am sure he doesn’t care one bit what you think. But this I suggest is at the root of your letter, and not the subjects discussed. Truth is, you don’t want to be subjected to this writer’s opinion any more. While you are not alone, you are in the vast minority. I am of course the writer in question, and I don’t expect everyone to agree with me, but some of the insulting letters received but not published, have to be seen to be believed. It’s as if I insulted their grandparents, set fire to their house and ran over their dog!

I am not going to take each letter, sentence for sentence and defend my stance, but for one. Both S Moller and Sad Really came up with similar arguments with regard to clearance. Anyone judging a 4x4’s clearance as it relates to off road performance by taking a measurement under its lowest part are lacking in some basic 4x4 understanding. This measurement does not, never has and never will tell the whole story. It is this measurement combined with the suspension’s ability to maintain maximum clearance over undulating ground that relates to off-road performance. So this figure is, particularly in the case of Pajero, misleading to the uninformed. Can you think of a better performer off-road than a Land Cruiser pick-up? There aren’t many and Pajero isn’t one of them, yet the Cruiser’s minimum clearance is a mediocre 230 mm (your figure), which is less that a Pajero! Proof that the figure alone means little.

Now, S Moller, let’s discuss skills as a driver. Maybe I should have kept quiet about going over a slip face too fast, or misjudging the Pajero’s clearance and getting stuck... but it’s too late now. I guess I make 4x4 mistakes too, although being such a ‘guru’, (in some cases, so-called guru) as so many call me, I guess it’s just not permitted in my case. So, okay, I’m a very average driver, even a poor one. I don’t have a problem with that. I will go so far as to say chances are you are a much better drive than me… than most, probably. So I then represent Mr and Mrs average, and these folk may, like me, find the Pajero under-endowed with clearance and a disappointment. Alternatively, I am an overly gifted driver with uncanny abilities, have been driving since I was two–and-a-half and have eight million off-road kms under my belt and, I still find the Pajero disappointing. Sorry, but it is only my opinion. Jibes aside: this was the very first time I have ever returned a vehicle damaged. I guess for this run I must have changed my driving style utterly.

Sad Really quotes me as claiming I call myself ‘the doyan of all things 4x4’. No, I did not say this. I don’t even call myself anything, including ‘guru’ – it’s the motoring press that do that and you picked it up somewhere and have carried it off. I make so such claim. Yes, S Moller, I have written a few books (13 with over 100 000 in print) and made a few videos (± 40 000 in print). Call it a few if you like. Maybe what I write is all rubbish and I have, as Sad Really puts it, ‘a little knowledge”. If this is the case, the reading and viewing public is more gullible than you give them credit for.

H van Heerden raised an interesting point, and suggested that I am biased. I can, without fear of contradiction say that I am. Yes siree. I am biased about what I like and equally biased about what I don’t. And you want to know why? Because South Africa has for years suffered under blizzard of sycophantic, overly-flattering motoring test reports that are little more than brochures with adverts. Bad cars are praised only a little less that the fantastic ones! Pajero isn’t fantastic. The engine is out-dated and ordinary, the suspension has the travel of a JCB digger and the middle of the back seat is a wooden board made to look comfy by putting some leather on it. There! It’s said. Go and drive a Discovery-3 or Prado, Pajero’s main competitors, and you will notice the difference instantly. If this opinion offends you, then go to your dealer and get a brochure to make yourself feel better.

I must add, Leisure Wheels is a breath of fresh air. Not many mags would publish my articles. Hats off to them… they are leading the way.  I say support them, and if you don’t like me, skip the page.

To conclude: Sad Really.. have you looked at the Pajero Dakar winner? I mean actually looked at one? It isn’t a Pajero at all but an all-wheel drive go-fast-machine that cleverly combines welded alloy tubing and astonishing mechanical genius – undoubtedly developed with Mitsubishi’s technical department involved. But is about as far away from a showroom Pajero as a Sopwith Camel is from a Space Shuttle. Hurrah for the power of the sales brochure!  

Andrew S White