1998 Mitsubishi Triton GX review from Australia and New Zealand

Air conditioning compressor blew at 102,000 but was still fixed under warranty when 32 months old.

Grinding sound traced to front left hand axle at around 175,000. I think the free wheeling hub was trying to engage all by itself. The solution, since I knew the car was being replaced soon, was to drive around with the 4WD lever engaged, but the front hubs NOT engaged. I did never figure why, but this caused the noise to stop. The car could be put back into 2WD, but the noise would re-occur after about 25 kms.

Flimsy drink holder broke, but was replaced under warranty.

The car always got 22-23 mpg (8 kms per litre) as a life-time average, much the same with careful town driving as with country trips at 110-120 kph due to it's relatively short gearing. It does 3,000 revs at 100 kph.

With a 0-100 time of around 10.5 seconds it simply eats most other 4WD's.

Top speed, inappropriate for this type of vehicle I know, could be nudged to 180+.

Great radio reception wherever I went, which is appreciated on long country trips.

The cabin is very isolated from noise on dirt roads... totally shames my wife's 2001 Civic in this regard. Monocoque designs can't compete with this old style seperate chassis rail/cab design for noise isolation.

Body strength is undeniable and off road capability is terrific even though it isn't high-tech in this area.

Rear leg room is O.K. but rear flat squab is not so good. Front seats lack side support and are too short in the squab. This is typical fault in Japanese utilities and not limited to Mitsubishi offerings.

It tends to wander a bit with a one tonne load so care has to be taken. Not as good as my new Falcon RTV in this regard.

Silly drink holder positioning means your drink prevents insertion of your cassettes.

With better seats and an "on dash" 4 WD engagement instead of manual hubs

I would have bought another. Unfortunately the 2003 model was in no way updated from my 1998 introductory model and other dual cab offerings have surpassed it in that time.