Overview

Two significantly similar cars, no doubt about that. Still, each one has something different to offer. Having both cars powered by petrol engines and utilizing the 4-door truck body style within the same 'SUV' segment, the only major difference here really is their wheel drive configuration (4 x 4 for the Mitsubishi and rear in the case of the Toyota). The first one has a Mitsubishi-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 139hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 144hp engine designed by Toyota.

Safety

Unfortunatelly, neither of the two vehicles was submitted to the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) testing. This makes it virtually impossible for me to pick one over the other and I'm generally against buying such cars as the safety should really always come first. That aside, let's consider some other aspects which affect safety. Both vehicles belong to the suv segment, which is generally a very good thing safety-wise, still it doesn't help us solve our dilemma, does it?

Reliability

Manufacturers have been building their reliability reputation for decades now and, generally speaking, it appears that Toyota does have a slight advantage, at least on all of the models level. These are the results of an independent reasearch, while our visitors describe reliability of Mitsubishi, as well as Toyota, with the same average rating of 4.6 out of 5. The same official information place L200 40% below average, and Hilux those same 40% above the first one. Above it all, drivers of cars with the same engine as L200 rank it on average as 3.0 out of 5, exactly the same as the other one.

Performance & Fuel economy

There's not enough data for me to elaborate on the subject, I'm affraid.

Verdict

Toyota appears just a bit more reliable, although the difference is truly marginal. The most important thing when deciding between any two vehicles should always be safety, both passive and active. In this case though, it seems that both cars show similar levels of passenger protection all together, so that won't break a tie. When it comes to performance, both vehicles provide similar experience, so I wouldn't point any of them out. Fuel consumption is more or less the same. It's really tough to make a final decision here, but if I'd need to, I'd say Toyota. Nevertheless, let's not forget that people have different preferences and needs, so what really counts is your personal feel. I'm only here to help. In case you have two minutes to spare I invite you to define your needs, desires and budget and see which car would be chosen by the virtual adviser™, among more than 12.000 different ones in our database.