Essential Motoring 101

Had a few sleepless nights. My anticipating heart was pumping all the way to Saujana. As soon as I got the Triton from Mitsubishi Motors, I had to take a stop by the roadside. Why, you ask? I had to pinch myself to be sure that I wasn’t dreaming! Why, again? I have been wanting to get on the Triton for the past week and now that I really am IN the truck, I couldn’t believe but to blink my eyes in awe, checking out every detail on the interiors of the space-looking truck. Sitting on the driver’s seat, I scrutinized at every nook and cranny of the latest truck from Mitsubishi.

The aliens have landed Earth with this Triton

What I admired was the whole shape of the middle dashboard console. Very futuristic yet practical with its LCD screen that displays all the essential data to the driver. The cockpit show no elements of a truck except for the extra stick jutting out next to the gear knob - the transfer lever. The truck has been the tightest competitor to the Toyota Hilux since its launch back in December 2006.

Once again, the feeling of being on a truck especially when you are stuck in a traffic jam is just awesome. One gets to see the horizon without strain, knowing what is ahead that causes the jam. Enduring the crawl of the traffic on Federal Highway wasn’t that bad on the manual transmission of the Triton, thanks to a mechanism where you don’t have to balance the truck without footing the clutch on extreme low speeds. By just letting go of the clutch pedal on 1st gear and the truck just cruises itself slowly, jerk-free. I know the Toyota Hilux have this feature on its manual transmission.

The height of the Triton was amazing on its stock suspensions. It was surprisingly much taller than the Nissan Frontier and slightly higher than the Ford Ranger TDCi.
With the weekends at the corner, I got to fully utilised the Triton spending it with my Significant Other and her sister and her parents. We took the Triton up to Genting View apartments, about 1km to Gohtong Jaya, for a 3Days-2Night retreat.

Sexy looking butt, but a bit exposed tho’

There was no canopy on the rear bed of the Triton. I had to crack my head on how to cover the rear bed if we were to load it with luggages and stuff for the outing. And so I got a car cover for MYR36, the one that covers a whole car, grey in colour. Packing the stuff on the bedliner was like packing nasi lemak, only much tighter. Everything was filled up to the whole of the truck’s bed, lying low and flat. I had to strap a nylon rope in a zig-zag manner on the load to make sure the truck doesn’t look like ‘flying’ when driving on high speeds.

The cockpit - Quite human-friendly I must say

The truck was filled at its maximum capacity - 5 passengers in the cabin with a full-load of stuff at the rear bed. The journey to Genting was via Rawang town. Luckily, the north-bound road wasn’t jammed. Taking the Triton on some curves and several bumpy roads was smooth. The ride from Pandan Perdana to Rawang was surprisingly smooth and stable.

After about an hour of driving, we took a stop at Ulu Yam for some sumptuous Loh Mee (fat noodles in thick broth with black vinegar) and some Fish Head Vermicelli. Gobbling down the food in an air-conditioned setting under the scorching hot sun was heavenly. We had some pulasan as desserts to complete the food affair. Thanks to Lilian of Malaysia Best, this is how the pulasan looks like.

The name of the galloping alien horse

We resumed our journey towards Genting, passing by Ulu Yam Baru. It was rather hilly on the roads that the Triton had to travel. Shifting the gears on this truck had to be done smoothly, unlike my trusty AD Resort wagon which I normally do it as if driving a sports car - swift and fast, hehe! Not sure whether I was bad in changing gears but whenever the 2nd gear is engaged and the clutch is released, I felt a little lag in the acceleration. But then, after getting more used to the workings of the gears, the lagging feeling went away. So, was it me or the truck?? Anyway, the journey to the apartment had it’s fair deal of curves, cornering and the occasional steep ascents. But the Triton leveled things up like a grunting horse (only when engaging low gears)

It was another session at the truck’s rear bed when we checked in at the apartment. This time to unpack everything up to the unit where we will be spending the couple of nights in. Rather deserted at the car park probably it was a weekday, all the more peaceful getaway that I can expect. We were given a unit at the top floor of the apartment.

Resting your legs on the other was no sweat!

While waiting for dinner, me and my other half decided to move the Triton to another spot where we can easily peek from the balcony. I decided to let her drive the Triton instead. Not really drive but actually park the truck! I had to take the risk of my own life letting her to park the truck with manual transmission! You know how girls do when manually shifting gears, or even more worse, the whole parking affair itself! With constant deep breaths trying to calm myself on the co-driver’s seat, my girlfriend adjusted the mirrors, seat and the steering column before starting the engine.

Here goes nothing!

I wasn’t trembling but was rather worrisome as parking a truck is never a piece of cake even to any experienced truckers. Luckily, my female driver was cool although she was quite scared when releasing the clutch. The Triton moved gracefully from the old spot towards the new spot. To my amazement, she was handling quite well on the clutch of the truck. Slowly approaching the new parking spot, I told her to butt-in the truck. The first attempt was OK but the truck wasn’t aligned in the box. She had to reposition the truck using several reverse-1st gear efforts. I got off the truck to support her at the front while she reverses snugly into the space.

And you think us women cant handle this??

It all ended within 8 minutes. Excited with a smiling face, she was very delighted to be able to park the big truck! And so I asked her how was the whole experience. She replied that it wasn’t that hard at all to move the truck. Of course, she preferred an automatic transmission but she felt that it was a great achievement for herself. I couldn’t agree more myself at that statement.

The Triton is a totally modern-looking truck which I cannot deny. Many offroad traditionalist cannot help but hate the way it looks. I would say Mitsubishi is on a roll now with their radically designed vehicles looking at their latest Lancer GT and soon, the Grandis MPV.

A macho man with a macho machine

The truck is considerably the best looking pick-up to date with lots of power to hit both the tarmac and the jungle, not to doubt on its spacious cabin as well. I certainly will consider this space-like machine when I have the right amount of moolah.