Originally we requested for a chance to test drive the 2007 Mitsubishi I - a cute small car with a rear midship engine setup and powered with a 660cc DOHC MIVEC engine, weighing only less than a ton but in the end we only managed to secure a Mitsubishi Triton Lite with a curb weight of one-and-a-half-ton with a huge cargo room to start off our first weekend in July.

So we hopped into the shoes of a restaurant operator for the weekend to find out how 'lite' the new Mitsubishi Triton Lite can get. With a weight of 1590kg and powered by SOHC 2.5 liter diesel engine that produces 75bhp at 4200rpm and 149Nm at 2,500 rpm, the new variant might be one of the lightest pickups around but when it comes to the world of trucks, you know you can’t go wrong with grand words of wisdoms such as ‘The Bigger, The More Powerful'. Actually, we just made that up but it still sounds cooler compared to the overused ‘The Bigger, The Better’. We found out that the Mitsubishi Triton Lite is indeed lighter; less on fuel but proportionately less powerful than its heavy-duty predecessor. Read the review below for the report.
 

Introducing the lightest Mitsubishi Triton to date - hauling a weight of 1590kg. This light truck or pickup is powered with SOHC 8-valve, in-line 4-cylinder diesel and only comes in double-cab body style with a 4x2 drive system mated to a manual transmission. This fourth generation one ton pickup from Mitsubishi Motors was built in Laem Chabang, Thailand and exported all over the world under different names making it a global hub for pickup production.

Exterior

The Triton Lite looks just as fresh as the first Triton did, and comes in a shade of what Mitsubishi calls 'Cool Silver Metallic'. Everything is body colored except for the front bumper and side mirrors. Then again, you do get chrome-plated door handles and power side mirrors.

Despite already being lite on the price tag, the Triton Lite comes in bundled with some pretty nifty features for a pickup to have such as the bedliner, rear body guard frame and chrome steel rear bumper. However, we feel it should also have come in with a running board for easier climbing into the car – a very nifty, child-friendly approach for us.

The wheels are 15 x 6JJ and wrapped around with 195/15 inch Bridgestone tires specially designed for light trucks such as these.

The entire exterior reeks of all the basic things you can expect from a pickup truck. For some manly boost to the Triton Lite, slap in 20" wheels, put the rear styling bar with tonneau cover, throw the steel rear bumper away and fix the black rear step bumper. Sounds familiar? It was one of the souped-up demo units from MMM for the Triton Lite. See photos.
 

Interior

The interior looks good with two toned color for eye candy. The dashboard’s carbon-like trimming wraps itself around the air-cond controllers and the top-tier storage compartment which usually houses the RV meter in the Triton 2.5 and Triton 3.2 for multi-display of time, car status, interior settings and exterior conditions.

Like most other commercial diesel vehicles, the cluster meters on the dashboard does not have the tachometer reading so in this vehicle, you will see this weird looking graffiti or what could be 'khat' (calligraphy) on where the tachometer dial is supposed to be. How’s that for eye candy?

Seating-wise, we found the front seats comfortable but the rear bench was too hard and did not really go down well with the rear occupants.

The interior was designed to cover all the basic grounds. You’ll find different-sized cup and bottle holders, in addition to the usual glove box, nicely rounded off with a center armrest storage box. The rear seat storage compartment’s usefulness is only overshadowed by the awkward positioning of a digital clock parallel with the sun shades.
 

Driving Experience

“Work as Hard as You Play” - tagline for the Mitsubishi Triton Lite.

The ride is fairly acceptable enough compared to our 'Track Shuttle' the 1997 Mitsubishi Delica equipped with the old version of 4D56 SOHC 2.5 liter diesel engine from the 1999 Mitsubishi Pajero.

During bumpy rides, the rear occupants complained a lot about the less than comfortable ride, and the harshness during the braking and stopping of the Triton. The rear axle tends to jump on rough surfaces all the time. However, no complains from the front passenger and yours truly.

We feel that the Triton Lite is best for driving around town, backroads and everything in between them with no major potholes. However, the best place for the Triton Lite is on the highway, sharing the same lane with the buses, lorries and NGV taxis.

For off-roading experience, we reckon the Triton Lite is tough enough for some road divider climbing but for muddy aka 'Teh Tarik' off road action, we leave it to the pros like the 4wd 3.2 liter Triton.

The Triton Lite surprised us at the 225km mark, amounting to half tank – roughly equivalent to RM60 worth of Diesel loving. With a full tank, we’re talking about 430km with our driving styles (pedal to the metal). Now that gas prices are hitting all time highs, the Triton Lite is one of the most fuel efficient 2WD pickup in our books right now.

The top speed is around 140km/h but 0-100km/h time is not available in the brochure and on the internet. So to beat out our curiosity, we did our own test to get the real picture how this pickup performs on our favorite private roads. Reaching the top speed of 140km/h with the cabin in full capacity is almost impossible. You will need a Great Salt Lake kind of starting dash to break the record. The 0-100km/h time with 3 people on board and no loads on the cargo room left us with 3 different timings of 30 seconds, 25 seconds and the best time of 22.5 seconds. Sadly, our metal wasn’t mettle enough for our right lead foot.

To satisfy the curiosity beast within, we conducted a different test that required lots of 1st and 2nd gear action – climbing in full load. You have to use low gear when towing really heavy loads (in our case 5 adults + restaurant goodies). See photos.

However the Triton Lite 1,655mm ride height provided us with a very low tailgate opening for easy loading/unloading task.

Making a u-turn was surprisingly easy too, and we later found out that it comes with a remarkably tight 5.7m minimum turning radius.

The Triton Lite did not come with airbags or ABS but compensates itself with Mitsubishi’s so called RISE (Reinforced Impact Safety Evolution) which was engineered to keep you and your passengers safe with crumple zones around the front absorb collision energy. Add in reinforced supports to hold their form and direct damage away from the occupants, and the Triton LITE's Load-Sensing Proportioning Valve (LSPV) that uses sensors in the rear suspension or axle to adjust rear brake pressure, compensating for changes in vehicle loading (in short - as the vehicle is loaded, ride height decreases and pressure to the rear brakes is increased) – you can be assured that things are just as safe as they can get.
 

Conclusion

Good for rough owners who don’t mind the speed and comfort of a 1 ton lorry. If you are a stall owner, restaurant operator or a pasar malam tauke, this thing may just be what the doctor ordered for you. With a very competitive price tag of RM59,900 (OTR price with insurance) this pickup is an option for the tauke fraternity who already have the highly abused Nissan C22 Vanette, the Proton Arena and the petrol guzzler Toyota Unser. It’s also a good vehicle to be used everyday for your very rough 'Supir'. But get ready to keep yourself busy on weekends because someone else (especially friends or neighbors of yours or your father-in-law) may call you over for a favor or two of lugging their stuffs around town. Overall, it’s affordable and everyone can now buy a new pickup especially because Mitsubishi Motors Malaysia is offering a 3-year or 100,000km warranty and a 3-year or 60,000km Maintenance Free Program for the new Triton 3.2 and a 3-year or 100,000km Warranty for this new Triton Lite.

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