3960 km. Without a doubt the longest single road trip I’ve ever completed with a vehicle.
As part of our annual holiday, we headed north to Windhoek with the long-term Mitsubishi Triton. Road users who frequently drive these roads will know that they are long, lightly populated and can drive without seeing any other road users for long periods of time. Needless to say, as your average speed increases and approaches the “Namibian cruising speed”, so does your average fuel consumption. Unfortunately it is not linear but exponentially. Even so, it stabilised around the 14 L/100 km mark. Still, for a 3,2-litre turbodiesel that is rather impressive.
The single most frustrating aspect of the Triton on this trip was (as mentioned before) is the lack of cruise control. Fortunately, this has since been rectified on the new 2,5-litre turbodiesel model.
After a night’s rest at Keetmanshoop we spent the night in Windhoek before heading to Swakopmund for the final part of the trip.
Overall, I found the Triton to offer a comfortable ride and the times I was unable to avoid a pothole (not a regular occurrence on the roads we travelled on) at speed the Triton’s suspension and Bridgestone Dueler 245/70 R16 tyres absorbed the impact very well.
During the launch of the updated Triton, Jaco Oosthuizen, CEO of Mitsubishi South Africa, confirmed that the new Triton will arrive in 2015. Look out on CARmag.co.za for the full interview with Oosthuizen soon.
Click here for the first report on the Triton, and here for the second.
Mileage on arrival (km): 1 164
Mileage now (km): 17 500
Fuel consumption (litres/100 km): 10,4
Like: soft and comfortable ride
Don’t like: lack of satellite buttons on the steering wheel (introduced on the new model though)