2025 Mitsubishi Pajero Sport GSR review

• Doors and Seats

  

  NA

• Engine

  

  NA

• Engine Power

  

  133kW, 430Nm

• Fuel

  

  Diesel 8L/100KM

• Transmission

  

  NA

• Warranty

  

  NA

• Ancap Safety

  

  NA

Family Cars Guide

Time is marching on, and it has been just about 10 years since the Pajero Sport made its debut in Australia. On the face of it, barely anything has changed. It looks pretty much the same – though there have been gradual changes to exterior styling and interior tech – and it has the same mechanical package. 

Based on the recently departed Triton, its main difference apart from the body was a set of cushier coil springs over the ute, which sports load-capable leaf springs at the back. Back at the Pajero Sport’s launch, the Everest was yet to take any big steps into the market, the Toyota shot its bolt with the Fortuner (and missed), and the MU-X was regarded as a pretty crude sort of wagon.

Times have changed. Well, the Fortuner is still unloved, but the Everest is a juggernaut and much fresher in the face, the MU-X is also much newer and markedly better, and China is coming for them all, specifically the GWM Tank 500. With more on the way featuring electrification no less.

What hasn’t changed is the Pajero Sport’s place as the value-for-money option. Nicer than an MU-X, cheaper than just about anything else (except the GWM), the Pajero Sport has carved a niche. The Exceed-based GSR arrived a little while ago, and for 2024 got the mildest of upgrades to try and keep pace with the onslaught.

Age has finally caught up with the Pajero Sport however, and Mitsubishi has announced that the model will enter runout phase early with a change to safety regulations putting on ice ahead of new model due in 2026. Like the Pajero before it, could the Pajero Sport see a rush of buyers looking to secure the last of the line before it bows out?

The Pajero Sport range runs from just under 50 grand for the entry-level five-seater GLX right through to just over 60 grand for this top-of-the-range GSR. Older folks like me (I see the irony of accusing the Pajero Sport of being old) will remember GSR attached to sporty or innovative machines in the 1990s and early 2000s, but like Ralliart on a Triton, GSR here is just top of the range.

For your money you get 18-inch black alloys, keyless entry and start, dual-zone climate control, auto LED headlights with auto high beam, auto wipers, electric folding mirrors, leather wheel, gear shifter and seats, powered and heated front seats, adaptive cruise, powered tailgate, digital dashboard, satellite navigation, premium eight-speaker audio, app connectivity, and a full-size spare slung under the car for easy access.

The GSR also features a lot of blacked-out bits like the wheels, mirrors and various exterior trim. The interior is also finished in a dark maroon colour, which grew on me.

This car had a few options fitted taking it to $70,229 plus on-road costs, which included the towbar kit, Redarc brake controller and a snorkel.

Mitsubishi offers three packs, the $3998 Black Pack, the $7046 Signature Plus Pack (cosmetic and protective bits plus towbar and towball), and the Expedition (a massive bull bar, fog lamp kit, snorkel, tow bar and ball, brake controller, roof rack and a 1500mmx1200mm roof tray from Rola).

You can grab your preferred bits and pieces – as Mitsubishi has done when speccing this press car  – individually. In this case there was the towbar kit, towball, Redarc brake controller, snorkel, carpet mats and roof racks pushing the before on-roads price to $69,215.

There is a truckload (pun intended) of options you can add to the Pajero Sport, which is an obvious nod to the brisk aftermarket parts business so many companies have built over the last decade or so.

The GSR’s headline price puts it in close proximity to the Toyota Fortuner GXL and Crusade, between the entry-level Ambiente and Trend Ford Everests, and not much less than an Isuzu MU-X 3.0 entry-level, the LS-M (although at the time of writing, the LS-T was available at $67,990 drive-away). Either way, in company with its rivals, the Pajero Sport is invitingly priced, at least before options.

The Pajero Sport is absolutely unmissable in traffic, particularly with those slim, stacked rear lights. Its tallness translates to a car that you have to climb up into (thank goodness for the running boards) and for shorter folk, kids and dogs, that’s a challenge.

With seven seats on offer, you have three rows to contend with. The third row is surprisingly easy to get to, with a tumbling middle-row seat (split 60/40) offering an easy way in.

Once you’re in, both of the seats for some reason have two cupholders. The seatbacks, however, are very short, and while you can raise the headrests, these remain – as with most seven-seat SUVs – occasional-use only for adults and maybe suitable for kids just out of boosters. At least you’ve got air vents blowing air down from the roof.

You’re also very close to the tailgate with just 131 litres behind you. That’s not a lot of space, but enough for a few bags of shopping or beach towels and other gear. Drop the third row and you have 502L, which in this segment is pretty standard but not as much as you might expect. Dropping the third row isn’t particularly straightforward, with a bit of grunting as you flip up the seat base and fold down the seat back.

When stowed, the middle row is also a bit ungainly, but it’s a simple lever pull. With the middle row folded up, you have 1488L available to you.

You wouldn’t call the bench particularly shapely, but the middle row is comfortable, with plenty of leg and head room for even taller folk and easy ingress through the big doors once you’ve negotiated the climb up. The fold-down armrest has two cupholders that poke out the front with a press of the panel.

There are big grab handles on the B-pillar for you to hang on to in the event of some adventurousness, but also to help you get in. These are in addition to the normal grab handles. You also get air vents in the ceiling and two USB-A ports along with bottle holders in the doors.

Slightly oddly, the middle row is where you’ll find the 220-volt/150-watt three-pin power plug. I’d have thought the boot was the place for this, but the fact it’s here is good, especially given the intent of this car.

Front seat passengers enjoy big squishy seats clothed in leather and a very good view forward. The A-pillar hosts grab handles for both driver and passenger along with ceiling-mounted grab handles. Two cupholders, bottle holders in the door and a console bin will take all your bits.

The GSR’s charcoal/burgundy seat combination with diamond quilting in the inserts is quite fetching and reminds me of the lift in quality we’ve seen in the Outlander. In other parts you can feel the age of this car a bit with the lack of a simple put-your-phone-here slot, USB-A ports and the general plasticky feel. Having to pay for floor mats feels like robbery.

Wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto lead out the 9.0-inch touchscreen’s features. This isn’t an amazing screen without it, featuring very old software that doesn’t offer much apart from satellite navigation that often forgets to render the road you’re on, so you look like you’ve gone bush-bashing in suburbia.

As I’ll mention again, the resolution is poor compared to some rivals when the reversing and around-view cameras are on. However, the base software’s targets are big and easy to use, and even the DAB presentation is not too confusing. Most makers cannot work out what to do here.

There is also a smartphone app that allows remote tailgate operation, fuel consumption monitor, car finder, notifications and Apple Watch connectivity. It’s not a huge range of features, but you have to start somewhere, I guess. 

Sound from the eight speakers seems plenty enough to fill the cabin, but it’s hardly an audiophile’s dream. It also does enough to drown out the diesel engine once it’s warm, which is as much as you can ask. Although, the four speakers in the base model might struggle.

The digital dashboard is very clean and clear to look at, with plenty of information on offer, which is lucky given the dearth in the media screen. It’s easy to change what you want to see in the screen with a couple of clicks of the selector buttons on the steering wheel.

Due to ANCAP ratings expiring, the Pajero Sport is now unrated and reflects the fact it was last tested in 2015.

Nevertheless, safety specification has improved slightly over the years. The Pajero Sport carries seven airbags (including driver’s knee bag), but does not have the front centre although side airbag coverage does extend across all three rows.

Almost all of its rivals carry a current five-star rating, but the Fortuner’s will shortly expire since its last test in 2019.

The middle row features two ISOFIX and three top-tether anchors. There are neither available in the third row.

Once again, the Pajero Sport is starting to feel its age. It’s missing reverse AEB, which is a bit of a miss in a family car this big and with such limited rear vision. The presence of reverse cross-traffic alert is handy, though, and passes my bare minimum rule.

While there is no road sign recognition – a feature I feel very conflicted about – there is a speed limit function in the satellite navigation that delivers an audible warning if you go over the limit based on the database, but it doesn’t nag you, which is nice. Another solid miss is the lack of driver attention detection. 

The around-view cameras are a nice touch, but the screen is incredibly grainy even in bright sunshine, and the screen layout made me feel more shortsighted than I really am. It’s partly to do with the size of the screen, but the camera is pretty weak.

Mitsubishi offers a whopping 10-year/200,000km warranty along with 10 years' capped-price servicing. For the lengthy warranty to apply, you must service your Pajero Sport at a Mitsubishi dealer for the duration. Breaking either the kilometre limit or servicing elsewhere reverts to a still reasonable five years/100,000km.

Servicing comes around every 12 months/15,000km and, look, it’s not cheap. The cheapest service is the first one weighing in at $449, rising as high as $999 in the eighth and tenth years. Three years costs $1497 (just under $500/year average), five is $2895 ($579 per year) and 10 years $7490, a nice round $749 per year average over the full decade.

Owners of older cars will understand how much a car outside of warranty costs to run, but there is a price to a long warranty, so have a think about how that balances out for you.

An insurance quote of $1775 came back based on a comparative quote for a 35-year-old male driver living in Chatswood, NSW. Insurance estimates may vary based on your location, driving history, and personal circumstances. This figure lands in the middle of prices we’ve seen for these kinds of cars.

One good thing about a relatively under-stressed engine means that fuel economy for such a big unit isn’t too bad. The official claim of 8.0 litres per 100 kilometres looks eminently gettable given I got 9.3L/100km over my week, which was mostly around town.

With its 68-litre fuel tank, you could expect somewhere between 731km and 850km between fills, which is not bad at all. Obviously it’s diesel and on average will cost more than petrol, so keep that in mind.

There is no getting away from the fact that the Pajero Sport is not a sprightly machine. The calibration across the board is pretty lazy, from an engine that takes a while to wake up, a gearbox set to silky smooth, and steering that will get you a set of guns. Not from the weight, mind you, but sheer volume of arm-twirling.

None of these things were a surprise back in this car’s early days, and it’s true that cars like the MU-X are very similar. There are good reasons for the Pajero Sport’s slowness, and that’s down to the wide operating window some owners expect. But not all. 

I’ve known many folks who’ve gone for a car from this segment, only for them to complain it doesn’t “drive like a car” or words to that effect. The Pajero Sport is based on a ute, has been mildly civilised with proper springs at the rear, but it’s not the road-ripper you might expect either from the GSR badge or the impression it’s sporty.

With that out of the way, let’s get down to business. The best of this car is the way it simply whistles along on the freeway with barely a sound. Even with crossover tyres and the aerodynamics of a concrete bunker – along with the optional snorkel – the highway manners are pretty good and better than I remember.

It’s also comfortable and smooth in these conditions, and even on a windy day it seemed reasonably impervious to crosswinds – again a solid win given its slab-sided presentation. Lane changes do need a little more steering movement than feels natural, but you soon get used to it.

The steering is very slow, and while that pays off when you’re negotiating a muddy rut or rock-hopping, it’s less fun around town and in the suburbs. You have to do a lot of steering in normal everyday driving, which I find tiring, but you may not. It also affects the agility of the machine, needing exaggerated movements in avoiding actions.

Its brakes also have a fairly dead spot at the top, which again is great when you need a bit of off-road finesse but less fun in traffic, again needing a bit of extra leg power and movement to make them work. They work well, though, hauling the two-plus-tonne Pajero down, with good feel once you’re through the deadish spot.

Despite what looks like a high-ish torque peak at 2500rpm, the Pajero Sport has no trouble spinning up an inside rear wheel in the wet. I found switching to 4H (a twist of the dash-mounted rotary dial, seamless transition) killed that off and didn’t have much of an impact on the fuel economy.

That in itself reveals one of the Pajero Sports party tricks, with a four-wheel-drive system that can be used on sealed surfaces with an open centre diff, or a locked diff setting for traditional off-road situations.

The digital dashboard is very clear and shows a 4000rpm redline, so the eight-speed transmission does do a lot of work. The bonus there is that it’s very smooth and easy to live with, with just the occasional jerky downshift. I quite like the shifter too – a sensible shape and size for the job. You can also shift manually with the metal paddles on the wheel or using the selector.

In the end, though, this car feels very trucky. The grumbly diesel around town, the pitching and rolling on the high, soft suspension. It delivers a comfortable ride and is a gentle cruiser, but as you pile in people and stuff, its performance is blunted. Ten years ago that was de rigueur for the segment, but today it's rapidly becoming unfashionable.

With its 3100kg tow rating, the Pajero Sport is solidly outpunched by the Everest and MU-X, which both boast 3500kg. Its 3100kg is a lot, but not as much as everyone else. Does it matter? It might, but if you need more, you’re out of the running with the Mitsubishi.

With a 310kg towball download and 645kg payload, maxing out the former leaves you with 335kg of payload, which is four average-weight adults and not much else, so be aware of that to avoid being too heavy. Its gross combination mass is a still healthy 5565kg.

The 2.4-litre diesel with its eight-speed transmission is no fireball, but does have 430Nm to haul whatever it is you’ve hitched to the back. Given it’s slow unladen, adding more means you’ll need a lot of patience when you’re towing. We’d definitely recommend the Redarc brake controller and the knowledge of how to use it properly.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with the Pajero Sport, and as we’ve seen over the years, it’s very capable at doing a lot of things. What a lot of people are doing, though, is buying one and expecting a thoroughly modern SUV. It’s not that, and its ute origins stretch back even further than the 2015 launch date.

When you have an identical engine/transmission package all the way up and down the range, the GSR starts to look a bit pricey in context. When you have significantly newer rivals available to you, that makes it less attractive. The old diesel, the ageing – but decent quality – cabin, the distinctly off-roader vibe.

Those things can be attractive in themselves – it’s a simple beast – and it has a long, long warranty, and while servicing isn’t a bargain, you know what you’re up for over a decade. But I’m not sure a GSR is the way to go unless you really want the badge and the bits and bobs that come with it over the Exceed.

Mitsubishi’s website is a great place to start when looking to buy a Pajero Sport. There you’ll find a pretty solid configurator that features all the packages and options and will give you a price. There isn’t a stock checker, but Mitsubishi Australia says there is strong supply for the Pajero Sport. Check with your local dealer that can also organise a test drive for you.

You can also search for new and used Mitsubishis for sale at Drive Marketplace.

As I said earlier, unless the GSR’s trinkets are important to you, the Exceed’s slightly cheaper pricing might better suit you. Dropping down to the GLS loses a couple of safety features and some nice-to-haves, so while it’s worth checking to save yet more money, it might be a downgrade too far.

We reckon it’s also worth having a look at the GWM Tank, which is also available in hybrid form, as well as the obvious contenders from Ford and Isuzu. Neither of those is as competitively priced, however, nor can match the warranty. GWM is the closest at seven years.

Family Cars Guide