Test drive UAZ Patriot against Mitsubishi Pajero
There is a price gap between UAZ Patriot and Mitsubishi Pajero, but SUVs are bought by the same people. They have similar conservative queries: fishing, hunting, roomy and passable car ...
There is a price gap between UAZ Patriot and Mitsubishi Pajero, but SUVs are bought by the same people. They have similar conservative needs: fishing, hunting, a roomy and passable car. Some are just less fortunate than others. Against the backdrop of a rise in prices for foreign cars, many began to give preference to domestic ones - the Patriot is now one of the few models whose sales are growing.
They are almost the same age: the production of UAZ Patriot began in 2005, and Mitsubishi Pajero - in 2006. Optics with fashionably drawn corners, garlands of LEDs in the headlights, a new grille and bumper attached to the body, an interior with soft plastic and a multimedia system - after the update, UAZ Patriot has become much younger. In any case, now it is not so noticeable that a body with rounded shapes and a deep crease along the entire sidewall was painted back in the 1990s. Patriot has remained a classic frame SUV with a fully dependent suspension. In addition, UAZ retained the spring rear suspension with the front spring. Transmission modes are now switched on by a newfangled washer instead of a lever. However, all-wheel drive is still a simple part-time with a hard-wired front end. Long trips on it on hard ground and asphalt are not recommended.
Several minor updates failed to change Pajero's brick-built expression. It generally looks simpler than it actually is. Under the square body, in theory, there should be a ladder-type frame and at least one continuous bridge under it. But since the last third generation, the Japanese SUV has neither one nor the other. The body is with an integrated frame, and the suspensions are fully independent. An archaic lever on the central tunnel switches modes of the rather advanced Super Select II transmission. It has an inter-axle differential that allows you to move with the front axle connected on hard surfaces, a rear inter-wheel lock, and to save fuel, you can leave the drive only to the rear axle.
Due to its enormous two-meter height, the Patriot appears disproportionately narrow. Nevertheless, it surpasses the "Japanese" in the width of the cabin, and due to the shorter base it is slightly inferior in the maximum length of the trunk. The gain in ceiling height is not so significant as it might seem when comparing SUVs outwardly. The floor level of the "Patriot" is higher due to the frame passing under it, therefore, getting into the car is not as easy as into the frameless Pajero.
Landing in both SUVs is high and there are no problems with visibility. The Patriot's seat is too close to the door, but comfortable enough to handle hundreds of miles behind the wheel. Everything is in order with the habitability of the rear compartment - there is a lot of space, and a heater with an additional fan and heated seats is responsible for the microclimate in the Patriot. Pajero has a separate climate control unit that allows you to change the temperature and blowing power.
In a Japanese SUV, the rear seat backrest can be folded back to form a berth. For ease of loading, the sofa can be folded up and placed vertically. The transformation of the UAZ is not thought out so carefully: the seat backs of the new cars lie only forward and form a small difference in height with the boot floor. To spend the night in the car, you will have to unfold the front seats, turning the knobs of the new stepless backrest adjustment for a long time.
The nature of the Patriot's petrol engine is unique. It surprises with diesel traction from the very bottom and diesel vibrations. To die out, you need to try very hard. In the first gear, the SUV crawls without adding gas, and on the asphalt you can easily get under way from the second. The engine does not like to spin and after 3 thousand revolutions it noticeably sour, and its fuel appetite grows at the same time. At a speed of 120 km / h, it is uncomfortable to drive because of the noisy engine and specific suspension settings. UAZ is unexpectedly picky about the quality of the road surface - on rolled tracks, an SUV scares from side to side and has to be caught on a whim - the steering wheel is completely insensitive with small deviations. This behavior of the machine takes some getting used to.
Under the hood, Pajero is an old-school three-liter V6 engine with a cast-iron block, which was also installed on second-generation SUVs. With "mechanics" it is available only in the basic configuration, in other versions - uncontested 5-speed "automatic". Like the patriotic 3MZ engine, the Pajero six is capable of running on 92nd gasoline, which is a big plus in the regions. The "Japanese" is more dynamic than the UAZ, but despite its good passport characteristics, the acceleration of a two-ton carcass is not easy for the engine - it takes 100 seconds to reach 13,6 km / h. And you can't call the Pajero the standard of handling either. He, too, is nervous on the ruts, but in general he keeps a straight line well. The suspension is soft and therefore the car rolls noticeably in corners.
On the highway, if you carefully operate the gas pedal in the case of Mitsubishi and shift gears earlier in the case of an UAZ, the flow rate can be lowered below 12 liters per 100 kilometers. In a traffic jam, the numbers on the on-board computer screen begin to grow before our eyes.
The advertisement claims that Patriot has been updated for the city. However, in the competition with Pajero, urban and asphalt disciplines are not as important as the off-road competition. Pajero slightly surpasses Patriot in all geometric parameters. Except that the exit angle let us down because of the long rear overhang. Passport ground clearance "Japanese" is 235 millimeters. With the installation of the steel protection, the clearance is reduced by another centimeter, and the suspension arms end a few centimeters lower.
Patriot's minimum ground clearance of 210 mm should not be misleading - this is the distance from the ground to the differential housings, and another fifteen centimeters to the half-axle housings. The frame, transfer case, gas tank and engine crankcase are located at a height almost unattainable for stones and logs. Pajero in this sense is more vulnerable, since its bottom is more densely packed. In addition, the Patriot, with its continuous bridges, has unchanged off-road clearance. If you are tempted by the numbers, then Pajero should follow on the heels of the UAZ easily, but in reality, every now and then it is noticeably applied to the ground with a crankcase. In addition, the Japanese SUV, with its comfortable independent suspension, is quite easy to rock - so you need to act very carefully with the pedals and plan the route with caution. UAZ takes brute force, a huge moment in low gear and an impenetrable suspension. At the first reduced speed, he crawls uphill literally at idle. But in the case of the Patriot, the swoop tactics work more effectively: tight pedals do not allow you to act delicately.
The Patriot's suspension moves are much larger than Pajer's, therefore, when hanging diagonally, it must later lift the wheels off the ground and drive higher. But not everything is so simple: Pajero crawls slowly so as not to hit the hill with a beautiful painted bumper. First, on an electronic imitation of locks, biting the suspended wheels with the brakes, and then with a locked rear differential. UAZ, catching the diagonal, stops under the tragic howl of the transmission and drives to the altitude taken by Pajero only with a run. Moreover, having reached the highest point, he stops, helplessly rotating the wheels that have lost their grip, and the "Japanese" tries to cling to the last and crawl up.
But Patriot forces a puddle with a black and very viscous bottom alone - his opponent was stopped at the very approaches, leveling the mud with a crankcase protection. But the UAZ also obeys the obstacle only on a lower one, in 4H mode it did not even reach the middle of the puddle - it had to get out in a jump, in reverse.
Fights of equal in level fighters are sometimes not as spectacular and dramatic as a duel between a champion and an underdog who suddenly put up serious resistance. The victory on the asphalt remained with Pajero, but on the off-road it was not so convincing. And if Ulyanovsk decides to improve the Patriot's handling, then it will certainly reduce the points gap to a minimum, because until 2017 there will be no major changes in the Pajero's design. Meanwhile, Mitsubishi Pajero Sport will change beyond recognition in the spring and become overgrown with electronics, Land Rover Defender and UAZ Hunter will leave the market, and the fate of the Chinese Great Wall and Haval SUVs is still vague.
The main advantage of the Russian SUV is its low price, which allows you to spend a lot of money on its revision. Patriot is like a base character in a computer game. The factory equipment rather gives the direction in which the owner's imagination will move: either the version with leather and music, or with toothy rubber and an expeditionary trunk. In any case, a fully equipped SUV costs less than $ 13, and the final amount of additional tuning will be lower than what the new Pajero is currently offered for (from $ 482 to $ 25).
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