QotW: What’s your fondest Pajero/Montero memory?

The death of the Mitsubishi Pajero has hit us pretty hard here here at JNC. So, we’ve been watching old Dakar videos and trying to remember the fond times we had with Pajeros. For me, it was the time a friend’s parents lent us a brown LWB first-gen to move. It was slow but it swallowed an entire apartment’s worth of stuff with room to spare. I recall us chuckling like idiots every time the tall body leaned into a corner at what seemed like a 45 degree angle. For other JNC staffers, it was a layover at the Dakar airport (voted the world’s worst), spotting a Pajero in Operation Condor, or the time when someone in San Gabriel opened a JAOS store and did up a Montero to the nines with what must have been 1,000 pounds worth of JDM off-road gear.

What’s your fondest Pajero/Montero memory?

The most entertaining comment by next Monday will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “At what point do you fly instead of drive?” 

It was quite interesting to see how readers from around the world make the vs. driving calculation. Nigel drives from eastern Canada unless it’s to LA, Styles schooled us on travel in New Zealand, while Chris from LMM and CobaltFire gave us the skinny on Japan., Then there’s travelers from all over the US, like Scotty G in the Midwest, Lee L from the East Coast, and Steve in the Southwest, locations which vary as much as different countries, each with its own calculus. However, the winner was Evil Twin, who made us laugh with his comment:

Trick question… when I drive I’m ALWAYS FLYING!

Omedetou, your comment has earned you a set of decals from the JNC Shop!

JNC Decal smash

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11 Responses to QotW: What’s your fondest Pajero/Montero memory?

  1. Lupus says:

    I was never a fan of off-road’ers or SUV’s, but i have one strong memory revolving around them, and it’s coincidentally Pajero.
    When i was in high school we had a pack of 5 buddys. We knew eachother since 1st grade. One of my buddy’s father was importing cars from Germany to sell them witch profit in Poland. When we got our driver licences he allowed us to use some of these cars from time to time, to test them. One such car was a 3-rd gen Pajero. Huge 5-door body, diesel under the hood, gangsta-style black’d out windows and all possible options inside. It showed up to be one of the most effective chick-magnets i’ve ever used. 😉 Worth mentioning is the fact that it was around 2005. Truly impressive car back then for 18-19 year old boys. 😉

  2. Ken says:

    In Amsterdam a dangerous criminal was liquidated in his Pajero while scared undercover cops sat in small trailer next to it. There circulate pictures of the crime scene on the internet. It was like Swiss cheese. The end for the Pajero. Now for all.

  3. harshith says:

    In India, many people love the Pajero. many police, political ministers, famous celebrities, they use a Mitsubishi pajero. many Indian movies used to the pajero as “Hero” cars. my encounter was with a pajero toy of my friend which was a silver 90s pajero shogun convertible. in college, the mitsubishi came to promote their cars a black JDM pajero came i took some pics with it.

  4. Danny says:

    So far, my best Montero memory is buying my LWB 1st gen last year. After about a month scouring craigslist, I settled on flying 2000 miles to Montana to purchase the truck, then drove it back over the course of 4 days. It already had 200k miles logged on the odometer, but we made it home without so much as turning a wrench. On the way home we drove it through Glacier National Park and the Badlands in South Dakota, I even slept in the back the first night of the trip. Since then the Montero has been a faithful (though very slow) driver, requiring only minor repairs and a tune up. Even the a/c works!

  5. Tom says:

    A 2nd gen JDM LWB Pajero was my childhood car (alongside a LWB RAV4 and a Mirage hatch), and the first car I ever drove, which was great cause whenever I drove into a tree stump by accident it would just go over the thing.
    Not one day after buying it we got rear ended at about 40kph by a Vitz, which now had a front bumper kissing the firewall, while the Pajero needed a single rear bumper light replacing.

    The Pajeros greatest trip was when our local Scout troop (of which my Mum was head leader) were going on a week long camping trip in the mountains, and it was decided to use three leaders cars rather than renting out a coach, as the kids were pretty much all family friends anyway. This consists of:
    – our Pajero, a LWB 2.8 intercooled turbodiesel.
    – A D22 (iirc) Nissan Navara twin cab.
    – A brand new LWB Land Rover Defender, imported at great expense.

    Needless to say the three cars were an unstoppable convoy, hauling 15 kids, food, climbing gear, and associated adults up and down mountain roads, on one day a 2km in altitude descent to the seaside and 2k climb up to the mountains for dinner, without skipping a beat.
    For the Pajero, the highlight of the trip was this little hairpin corner we had to frequently drive around: When in our three car convoy, the Pajero showed up the infallible Defender, who’s wide turning circle meant it couldn’t get around the corner without doing a three point turn!

  6. cesariojpn says:

    That’s easy. The race segment from “Who Am I?” From the driving to the upbeat chanting, and you easily have a built-in Mitsubishi Panjero commercial.

    https://youtu.be/laHRvNTqfEk

  7. Negishi no Keibajo says:

    Seeing a Pajero in Iceland. We go there once, sometimes twice a year. It’s our go-to escape.

    https://youtu.be/SZA1Y70K4i0

  8. Angelo says:

    Going to a cosplay convention in my bud’s 1st-gen 3door Pajero, with him wearing a cute outfit.

    The looks we had around us when we parked and got out was gold hahaha!

  9. Tian says:

    Learning to drive in an 86 Montero. My father tried teaching me to drive but he did not have any patience and I was a lousy student. Thankfully my Grandfather was a bit braver! He owned an 86 short base two door model.

    I remember learning the at then impossible task of shifting and coordinating eyes, hands and feet. Thankfully we did not have any (big) accident. Afterward he would lend me the car whenever I needed a set of wheels for my errands (so a lot of first memories in that thing!).

    We sold the car when the old man lost his sight. He had the Montero since new and loved it with its 276+ miles of road covered. For him the day he had to stop driving was the day a part of his soul died. Now on the rare occasion I see an old black Montero, It brings a some tears and a bit of my gramps back to life.

  10. Definitely not Alf says:

    My fondest memory of a Pajero/Montero was when I was stranded out in the wilderness and I was picked up by a good samaritan named Jackie.

    At first, he was kind and charming, but eventually he progressed to whispering sweet nothings into my ear. I was at simultaneously uncomfortable yet curious to see where things would go. We were only about ten miles from city limits. I knew if anything was going to happen it’d have to be before we reached the roadway.

    Suddenly, his demeanor and actions became more aggressive. I couldn’t tell if he expected me to fend him off or behave like a gentlemen. After he slapped me and stopped the car, I had no choice but to succumb to his sexual prowess…

    #ME TOO

  11. Nigel says:

    My mother ended up buying one in Dubai just when my parents started earning money. She had traded in a 1993 Honda Civic sedan(Funny enough, I bought a 1995 Honda Civic EX while studying in the US) and she really enjoyed it. Till now, she always buys SUV and it all started with her second-gen Pajero. I still have fond memories climb all over that car.

    But one story that stands out for me was when my family decided to take a trip to the desert with another family and within 5 minutes we ended up getting stuck. It took us 3 hours to get the Pajero out and it turned my Dad out the super selector in snow mode instead of sand as it looked similar. We were bound to get stuck as we didn’t even lower the tyre pressure.

    But overall, it was a great experience.

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