This is a while off yet, but we just got back from a camping trip out west, through the rockies. While the little diesel did fine pulling our newish (2001) tent trailer (~1800lbs), we are starting to get the itch to get a hard wall "ultra-light" 17 footer. These start at about 2700 lbs, and there's no way the little 4D56 with short wheelbase is gonna be happy pulling that up some of those nasty, altitude-gaining passes.

I got to thinking out loud as to what was available with better towing capacity/manners. *Supposedly* the L200 with more powerful diesel is slated to arrive in Canada in 2009. While this would be an awesome rig with the quad cab, its a question mark, since I dunno if it really will come, and if it does, how much it will be?

SO, to the crux of my question - if you've had a genII and a genIII, how do they compare? I love the active trac, love the seating position, controls, etc. If my little genII diesel had more jam (and praps was a 4 door) we wouldn't be having this conversation... but how about the genIII? We got them here in 03, which means 3.8V6, gobs of torque (on paper), 6000lb towing capacity, etc etc. How bad are they on gas? How good are they with a modest trailer (around 3000 lbs) attached? How good (or bad)is the 3.8V6? I've never even driven one of these bad boys, but it is a mitsu. How bad can it be?

I guess what I'm asking is "is a genIII worthy of being christened Betsy V?"

(No, I don't want a fullsize. Still gotta drive the long commute, somewhat mitigated fuel-wise by the bike several months of the year, but still 160kms daily)