There’s a reason New Zealand’s favourite vehicle is no longer a three-box passenger car, or a hatchback. There’s a reason the once mighty ‘station wagon’ or estate is now an endangered species.
They simply don’t do what we need to do these days. At work or play, moving furniture, chasing that fish elusive or on the grocery run, our utes and SUVs do everything we need them to.
So many would agree: there’s nothing more enjoyable than a run in the forest in a good capable 4WD ute or SUV. Nothing.
Luckily, the major manufacturers were quick to lock onto our passions for utes and SUVs. Some of the best of these share platforms these days.
Just as the Fortuner lays a veneer of SUV usefulness over a Hilux base for Toyota, just as the Everest ramps up the urban-rural appeal of the Ranger, so the Pajero Sport creates an excellent SUV – a seven-seater SUV – on the base of
