Having owned 4 Montero/Pajero's I know as well as anybody here how tough these vehicles are.

But last night I experienced something totally unique.

We had a Dinner - Karaoke party with a group of people over and had about 25 people (that's not new). At about midnight it was time to wind down and get them going. Trouble is there's little or no transportation running around here away from the city after midnight. We call them Songtows much like a Jeepney in the Fils' and none were running.

I told them to go out and load up the Pajero and I'd get them all home. They lived about 14 miles away.

I jump in and start driving. As I'm driving I ask someone - how many we have in here? Answer I get is 18 counting you. The Paj handled it without really feeling any ill effects with steering, road feel, sway, bottoming out at all. The 2.8 felt srong under load and the spring sag didn't have it sagging at the back end still looked pretty level. Even over speed bumps all was good with no exhaust rub at all which I thought it might under load. Took the stops easy.

I've loaded down before and always been impressed by how well these vehicles handle it - but - when it's people you get a whole other different perspective.

They had 8 in the back - 7 in the back seat - 2 in the front passenger. 1/3 men - 2/3 women & 2 kids. All Filipina/o's which helped. The guys were regular sized - the women petite. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

Now back to your regularly schedule programming