Family Feud

WE CAN’T SETTLE THE DISPUTE OVER CONTROL OF THE MUSIC OR WHO GETS THE WINDOW SEATS, BUT WE CAN TELL YOU WHICH IS THE BETTER CHOICE OF THESE TWO POPULAR FAMILY WAGONS.

- MATT RAUDONIKIS

THE mid-size SUV marketplace comprises a mix of vehicles that all do different jobs. On one hand you have the light-duty people movers like the Toyota Kluger, Mazda CX9, Mitsubishi Outlander and Kia Sorento which are hugely popular, yet bucking the trend is the off-road capable Toyota Prado that outsells them all most months.

Since Mitsubishi hammered the nail into the coffin of its legendary Pajero 4x4 wagon late last year, the Prado really has had that end of the segment all to itself.

Below the Prado you have the smaller 4x4 wagons that owe their existence to the popular 4x4 utes and are wagon derivatives of the light trucks. Mitsubishi has passed the iconic Pajero nameplate on to its Triton chassis-based wagon and now calls it the Pajero Sport, whereas older versions of this wagon were called the Mitsubishi Challenger.

Toyota has this niche in the market covered as well with its Hilux-derived Fortuner wagon, and if you want to trace its roots back to earlier models you could call it the successor to the once-popular Toyota 4-Runner wagon.

Other vehicles in this segment include Ford Everest and Isuzu MU-X, but today we’ve got the top specifications of the Fortuner and Pajero Sport here to see which best fills the family 4x4 role.

These wagons are based on their light-truck siblings as they share a chassis with the utes, but the chassis has a shorter wheelbase and the rear leaf springs – which allow the utes to carry heavy loads – are replaced with a coil-sprung multi-link suspension, to deliver better ride and handling than the load haulers. Rear disc brakes are also included in lieu of the drum brakes fitted to the back of the respective utes.