Pajero IO or Suzuki XL-7????

With that choice I am a suzuki person.

Have had afew suzukis but have not owned later than a siera, they make a great car. This stretched version should be just as good. They perform good as a basic 4x4 and when upgraded are very capable.

Suzuki Link

Cheers Tony

The Ios while not popular when new are by all accounts well engineered , good off road but a bit slow till wound up.
Cheers Pete

I own an XL-7 as an around town 7 seater. Heaps of go, but heavy on fuel. Suspension is soft and back end wanders on even the slightest corrugation.

I bought one of the last XL-7s in aus before they stopped making/selling them.

Only off-road has been some sandy tracks which were fine.

I would expect the IO to have better fuel consumption, ramp-over and departure angles, but just a gut feel.

A mate was trying to sell an IO some time back for his sister. Had to drop the price quite a bit because no-one was interested in them. May not hold their resale value as well as the Suzuki.

Thanks to all who have responded so far. Still unsure which way to go.

The seven seats of the Suzuki and the extra power of the 2.7 V6 are attractive but then the excellent approach and departure angles of the IO are hard to over look. The IO seems a bit more built with off road in mind and I'm kind of guessing (correct me if I'm wrong) that a fair few Pajero parts will fit straight on eg: Bullbar, towbar etc.

Just a bit concerned that either the 1.8 or 2.0 litre in the IO (depending on which year it was built) may be VERY underpowered and might end up being just as thirsty as the XL-7.

I'd love to hear from someone who's owned an IO. There seems to be a fair bit of car for a pretty cheap price. Just worried that the low price may be indicative of the overall ability of the car.

Fab.

Thought about a prado ??? 3.4L V6 thirsty but you could pick up one cheap, the RV in 2.7 petrol great, the diesel I would say would be out of your price range ?? While I love the zooks and have had about 5 of them we found the Vitara too small (didnt suit our needs and under powered for towing), small fuel tank, even when lifted we found it still bottomed out easily, not as comfortable, and with the XL7 been LWB it will bottom out even easier. The V6 in the zooks (except the new V6) are extremely thirsty. Friends of ours have one and live in QLD, even cruising freeway/highway speeds down here to Sydney they were using 13/14L per 100 same as (slightly more) then our old V6 3.4 (best I got freeway was 12.2L per 100) but we were loaded, 12.8 with camper (no off road). The prados are AWD so extra safety, the only disadvantage with the 2.7 RV you only get the one main tank 90L all the others including the RV6 get both tanks.. Heaps of parts available.. Just some thing for you to maybe think about ??? The zook V6 is definately not cheap to run and are dearer then Toyota for parts.................Regards Steve

Hi,

I've had a couple of Sierras, and also the 5 door Io. It was the 1.8l motor.

In all honesty, it is hard to fault the Io. I can't remember what the fuel consumption was like though, but it centainly wasn't as thirsty as a 6 cyl. It did take a little to wind up, but once going it was fine. It became my wife's daily driver for 4 years, and apart from servicing, we had no problems with it. Quite comforable to drive, but not as big as the XL-7s and probably less whizz-bangs on it.

Off road it was pretty good, the short wheel base helped, and the approach and departure angles were good. It did dirt roads, ruts, creek crossings and sand without a problem, with std tyres and height, mud sometimes slowed it down. The reason we sold it was to move to something larger with the family and the lease was up. A number of our 4wd friends were suprised at the performance off road of it.

When our eldest was looking for a first car, the Io was number 1 choice. However, none came up at the right prices at the time. I think they were an under rated vehicle, and Mitsubshi didn't do a lot to market them. The Mitsubishi equavalent when we replaced it was the overlander - so we moved to a Pathfinder then.

Regards,

Michael